God's Economy

A Very Old Concept that I'm Not Convinced We Understand at All

So, God and Satan make a bet. That's not a joke punchline, it's a real thing. Seriously, if the book of Job is true, God and Satan bet that Job wouldn't 'curse' God 'to his face'. I grew up reading this story, and I've never heard it described as a bet until I was listening to Rob Bell on The Bible For Normal People Podcast and heard him describe it that way. Here’s a link to the Podcast if hearing it for yourself piques your interest. ((https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bible-for-normal-people/id1215420422 it’s Episode 1 if you’re interested in listening for yourself.)

Now I can't stop thinking of this strange wacky story and wondering, WHAT THE EVER-LOVING FUCK? For context, let's drop in on this bizarre story for a moment https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%201&version=NIV: (Job 1:1-12)

• In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning, he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom. One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

The reason I'm talking about the book of Job is I want to write about God's Economy, this smart-sounding concept that frankly absolutely baffles me. If you're looking for answers in the traditional sense as we go dive into the concept, I'll apologize right up front, you're not going to get any. You're in good company, though, because if you read to the end of Job, you'll notice Job doesn't get any answers either. Instead, God says to him, over and over, some version of 'Who are you to question me?' At the end of the ‘Where were yous’ in the end of the book, not only did I not have any answers, I felt like I’d watched two bullies (God and Satan) get together to pick at a 'good kid' who did nothing more than mind his own business. And that, along with many other Biblical stories (what's with all the blood, for example?), intrigues me regarding this concept that some people call God's Economy. I’ll warn you right up front, there are no easy answers in this article, and that’s because I don’t believe that God’s Economy is easily answerable. It’s in the spaces between questions and answers that I think we begin to grapple with the concept of God and easy, pithy answers avoid those spaces. Let’s lean in a bit and explore together.

Let’s define God’s Economy shall we?

For those of us who've heard the term from a modern pulpit, you may be surprised at how old the idea of God's Economy is. The 'economy' part of the phrase God's Economy has roots in the ancient word oikonomia, a concept that has been attributed to be the Greek antecedent of economics. Breaking the word down into its parts, oikos can be translated as household and nemein as management and dispensation. In short, oikonomia meant the management of a Greek household, particularly the activities of Greek landowners. But despite the obvious connection between the two terms, Greek ideas about economics varied significantly from modern Western ideas. Side by side (differences highlighted):

• Modern Economics: the study of the decisions that individuals or groups make regarding the scarce resources available to them to maximize value (Investopedia: Economics Defined with Types, Indicators, and Systems). Differences exist between economic ‘ideologies’ (neo-classical economics is demonstrably different than Keynesian or Marxian economics) but some branches of modern economics attempt to avoid ethical judgment.

• Ancient Greek Economics: oikonomos was concerned with the choices people made between different ends and means, but Ancient Greeks believed there was an abundance (natural resources, etc) available for people to live on and didn't echo our modern economic assumptions about scarcity. Perhaps even more striking, Ancient Greek oikonomos was very concerned with the ethical implications of economics. Whereas some modern economists might shy away from ethical pronouncements regarding the economic decisions individuals make, Ancient Greeks would say that the end of oikonomos was for Ancient Greek (men, mostly, unfortunately) to live a good life, which was to consist of either political engagement or the pursuit of philosophy.

Given the popularity of concepts related to oikos, it’s unsurprising that early church commentaries were impacted and used the Greek idea in religious commentary. Oikos features often in early church language, and the term is co-opted to imply that similar to a household’s economy, God himself has an economy. Many modern commentators claim that the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1:3-4 references to "God's Economy"; Google 1 Timothy and God’s Economy and you’ll have a feast to choose from. Beyond the New Testament, many early church fathers, such as Ignateus (35 A.D.) wrote passages like this: "Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of Mary according to the economy of God." A survey is beyond the scope of this article, but Tatian (120-180 AD), Iranaeus (130-202 AD), Origen (185-254 AD), Eusebius (260-384 AD), Maximus the Confessor (580-662 AD), John of Damascus (675-749 AD) and many more all used variations of the phrase that we today know as God's economy. (see God’s Economy in Patristic Usage | conversant faith for a fantastic review).

