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Holy and righteous Job the long-suffering, who lived between 2100 and 1700 BC. in the country of Uts or Austidia, on the borders of Arabia with Idumea The life of Job presents the most majestic picture of human suffering, and he himself, “the long-suffering one,” truly depicts the prototype of the God-Man who suffered on earth, as is presented in the teaching of the Church 118 . The comparisons between the sufferings of the Old Testament man and the New Testament man are striking. In both cases, it was not the guilty people who were struck by trials, temptations and unspeakable suffering, but the purest righteous. Although both of them poured out their grief in moments of exhaustion in stunning cries: “My soul grieves unto death!” “My Father! if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me...” And finally: “My God, My God! Why have you forsaken Me!” cried Jesus on the cross in the minutes of his dying languor... And in comparison with these mournful outpourings of Christ - from the depths of forty centuries, the cries of Job, another sufferer, perplexed in the midst of unbearable languor, strike the human ear: “Why is light given to the sufferer, and life - to those who are saddened in soul, who wait for death and there is no death, who would be delighted that they have found a coffin”... “Oh, if my cries were correctly weighed, and my suffering was put on the scales along with them, it would surely outweigh the sand of the seas! That is why my words are furious. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks their poison; the horrors of God have taken up arms against me.”... But despite these sorrowful outpourings of the God-man and man - Job, who himself calls his words frantic, the greatness of the sufferers was not eclipsed by unworthy murmuring or lack of faith in the One who destined for them the most sorrowful path; and remained in them to the end and did not waver in love and devotion to the will of Him who sent them, in order to glorify His name... 119. But let's go back to the beginning of the story of Job. When, by the will of God, the spirit of malice and envy was allowed (to disgrace him) to tempt the most righteous servant of God Job 120 (only without touching his soul), so that the works of God would appear on him, the human enemy rushed to his sacrifice and suddenly subjected Job to all the tests that could confuse him and force him to blaspheme his God... On one of the peaceful days, Job, enjoying earthly happiness, was like thunder He was struck by news one after another about the loss of all his rich property, about the death of all his children. How did these blows affect the righteous man? He “fell to the ground and bowed down and said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I return.” The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord!” “In all this Job did not sin and did not say anything foolish about God.” Having accepted with such holy humility the deprivation of his property and beloved children, Job’s ability to suffer godly was not exhausted when new trials struck him: a terrible physical illness and grief from his cowardly wife. “And his wife said to Job, “Do you still stand firm in your integrity?” Blaspheme God and die. But he said to her: you speak like one of the madmen. Will we really accept good from God, but not evil?” “In all this Job did not sin with his mouth.” But Job faces all his greatness when he is faced with the bitterest test: his beloved friends doubt him, make him doubt himself, take away from him the last joy that remains for the righteous: to believe in his innocence, to rely on his goodness before God... From the heights of human wisdom, these people who came to visit Job, who was lying in sores on a pus, understand the predestinations and incomprehensible destinies of God... They decide that Job suffered God's punishment, they have no doubt that he deserved it, they know that God does not punish the innocent... and so, their contemptuous condemnations fall on Job, and so, they manage to teach with the advice of human invention the one whom God Himself recognized “a man blameless, just, fearing God and shunning evil, such as there is no other on earth” ... (Book Job 1:8). Struck in the holiest and seemingly inaccessible refuge for the prying eye: his own consciousness of his conscience, Job reaches the extreme limit of suffering. From him, deprived of all good, all joy, struck by “fierce leprosy from the sole of his foot to the very top of his head,” they want to snatch away the last thing, and precisely what is most dear to him: the feeling of being right before God... - “I’m right!” - Job exclaims, as if in justification before the face of God, “I’m right, but God deprived me of judgment. Should I lie about my untruth? My wound is incurable - without guilt "... - “Listen, Job, to my speeches, and listen to my words! - one of those who visited him addresses him, “you spoke into my ears, and I heard the sound of the words: “I am pure, without blemish, I am innocent, there is no unrighteousness in me; but He has found an accusation against me and considers me His adversary.” - This is where you are wrong, I answer you; is there such a man as Job, who drinks mockery like water? There cannot be unrighteousness with God or with the Almighty, for He deals with man according to man’s deeds, and rewards him according to the ways of a man... His eyes are above man’s ways and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness, no shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity can hide. Therefore, He no longer requires a person to go to judgment with God. He crushes the strong without examination and puts others in their places - so that the hypocrite does not reign to tempt the people... One must say to God: I have suffered, I will sin no more. And what I do not know, teach me; and if I have committed iniquity, I will do no more. Who will show the Lord His way, who can say: You have acted unjustly? Almighty! We do not comprehend Him. He is great in power, judgment and completeness of justice. He doesn't oppress anyone." The accusations of friends arouse objections in the oppressed Job against his judges, and he pours out in bitter questions and in the face of the Supreme Judge Himself: “As much as you know, I