In his 1945 play “A Masque of Reason,” Robert Frost has God explaining to Job and his wife that the catastrophes Job endured had been necessary to “free God from his bondage to man.” He further explained that in the beginning, only man had the ability to choose right from wrong, and God was required by man to reward the righteous and punish the unrighteous.

This follows my own belief that God gave us the freedom to choose right or wrong. It also supports my belief that Job’s wife was a good woman who shared both his pain and his restoration. I have not always thought that. At first, I thought she was a gold digging shrew who left when she lost her possessions and status. Each time I read Job, I softened that stance.

The expression “God’s bondage to man” is a very blunt and troubling way to encapsulate the 42nd chapter of Job. God confirmed Job’s righteousness and condemned his friends because Job did not try to define or control God, while his friends believed that they could require God’s service to themselves by their actions.

Requiring God to act a certain way based on our actions is the same as giving an offering to an idol as payment for an outcome. How often do we select a course and pray for God to bless it rather than pray for direction and the ability to take it? How often do we declare that God is with us because we are right? Joshua asked the angel: “Whose side are you on, ours or our enemy’s?” The angel replied: “Neither. I am with the LORD. Would you like to join me?”

Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42