In a previous post, I wrote about how a person would draw lessons on faith from nature, as shown in Prince Andrew’s encounter with the Oak Tree in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Similar encounters are scattered throughout the novel. Tolstoy believes that communion with nature is necessary if man is to live with integrity, not just to survive. He could not have written about such communion so vividly, if he had not experienced it himself, and his writings could not resonate with many readers across generations, if they didn’t have similar experiences.
In the Old Testament, Job, who has suffered the loss of all things, and is forced to question even the meaning of life itself, also drew inspiration from nature, a tree in particular:
For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
— Job 14:7-10
Like Socrates, Job was condemned by his contemporaries of being immoral/sinful and deserving punishment. He lost all: his children and his possessions were destroyed, he was stricken with diseases from head to toe, his wife despised him, his friends deserted him and even his closest friends condemned him. The only thing left that sustained Job was his unshakable conviction of his integrity. That is Job’s Faith, the anchor of his soul in the midst of the storm. He believed so strongly in his own integrity, that he dared even to defend himself in Court against the Almighty. And like Socrates, Job believed in the immortality of the soul, for justice demands it. Justice transcends time and space, and if justice is not served in this life, there must be an afterlife, where justice is served, that is, when the Supreme Judge gives each his due.
Cicero, when contemplating death and immortality, writes, “I follow Nature as the best of guides and obey her as a god; and since she has fitly planned the other acts of life’s drama, it is not likely that she has neglected the final act as if she were a careless playwright.” IF Nature, or the Creator of Nature, is indeed the Author of our life, it seems natural and reasonable for man to draw inspiration from Nature. If the Playwright has the power to bring forth living beings out of nothing, it is at least conceivable that man can be resurrected by the same power, with all that he holds dear.
Perhaps this is the lesson of Job, to have Faith, not in things seen, not even in the virtues of man, but in the Unseen, who has made all things beautiful in its time.