On the book of Job and healthcare

One thing the King James Bible online shows us is that people are interested in the stories that the Bible says about healthcare. Before looking at some of the particular passages that the computer has offered us through this Bible gateway at ngjamesbibleonline.org, I will examine the issue through the story of Job. One note about the book of Job is that it turns out to be supposedly the 1st book ever written as a biblical text.
So what about the book of Job? For one thing as a biblical text it introduces the figure of Satan who is characterized as a son of God. Satan says that God has hedged in Job. At the start of the story Job is at the pinnacle of human worldly success. Satan seems to be querying that God has favoritism towards Job.
Satan’s concern is to bring up the possibility that if Job does not have his riches he will not have faith in God. And God’s response to Satan is do what you will with him, do what you want with him, just don’t lay your hands on him.
The story records that once Job has lost his riches he cries out that even his bones hedge him in. And so he tells his story to a few friends who are there and contribute to trying to help him understand what’s going on.
So at this point Job suffers from boils all over his body. Satan may not have touched him with his hand but Job has become afflicted with disease. He curses the day he was born. And so where is the justice in this?
What has evolved here is a story of parallel audiences. One audience seems to be the sons of God or the Angels one of which is Satan, and the other is Job's friends, you and me. Yet it is understood that we are all sons of God.
And here is the challenge thus presented: Does health and riches have anything to do with being a son of God? This does not seem to be the case for Satan. Satan is presumed innocent of having such troubles as a body, and having to take care of any riches of the world.
Satan’s advantage is that he doesn’t have a body or the need to inhabit the world. He’s just a visitor on his way back to where the disembodied Angels sit back and watch with the others, while Satan with God’s permission destroys Job's material existence.
Job's point is thereupon his death if he should suffer he will result in having cockles that remain on earth. And this is the justice that we have: what remains of the human body once we die. And so, what is it that mediates between the supernatural and man? Well, according to Job, this is nature.
With this first and earliest Hebrew biblical writing, nature is introduced as a means for humanity to consider their domain. Job's life produces results, and in particular a form of nourishment from the natural world, in his characterization, cockles.
Today, over 2,500 years later, during the time of the coronavirus pandemic, Job's words speak to us as a reminder that health is a consequence not of denying God's plan, but, instead, to recognize that our current pain and suffering will give rise to the nutrients and life that God's plan affords here on earth in the days to come.