When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 2 - Waldorf Research Institute

a world in which freedom is to develop must also leave room for evil, which
is the opposite element.
The story of Job 4 also reflects this third type of illness which is so
difficult to understand. It has a .prologue “in heaven” where the Lord God
speaks to the devil, praising his servant Job who is above all reproach. The
devil listens to this and then opens the Lord God’s eyes by pointing out
that it was not difficult for Job to lead a godly life, since life was easy for
him. He had everything a man needed in life—a good wife, children, wealth,
friends and also health. “But,” the devil added, “put out your hand and
touch everything he has and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord God
accepted the challenge and gave the devil the power to harm Job in any way
he could think of, except that he must not kill him. Thus Job was in dire
trouble though “blameless,” and finally they all doubted and suspected him
of having secretly committed a serious sin, seeing that God did not punish
the innocent. The further course of events proved them wrong, however.
Job, not conscious of having done wrong, and the people whom destiny
placed around him who also could not see any meaning in Job’s illness and
suffering, were being prepared so that they might understand something
much deeper—that you can fall into sin by thinking that error and evil are to
be found only in others, and that you are pure and beyond reproach yourself.
Though this was true in the case of Job, individuals must ask themselves:
Where have I been able to gain the quality of being beyond reproach? How
has it been possible for me to learn to be a good person? It is then easy to
see that one owes this to the people with whom one has been living—and
to the fact that human evolution as a whole exists. For if one’s own destiny
environment has not confronted one with a particular problem, from which
one might have learned something, one is told about it in the history of the
human race, in experiences others have had. Therefore, much can be gained
by learning to understand and work with the experiences of others and with
major historical events. We owe the way we are not only to our personal
destiny field, but also to the great process of human evolution; and when
Job began to see something of this, he was deemed worthy to behold God.
He perceived the meaning of humanity and found the nearness of God that
exists within humanity.
This also broadens the meaning of “fault.” There are individual faults
which individual persons best clarify themselves by admitting them to
themselves. Then there are faults committed in relation to others, faults one
is often not aware of. We live in the illusion of having done the right thing,
hav ing no idea of the pain or even collapse our own actions may sometimes
have caused in others. Such harm done to others without being aware of
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