A month or so ago, my New Testament professor made some passing reference to something Robert Frost wrote about God speaking to Job about the trials he had to endure. I didn't think much about it until a week or so ago. Turns out, this is a really hard thing to find. Near as I can tell, it isn't on the internet anywhere. Luckily, I live walking distance from one of the largest collegiate libraries in the nation, and I was able to find a dusty old copy there.
Anyway. Here it is: God explaining stuff to Job. Enjoy!
I've had you on my mind a thousand years
To thank you someday for the way you helped me
Establish once for all the principle
There's no connection man can reason out
Between his just deserts and what he gets.
Virtue may fail and wickedness succeed.
'Twas a great demonstration we put on.
I should have spoken sooner had I found
The word I wanted. You would have supposed
One who in the beginning was the Word
Would be in a position to command it.
I have to wait for words like anyone.
Too long I've owed you this apology
For the apparently unmeaning sorrow
You were afflicted with in those old days.
But it was the essence of the trial
You shouldn't understand it at the time.
It had to seem unmeaning to have meaning
And it came out all right. I have no doubt
You realize by now the part you played
To stultify the Deuteronomist
And change the tenor of religious thought.
My thanks are to you for releasing me
From moral bondage to the human race.
Frost, Robert. A Masque of Reason. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1945. 4.
"But it was the essence of the trial
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't understand it at the time."
Hm... I like that.
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ReplyDelete"God explaining stuff to Job. Enjoy!" doesn't read like your average Frost poem at all.
What do you make of the last couple lines?
F-C: me too. And "It had to seem unmeaning to have meaning"--good stuff.
ReplyDeleteTheric: I'm not really sure what to make of the last couple lines. I almost considered not including them, but I didn't want to display intellectual cowardice. I kinda like them, though. This idea that God allowed Job to suffer so much just to prove to all humanity that suffering is sometimes random and that, in so doing, He released Himself from being subject to the misconceived sense of moral justice that humanity had come up with--fascinating, really.
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ReplyDeleteWell that is how Joseph Smith solved the problem of evil, after all. Remove ex nihilo, and we can't blame it all on Him anymore.
I can't argue with a Frost poem, but per request, I'm writing a comment on the post nonetheless. I do quite like the poem . . . and I very much like the last two lines.
ReplyDeleteIf you stop and think about it, as humans, we often do tend to think of God according to our own moral standards. Which is ridiculous, since our (human) standards are obviously flawed and He obviously has a higher plan.