So, What Does It Mean?

Sorry to disappoint, but now you know if you're in Church on Sunday and your pastor coined a really interesting turn of phrase, they didn't. The concept of God's economy has been around for quite some time, used (quite possibly) by the Apostle Paul and many stalwarts of Church history for hundreds of years.

What has always bothered me, at least in my faith journey, is how often the term is used, without really digging past the surface of the concept. And I think this is probably a Western church thing, but I fear we've made our faith (and our churches, our Bibles, our relationships, God himself) so bland that we miss some of the points of God's economy. This isn’t an answer we are supposed to come to, but a concept we should grapple with. My sense is God doesn’t want us to ‘understand’ his economy, he wants us to believe it’s of value and seek to understand it. So let’s grapple a bit, shall we?

• If the Bible is true, God is a bunch of things. Let me name some:

  • Scary

  • All-Powerful

  • All-Knowing

  • Right all the time, able to judge that things are 'good' or 'bad'

  • Able to say (and be right)'that's enough'

  • Kinda into blood

  • Confusing as hell

  • Loving

  • Jealous

  • the maker of Wind

  • The Maker of the Sun

  • 3 beings at once

  • Ageless

I could go on, but hopefully, you can see these characteristics of God, and point to a being that defies easy categorization. Like the humans you know, God is this complex being that defies easy categorization. Except he’s God, and so that difficulty is multiplied by a factor of, well, Infinity? And so, to begin our search into God’s economy, I would encourage humility and that you start by acknowledging God’s complexity is difficult to grasp. You probably don't completely get Him. I sure as hell don’t. And trying to, ultimately, answer the question what is God’s Economy is like trying to answer “Why does the sun Shine?”

The fact that we can’t get him kinda makes sense if you think about it. Supposedly, he's this all-powerful, ageless, perfect being and we....aren't. Trying to simply categorize Him with bumper sticker ideas (What Would Jesus Do, Have Faith and Carry On, God helps those who help themselves, God's Economy, etc) misses the point. God’s economy isn’t something for us to ‘understand’; rather, it’s something we’re intended to interact with.

And this brings me right back, hopefully you guessed it, to the Book of Job

So, back to Job. God, out of the blue, says 'Hey, Job is pretty awesome isn't he?' to the one guy who you should never bring up such a concept, the being who hates us and wishes nothing but evil for us. And then God, who supposedly loves us, gives Satan permission to: financially ruin, kill Job's family (except his wife who apparently was a peach), give him massively painful physical pain, and generally make Job's life a living hell. THIS is the economy of God? What the fuck?

Job isn’t alone, either, is he? I've experienced some awful things in my lifetime. Death of those I love, dysfunctional family relationships, my knees don’t seem to work as they used to, I've done damage to my children while trying to be a 'good dad'. My personal list of heartbreaks could go on, but I'm guessing you have your own experiences with pain and suffering. I, like you I imagine, often struggle with the thought “THIS is God’s will?”

If you combine our personal experiences with this Biblical story, a reasonable person may begin to have a picture of God that frankly makes almost zero sense to most people. So, God is loving but there's cancer? God made the wind but there are hurricanes? God requires blood to be sacrificed, even the blood of his OWN son? This confuses the shit out of me, and frankly, most rational people struggle with this concept. And we've gone on far too long in this article for me not to tell you my answer, and hopefully, it avoids both the 'easy answers' I’m decrying and isn't so complex that it's indecipherable. I'm going to warn you, that it may seem a bit underwhelming at first, so I ask you to be willing to chew on it and come back to the question throughout your own life. We’ll call this God’s Economy, take one.

