Jon Huer writes

THE SEDUCTION OF JOB: Twenty Years Later

  A Dramatic Poem

CHAPTER TWO 

Satan asks God to re‑test Job.

 

GOD: 

Satan, tell me about my servant Job, 

As you have seen him in thought and action. 

Is he still perfect, upright and pious, 

And there is none like him on earth?

SATAN: 

My Lord God of the Universe, Maker of all things, 

Job is perfect, upright and pious, 

And there is none like him on earth. 

He follows all the Commandments without lapse.   

But his perfection makes his heart cold to humanity; 

His piety leads him on a straight path, infallible; 

He is upright from the height of haughtiness;           

And his piety is a captive of self‑righteousness. 

Your servant Job is admired in the land of Uz, 

His wealth envied by all, his honor known to all. 

He walks upright to his own beat of arrogance, 

And his piety is exceeded by his cocksureness.  

   

My Lord God of the Universe, remember Job of old 

Who proclaimed his innocence time and again, 

With no love of God in his heart of hearts. 

He claimed he never lusted after other women; 

Was never dishonest, and never mistreated the lowly; 

Never worshiped idols, never put faith in wealth. 

But his innocence proved only the absence of outward sins, 

Not his love for God in his heart of hearts. 

My Lord God, Job of old failed his test.

GOD: 

Satan, my Satan, who leaves no evil stone unturned, 

Whose heart is filled with the knowledge of man's vanity, 

Whose smiles widen at the woes of mankind, 

Whose delight and exultation rise with the fall of man,            

What do you suggest that we do with Job?  

SATAN: 

My Lord God of the Universe, let us re‑test Job, 

To know if he is a true man of God, 

Perfect, upright and pious in his heart of hearts.  

GOD: 

Satan, my Satan, who never sleeps in pursuit of evil, 

Who never dreams a dream of flowers or children,  

Streams of clear water or gathering of laughter, 

Who reckons time in the counting of calamities, 

Who never misses a banquet of blood and death, 

Who relishes the most detestable tasks in my kingdom, 

How do you propose to re‑test my servant Job? 

  

SATAN:  

How can I not lay the best plan possible, 

Why should I neglect my duty to trap man 

When he makes himself answerable by his own devices, 

And by his own haughtiness of heart and soul? 

My Lord of the Universe, I have a plan 

Whereby Job will be put through a test. 

But his trial shall be different from old.  

GOD: 

Satan, who knows all manners of trapping the unaware, 

All tricks of seducing the unsavory and the innocent, 

Explain your new plan to test my servant Job.  

SATAN: 

My Lord God, recall Job of old, 

How he complained from the bitterness of his soul, 

How he challenged the assumption of Your justice, 

The likes of which had never been heard before, 

And how he told everyone of his innocence. 

The new plan shall remove Job's claim to innocence, 

And silence his righteousness into his own fault.   

Neither God nor fate would he be able to blame, 

For the fault would lie entirely within himself, 

Shielded by none of his earlier innocence or righteousness. 

He shall suffer his agony in silence and alone. 

Unlike the swiftly‑delivered calamities of old, 

The new ordeal will be slow in coming, 

All the while increasing his woe and doom, 

Pitting him against his own naked self. 

He himself alone must find the answer, 

Deprived of God to blame or innocence to claim, 

With neither the heavens nor his righteousness to save him.   

Remember the bitterness of his claim to innocence 

At the time of his first trial when cried: 

"I made covenance with mine eyes; 

Why then should I think upon a maid?" 

My plan calls for an angel, sweet and fair, 

Who shall disguise herself as a maid for Job, 

And wreak havoc in his life, reputation, and faith, 

For which he could not blame anyone but himself. 

In the grief of his heart he must endure, 

In the silence of his agony that he cannot reveal, 

And in the slow disintegration of his whole being, 

The true test of Job's soul shall commence. 

My Lord God of the Universe, upon your approval 

The plan will be put into immediate effect.          

  

Satan Before the Throne of God -- William Blake