The study article on the "Patience of Jehovah" a few weeks back caused some discussion on the forum. But there was one particular turn of phrase that stuck out in my mind concerning Job:
"The outcome? Jehovah "blessed the end of Job afterward more than his beginning." (Job 42:12) Jehovah restored Job's health, doubled his wealth, and blessed him with a full, happy life with his loved ones. Job's faithful endurance also enabled him to understand Jehovah more fully."
The phrase "full, happy life with his loved ones" involves a sleight of hand at the very least. Don't forget that his "loved ones", i.e. all his children, were allowed to be destroyed by Satan. These ones were not brought back to life once the test was over; not everything was "put right" for Job after the test. Sure Job went on to have more children, but would any sensitive human being, any human being at all in fact, see the replacement of one's family, one's children, by another set of "loved ones" as an adequate equivalency, so that his "end" was more blessed than "his beginning"? Either the Watchtower writer is not really taking Job's story seriously, and he does not really believe in its historicity and is reducing the story to data from which to extract pure "principles", or he is displaying a shockingly callous attitude toward the nature of familial relationships. Personally, I don't blame the writer if deep down he doubts the historicity of Job, after all the Hebrew of the book begins "Once upon a time..." But the Watchtower writer claims to be interpreting the book as though it does refer to a real person who really lived, and had normal human feelings.
The book of Job is a work of literature rich in irony coated in beautiful language. It will not be reduced to the Watchtower's tired discourses about "vidication", "inherited human imperfection" and "universal sovreignty". The book is much richer than that, and defies any one simple interpretation. It was cleary compiled by a group of thoughtful people who had greater insight into the enigma of suffering and its human tragedy than Watchtower writers do. It is all the more powerful for the fact that it admits of no trite answers on the subject, but invites the reader to ponder the issues for himself.