To explain my answer, I have to talk a little bit more about the Book of Job. The arc of the story is God and Satan make this bet, Satan conducts a series of horrible acts toward Job (all of which God approves, by the way) and Job refuses to 'curse God.' Satan keeps doubling down (you made him rich, let me take that away, you gave him a healthy family, I'll take that away, you gave him a healthy body, let me take that away). It's interesting to me that there's very little marked 'off limits' in this back and forth between God and Satan. God never says to Satan, ok enough is enough. You've tried your hand at getting Job to curse me and failed. He just lets Satan keep asking for more and more bizarre ways to harm Job, with Satan bringing up other tortures that, if God just allows this 1 more thing, Satan is sure that Job will crack and curse God.

Theories of God’s Economy

So, what IN THE HELL, does all this mean about God's economy? Let me lay out some possible theories for you, and then I’ll give you my favorite:

• God's economy is miserly. This theory is that God has all the things (power, money, self-sufficiency, the keys to happiness, pick your poison), but doesn't care if we get any of them or not. Hopefully, I don't have to try to prove how a rational person, reading the Bible without any context, might think this. Job's just FOLLOWING GOD'S RULES and God encourages Satan to 'smite' him. To be honest, this is probably most people's conclusion when they look around the Bible's stories or observe the world we live in.

• God's economy is dependent upon our performance. Although this is a popular opinion, the Book of Job mostly refutes this one. I mean, if anyone in the world was 'worthy' of God's blessings, Job was. And instead of blessings, Job appears to be the object of a bet.

  • I will concede, however, that the end of the book of Job (where Job receives twice as much as he had before (Job 42: 10-11) might lead one to believe that Job's behavior (not cursing God) brought blessings. My response to this would be, so Job loses his entire original family and is somehow supposed to be happy with a replacement family? Job loses everything and gets boils all over his body, but then he gets better? Does any of what he experienced at the end of the story negate the pain and suffering he went through during it? I would also note that though Job died an old man with all this stuff, the story still doesn’t claim he died happy.

• God's economy is somehow affected by the activity of Satan. The Book of Job appears to refute this theory. I mean, Satan does a number on Job, but has to "mother may I" every step along that path. I think it’s fair to say, if the Bible is indicative of God’s traits, what Satan wants or does had zero impact on Job’s (our our) exposure to God’s economy. Job experienced what God wanted him to experience, Satan was a tool in God’s toolkit. A tool for what, though?

• God's economy is...God Himself. I've heard it preached that Job was able to 'see God' and that's the point of this story. Job's own words appear to agree:

  • "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" https://www.bible.com/bible/111/JOB.42.NIV

  • I'll be honest, this answer sounds really 'churchy' and I hate it. Job got to 'see God' and that was enough for the whole ordeal to be 'worth it?' All that death and destruction, with God seemingly egging Satan on, and Job doesn't feel a bit cheated? If that's all Job needed, well, he's a much better person than I am, and I'm guessing if you're honest that explanation of the story doesn’t convince you either.

My Own Personal Favorite

• God's economy is a mystery and our task is to mine it like people mine for precious metals. I warned you up front, and perhaps this explanation remains unsatisfying to you, but I hope you give this explanation a chance to sink in. And while initially underwhelming, I believe this explanation of God's economy is where a richness of belief in God begins. It's not a simple answer, because God is not a simple being. It's not easy to understand because God isn't easy to understand. There are things I cannot understand, reading this book (the Bible) and living as a human being, that I can't understand until God makes them more clear to me. A couple of points to hopefully make this answer more satisfying and to give you additional ‘meat’ to chew on in your mind and heart.

  • A simple example of this theory is similar to the previous theory (God’s economy is….God himself). In essence, the idea is that we don't and can't understand God's economy fully until we see Him-attempts to describe it fall so far short that only direct experience will do. My problem with this answer is you don't hear that Job was happy after all this. You hear about his despising of himself and repentance, but nowhere at the end of the book does it mention Job found contentment. He received a lot of 'blessings', but those blessings came from the same God who allowed him to lose all those things in the first place. It seems massively petty and spiteful to me, and that's not the picture I think the Bible intends to portray of God. If you're anything like me, this simple version only begins to answer the question “what is God’s economy?” You're likely wishing there was more.