also know; I'm not inferior to you. But I would like to speak to the Almighty and would like to compete with God. And you are gossipers of lies; you are all useless doctors. Oh, if only you would be silent! This would be counted as wisdom to you." “Be silent before me and I will speak, no matter what befalls me... Behold, He kills me; but I will hope; I would only like to defend my ways before His face... And this is already my justification; for the hypocrite will not walk before Him. - So, I opened a court case; I know I'll be right. Who can challenge me? For I will soon fall silent and give up the ghost... I will speak, and You (Lord) answer me... How many vices and sins do I have? Show me my iniquity and my sin... Why do you hide Your face and consider me Your enemy? Is it not the plucked leaf that You crush, and the dry straw that You pursue?” “Why are You looking for vice in me and inquiring about sin in me, although you know that I am not a lawless person, and that there is no one to deliver me from Your hand... Your hands worked on me and formed me all around, and You are destroying me? You chase me like a lion, and attack me again, and appear wonderful in me. I was calm, but He shook me; took me by the neck and beat me and made me a target for Himself. Breaks hole after hole in me; runs towards me like a warrior. With all that there is no theft in my hands, and my prayer is pure... And now here in heaven is my Witness and my Intercessor in the highest! Intercede, vouch for me before Yourself! otherwise who will vouch for me? “My eye is darkened with grief, and all my members are like a shadow... But the righteous will hold fast to his way, and the pure with hands will be strengthened more and more”... “My days are past; my thoughts - the property of my heart - are broken... I will say to the grave: you are my father; to the worm - you are my mother and my sister... And I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day He will raise this decaying skin of mine from the dust... And I will see God in my flesh.”... Job, even in the midst of his immeasurable suffering, does not blaspheme God. Satan is put to shame in his hope of making him blaspheme God... Job is perplexed only in his human exhaustion, but even amidst the shocking cries that his grief evokes, he, at the same time, invariably loves, and believes, and calls upon the God who defeats him... This is the deepest measure of the deepest righteousness of man, who is a prototype of the God-man! And how did God react to the outpourings of the troubled heart of His servant? The Lord responded to Job with a voice “out of the storm” and said: “Who is this one who darkens Providence with words without meaning? Gird up your loins like a husband; I will ask you, and you explain to Me. Do you want to overthrow My judgment, accuse Me in order to justify yourself? Do you have a muscle like God? And can you thunder with your voice like Him? Will he who competes with the Almighty still teach? He who reproaches God, let him answer Him.” And Job answered the Lord and said: “Behold, I am worthless; What will I answer You? I put my hand on my mouth... I spoke once, now I will not answer... I know that You can do everything, and that Your intention cannot be stopped.” “Who is this one who darkens Providence, not understanding anything?” “So, I spoke about things that I did not understand, about things that were wonderful to me, which I did not know. Listen, I cried, and I will speak, and what I will ask You, explain to me. I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; now my eyes see You. Therefore I renounce and repent in dust and ashes" ... Then the words of God addressed one of Job’s friends: “My anger burns against you and your two friends because you have not spoken as truly about Me as My servant Job. And so go to My servant Job and offer a sacrifice for yourselves; and My servant Job will pray for you, for only I will accept his face, so as not to reject you because you have not spoken as truly about Me as My servant Job. And Job’s friends went and did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord took Job’s face.” “And the Lord restored Job’s loss when he prayed for his friends who had grieved him... 121, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before... And God blessed Job’s last days more than the first.”... “After this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons and his sons’ sons to the fourth generation.” “And Job died in old age, full of days”... St. Barbara, who was formerly a robber “The sins of the whole world - the goodness of the Lord is irresistible.” The abyss of human sins also calls upon the abyss of God’s mercy. A clear realization of these comforting truths appears in the life of the great sinner remembered today, pardoned by God, who through his repentance gained forgiveness and glorification from the Lord. The barbarian spent the best years of his life in robbery; He ruined many souls, enriched his impregnable forest refuge with many other people's goods, where he hid for a long time from persecution by the executors of human justice. But he did not hide from the All-Seeing and All-Good Creator, “who does not want the sinner to die, but that he may live.” One late night, when, intoxicated by the successful consequences of his predatory business, he sat in his cave and looked at his treasures, acquired through robbery and murder, the voice of God, the instrument of which is the conscience given to man, was heard in the soul of an inveterate villain... - What am I doing... How am I living... - he began to think with grave sorrow, - all this wealth in front of me is drenched in human blood... And how long will I be the owner of all this?.. Today I live, tomorrow I can die... and none of this wealth will follow me into the afterlife... And there - what will meet me? There the victims I tortured will meet me... there the memories of my countless atrocities will surround me and will haunt me until the Last Judgment and will bring upon me eternal condemnation... a terrible reward for my deeds. And, thinking in this way about his present and future life, the robber was probably transported mentally to his past... And he was once an innocent child... and he once listened to the quiet, sweet speeches of his mother about Christ... He remembered