Loyalty To The Lord When Circumstances Take A Downturn
Written By: Matthew Laux
Guidance, loyalty, and protection are qualities that an individual strives to inherit. The King James Bible conveys that the almighty Lord exemplifies these qualities and if one shall stay faithful to the lord he will epitomize such qualities. The modern play J.B. by MacLeish involves a married couple, Sarah and J.B., who contemplate challenging the Lord due to affliction in their lives. Therefore reflecting the importance of staying loyal to God based on the encounters in the books of Job and Psalms seen in the King James Bible. J.B. Being tortured by Satan definitely took a toll on his physical and mental health while also tempting him to go against the Lord. Similarly, Sarah being told that her son and daughter have passed away opened up her mind to blame God for the devastating event. As the biblical text and modern literature examine the protagonist’s relationship with God and how it changes as affliction is added, allowing the reader to reflect on their spiritual relationship with the almighty Lord.
Painful burning sores all over an individual’s body, stinging at every single heartbeat. Most would prefer death, then to be tortured like this. The book of Job and the play J.B. make the protagonists ponder their faith in God. The theme of loyalty is a common point for the two readings as Job and J.B have life-changing occurrences that cause suffering within both of them. Loyalty is challenged with each protagonist and their intrinsic feelings towards the lord. Both struggle to come upon the case that God would never make someone endure pain like they have, in the course of suffering. In a similar manner, the theme of loyalty is highlighted as common ground for Job and J.B. as seen closely in both texts.
In chapter 2 in the Book of Job and scene 8 from the play J.B, both protagonists start to break down and question their suffering. Their suffering is probed in the sense of the lord’s existence. Both ponder why God would ever do such a thing and ever exert that much suffering on themselves. Job, “Went forth from the presence of the Lord…”(Job 2:7) and debriefed why he was receiving this terrible treatment. Clearly, this is where he questioned his belief. In this scene his friends attempted to calm him down but Job kept repeatedly saying that he would rather be dead than have to live like this. On the other hand J.B.’s sufferings were accompanied by his bank being destroyed and the death of his last remaining child. His friends Zuss and Nickels believed that he would definitely stop praising God once he was experiencing physical pain himself. Similarly, in the modern play, J.B. stated, “God is unthinkable if we are innocent”(MacLeish 111). To the plot, both of these statements can be seen as the climax. It is the point where both protagonists had enough and began to question God and why he was doing this to them. One could see this as the breaking point of Job and J.B..
Physical pain is something that can truly destroy an individual. For most humans that is the breaking point. When Job had “…sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown” (Job 2:7), that’s when he knew he had enough. He even began to scrape these sores with broken pottery and cried to God for an answer. However his wife constantly told him to curse God but Job never listened. This was interesting because all arrows were pointing towards Job to go against his faith but he held strong and stayed loyal. In the play J.B., women begin to comment about his body and how the sores began to grow. As the reader, it seems as J.B. can not fathom why God is doing this to him. Earlier, J.B. has undergone a lot of suffering, one being the loss of a family member. When pain was directly brought upon himself physically that is when he questioned his faith. Furthermore, pain being brought upon physically definitely drove both protagonists to question their faith and loyalty toward God. When one is suffering physical pain they are willing to do anything not to feel the pain anymore. One of which would be to lose faith and challenge God by demanding answers to the sufferings.
Ultimately the plot is affected by the theme of loyalty towards the Lord. Job and J.B. lose faith and their sufferings become more intense. Their faith weakens and their intrinsic feelings towards God worsen over the course of these scenes. Loyalty towards the Lord was challenged with suffering during the course of these works leading to similarities between protagonists.
Next, as a mother or father figure finding out that your son has fatally died is extremely hard to fathom. It could bring the parental figure into a sense of disbelief and skepticism. The book of Psalm and the modern play J.B. relay the sense that when things go wrong staying loyal to God is a must. Questioning why things happen and challenging the Lord could just cause more problems. Between these two works of literature, loyalty to God is a theme one could perceive. Life changing experiences could make an individual question, “why did this happen to me”, or “why did I deserve this”. The Psalms expressed that at the end of the day, God has a specified plan for all individuals on earth and he will make the plan come true if one shall stay faithful. Loyalty toward God in spite of suffering is a common ground for each of these historic texts.
In chapter 25-26 of the book of Psalms and scene 3-4 of the play J.B staying loyal to God in the brink of suffering is seen. Scene 3 in J.B opens up with two drunken soldiers coming to J.B’s house to reveal the terrible news that David had been killed in battle. Sarah, David’s mother, could not believe that this was true and was delusional. The worst part was that David was killed by friendly fire, meaning that he was killed by someone on his side. This made it harder to accept that he was dead because friendly fire is very rare in battle. Sarah hysterically exclaimed, “David’s all right. He has to be. He is. I know he is. The war is over.”(Macleish 62). This disbelief mentioned prior is the sole reason why she wanted to challenge God and question why this had happened to her family. Chapter 25 of the book of Psalms directly relates to this as, “The meek will he guide in judgment : and the meek will teach his way”(Psalm 25:9). In relation to J.B this symbolizes that showing heart and trust in the lord regardless of the situation at hand will give the individual power and courage. The word “meek” in this verse means the quality of heart and Sarah in the play J.B chose to stay faithful towards God and not challenge him. As the reader this expressed an example of indirect characterization about Sarah. It demonstrated that she was strong enough not to repress God and still stay faithful regardless of what happened with her son. Sarah demonstrated this courage through her actions of not challenging the Lord. Psalm 25 and J.B. scene 3 were similar in the manner of trusting God when one is suffering.
Delivering the worst information that someone could possibly hear is a very difficult task. Especially, when the worst information is that two children have died in a car accident. In J.B scene 4, a girl is tasked with walking up to a couple. The dramatic irony here is that the reader knows what the girl is going to say to J.B. and Sarah but they do not have a clue. The reporter stated, “Four kids in a car. They’re dead. Two were yours. Your son. Your daughter” (Macleish 69). Clearly, this information took a huge toll on Sarah. This is where she began to question why God would do this to her. The dramatic irony here builds up the suspense of the plot for the reader. It creates a set scene where the reader could feel the suffering that Sarah is going through. However, Sarah again did not end up questioning God. In Psalm 26 it states, “I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide”(Psalm 26:1). In context with J.B it is saying that Sarah chose to stay faithful toward the Lord and not challenge him. Chapter 26 of Psalms expressed loyalty to God and the desire to worship which fits in very well with Sarah’s decision to not oppress God. The dramatical irony of J.B. makes the reader think about if Sarah is going to go against the Lord or stay faithful. All in all, At the end she ends up staying faithful and keeping the book of Psalms in her head.
Expressing loyalty towards the Lord regardless of external factors is still exceptionally relevant today. In the King James Bible and the play J.B. the main message that the Lord will lead and guide one in the right direction is repeatedly mentioned. In the King James Bible and J.B., Job and Sarah both struggled with an affliction. Right away they attempted to blame their suffering on God and as seen considered challenging and questioning him. After further judgment both realized they would be doing themself more damage by challenging God. Verses from the book of Job and book of Psalms helped put in perspective the importance of staying faithful to the Lord. The relevance in this today can be compared to how strong one’s faith truly is. Having a belief in the lord through thick and thin will keep one with the ideas of hope and assurance. Loyalty to the Lord can assist one when they are at their lowest and lift their spirit up in their toughest times.
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