  • It just so turns out that, there may be MUCH more, if you subscribe to the idea that the Bible's literary tools include the chiasm (chiasmus) a type of inverted parallelism. Essentially, the theory goes, the author of particular passages used this literary device to hide a message to readers in the structure of the text itself by having parallel concepts surrounding an important central theme. A simple example of this would be:

    • A

    • B

    • C

    • B

    • A

    • with the "C" at the center being the 'big idea' the author is trying to get the reader to find and the parallelisms of the A and B 'leading' the reader to that central idea. Apparently, the book of Job is filled with this literary device (see BeMA Podcast S2E63 (https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/63 for a very good explanation of Chiasms in Job or https://www.chiasmusxchange.com/large-scale-chiasms-ot/job/ or http://www.bible.literarystructure.info/bible/bible_e.html).

    • Of course, there are entire websites devoted to the idea of the chiasm, and probably books as well, and I encourage you to read them and see if you are convinced it's a real literary device. IF you find yourself convinced, many scholars assert that the chiasm at the center of the book (there are many throughout) of Job is Chapter 28. This chiasm is where I hope you may find some Biblical 'meat' to chew on. Let's look at Job Chapter 28 for a second. It's pretty lengthy, and I recommend you read it in it's entirety because the text is wonderful ancient poetry. I'll pull some quotes to give you a sampling (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2028&version=NIV):

    • Job 28:1-4

      • There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. Mortals put an end to the darkness; they search out the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness. Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft, in places untouched by human feet; far from other people they dangle and sway.

    • Job 28: 9-14

      • People assault the flinty rock with their hands and lay bare the roots of the mountains. They tunnel through the rock; their eyes see all its treasures. They search the sources of the rivers and bring hidden things to light. But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? No mortal comprehends its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says, “It is not in me”; the sea says, “It is not with me.”

    • Job 28: 20-28

      • Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky. Destruction and Death say, “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.” God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

First of all, this passage and others like it, is why I agree with many others that the Bible should be taken seriously but not always literally. This passage at the center of the book of Job is stunningly beautiful to me. It defies easy categorization and it's more than just a 'truth' to be accepted. It compares the amazing things (at the time) humanity was doing in digging for precious stones within the Earth, finding treasures under dirt and rock. An unexpected insight humanity found by digging and searching. And it poetically compares how humanity finds wisdom in unexpected places in the same way that only God can impart wisdom from seeming tragedies. Somehow, this thing that I find incomprehensible (that God makes wisdom out of the f-ed up story of Job), God can make into wisdom. God's economy is not dependent upon my (or your) circumstances. In poetic language, this chapter tells me (and poetry IS in the eye of the beholder) that the Bible says a lot more than it seems at face value. It reminds me there are some things I just have to trust God for. That I may not know all I want to know about God until I see him, face to face. I may not like it, I may not always believe it, but at its core, this is what I believe about God's economy.

God's economy is a mystery, and we can experience it by living it, through our good times and our tragedies, our losses and our gains, our debilitating sicknesses and our healthy times. We may not understand, or even like, the experiences that we have. We may not like what the Bible seems to be saying. The question the Bible presents us with, is it possible that God is good and that his goodness is difficult for us to understand? Can/Will we still trust him, even when we are unable to 'see' where these things we call life are leading? Is he GOOD, at the core of him, and can we trust that GOODNESS more than our current experiences? This is a choice I continue to make in my walk and I’ll admit it's never an easy one. I'm more Job at the latter half of the book with questions for God than the one who has seen him and despising myself/repenting Job. I choose to believe that there is more to this story than I can see, and I choose to trust that God's economy is richer than I can possibly imagine.