Christ... In the midst of terrible thoughts, a spark of joyful hope suddenly flared up... - Christ is merciful! - Divine consciousness awakened in the criminal, - He forgave and called the ancient robber to Himself... He will accept me too if I repent... Oh, yes, I repent, I call Christ and cry out for His mercy!.. And pure bitter tears flowed from the villain’s eyes for the first time. Early morning. The robber's comrades are resting after their terrible night's labors. Far away in the village, a quiet bell calls on the waking people to praise God in the morning service. There, the robber hurries to the saving church and calls the presbyter, and confesses to him his soul, burdened with crimes... “I know, there is no forgiveness for me, I am not worthy to live... They ordered me to be put to death...” he says, having finished his gloomy confession. – There is no sin that conquers God’s mercy! - the goodness of God answers through the lips of the priest, - just don’t despair... Go to my house with me and do as I tell you. Coming out of the church and looking around, the priest saw that the robber was crawling after him on his elbows and knees... -What are you doing? - asked the presbyter. - From the hour when I threw myself on the ground before my God with my sins, I no longer want to rise from the earth until God absolves me from my sins. – Fulfill what you promise to God of your own free will, and everything will be forgiven you! - said the servant of God. Entering the house, he turned to Barbarian: behold, my son, my children and slaves, dogs and other livestock: whichever of them you want to be equal with, you will eat with them... “My father,” Varvar answered him, “I cannot consider myself equal even with dogs... but for the sake of the need to eat, join me with them; with them I will feed together and live without cover... Thus, the former robber lived for three years in the priest’s house, without getting up from the ground, not considering himself worthy of being in the company of people, spending days and nights in the air with livestock. Three years later the priest said to him: “It’s enough for you to eat with dogs... The Lord has mercy on you... - Father, I still want to graze with the cattle... - God also accepts this vow of yours, which you make out of your humility and desire to suffer for your sins... And Barbarian went out to graze with the cattle outside the village, walking in the likeness of four-legged animals and eating the grass of the field with them... And he lived in the form of a beast for twelve years; his naked body, sometimes scorched by the heat of the sun, sometimes exposed to the winter cold, was covered with dark bark. In this form, one day, passing merchants, mistaking him for an animal, shot him. Thus, the former murderer atoned for the blood he had shed with his own blood... Dying, the self-willed martyr managed to reveal to the merchants who they had killed... and asked them to notify the village priest of his death. The priest buried him on the spot where he was killed. After some time, the grave of the repentant sinner was glorified by the miraculous healings of the sick that took place there; the remains of Varvara turned out to be incorrupt and now rest in the monastery of Mount Kelius in Thessaly, near the city of Larissa (three days' journey north of it). In the Belozersky calendar, written before 1631, there is a kontakion to Varvara the Robber: “The grace given by God to you, holy passion-bearer Varvara, like a valuable myrrh, visit us with healing, and let us cry to you: Rejoice, having drunk the sweet cup of Christ’s passions” 122 . The Church's honoring of Job is based not only on the book that bears his name, but also on the actual words of both Testaments. Prophet Ezekiel in ch. XIV, Art. 13, 14 and further, he says in the name of God Himself: “Son of man, if the earth sins against Me, it falls into transgression, and I will stretch out My hand and send a famine on it, and I will destroy both people and cattle, and these three men will be in the midst of it: Noah and Daniel and Job, then they will be saved in their righteousness,” and then follow the verbs of the Lord Himself in the same spirit. In New In the Testament, here are the words from Ap. Jacob - ch. V, art. 10. 11: “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and long-suffering. Behold, we bring joy to those who have endured. You have heard about Job’s patience and seen the end of it from the Lord; for the Lord is very merciful and compassionate.” In this New Testament text, Job is compared with the prophets who spoke by the Spirit of God. Having such grounds as the authority of the Old and New Testaments, the authority of church tradition based on the first, we, all Orthodox believers, do not hesitate at all to recognize and honor Job as a saint. “The height of his spirit,” says Filaret in the Ts.-Bibl. ist. p. 101, - is revealed both in general in his striking adventures and conversations, and especially in the clear and strong confession of the Redeemer” (Job 19:25,26). You can put this next to the Psalm. XXI and LIII chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Speaking about comparisons between Job and Jesus Christ, we should also mention the other side of them. The righteous Job, serving as an example for people at all times, was still a man, and as a man, he was not free from the common participation in the fall of the first-created couple. This is based on the tenets of the Fall and Atonement. And in the book itself, which bears the name of Job, he is presented as a righteous man, but due to the strength of his suffering, this righteous man challenged the Lord to a competition and realized his error, and, apparently, realized the spirit of pride that had crept into his soul... Job the man wavered in humility; Jesus, the God-man, did not waver even once: and this is because He is the only sinless one... This also contains a comparison with the temptation to which Jesus Christ was exposed; Only Job was overcome by an unknown enemy, to whom he did not allow himself to be defeated, while Christ consciously drove away Satan both in word and in deed... And isn’t this a comparison between Job and Christ, who prayed during His suffering for His enemies? See “The Complete Monthly Book of the East” by archn. Sergius, vol. II, part 2, p. 125.