Oct. 19, 2014

Background Scripture: Job 5 &24:1,9-12,19-25; Psalms 55:12-23

For those of you who will be reading more of Job than the minimal passages assigned for last week, this week and the last week of the month, it may be helpful to once again review the outline of the Book of Job.

The book begins with a prose prologue (1:1,2;13) and closes with a prose epilogue (42:1-17.) In between, telling the story and raising numerous issues are three dramatic episodes in Hebrew poetry: Job 4-14; 12:1-20:29; and 21:1-31:40.

If we read through these three episodes we note that although Job’s questioning by his friends – Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar – begins on a cordial level, the three “friends” gradually become Job’s terrible tormentors, increasingly pressing him to acknowledge the guilt they are convinced caused him to suffer the loss of virtually everything he once possessed.

Although Job remains steadfastly convinced of his innocence, as we read these confrontations we find he has to struggle mightily to maintain three things: his conviction that he is innocent, the injustices that have been heaped upon him; and his trust in the goodness and justice of God. In 32:1-37:24 there is added a brash and dogmatic Elihu, who berates Job in a long-winded speech and then vanishes. This week’s passage from Job is from the third of the three dramatic episodes. At last, Job rises to demand responses and answers from God. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar have evidently given up arguing with Job. They don’t agree with him, but they cannot convince Job.

It is angry, rash Elihu who enters to do just that: To overwhelm Job and compel him to give up his presumption of innocence and confess his sin, so that he may receive God’s mercy.

Suffering and sin

It is intriguing that Elihu (“my God is he”) is the only one in the story with a Hebrew name. Is there any significance in this? (Is there a suggestion that God possesses Elihu or that Elihu possesses God?) Some scholars believe Elihu is introduced into the story to show that no individual’s thoughts and words can answer the questions that have been raised: If a person suffers, does it mean he or she has sinned? Why do good people suffer? Why do the wicked prosper?

Maybe he’s suggesting the closest we can come to truth is in the mixture of various explanations and explainers. When the Book of Job closes, the questions still remain, but the participants have had an opportunity to come closer to the truth than if the dialogues had never taken place. Whether this concept was intended by the writer of Job or simply an accident, we do not know. But I suspect this was the writer’s purpose.

We very well know that our faith is founded upon the polarities of humanity and deity. As human beings we can apprehend the divine, but never fully comprehend it or Him. If we knew exactly who and what God is, how He creates and sets in motion our evolution, how prayer can be, ought to be and often is answered is something we can experience, but not truly  dissect and put together with our finite minds.

This is the gap that was breached in the person of Jesus Christ – he shows us to the limits of human mentality what we can know concerning the nature of God. No one is more dangerous and potentially harmful to the cause of Christ than the person who thinks he or she has totally captured God in a human formula.

We will return to this next week when we conclude our study of the Book of Job. In the meantime, there is an important point in these passages that we must not overlook: Job only reaches this point in his faith because he has steadfastly refused to take “canned answers.” So, he demands God explain Himself.

How can this mere man – righteous as he is in God’s sight – presume to demand some explanations by the Lord? (And should we “go and do likewise?”).

Does the creature have the right to demand answers from our Creator?

Does God know?

The clues to the answers to those questions are hidden in Job 24:1,9-12 and 19-25.

But first let’s get the puzzling answer of Job 24: “Why are times not kept by the Almighty? And why do those who know him never see his days?” It is believed that the original sentence was broken in the copying phase.

Although we may never know how it was written, the meaning is not obscure: If God knows all, why do those closest to Him not find Him aware of all things?

Does God not know about the tragedies that are taking place?

The answer is predicated on the assumption: “Yes, He does know.” So why does He not do something about all of this? This is not so much a question as it is a complaint against and to God.

Job counts off a list of disasters and injustices God ought to be aware of and responding to: the oppression and miserable plight of the poor, the victims and the powerless.

How can this take place in the realm of the loving, caring God?

Job’s protest and complaint are justified in his own day and in ours.

Is God unaware, uncaring or unable to respond to the situations described in Job 24:2-25?

The answer to that question, I believe, is implied, although not stated. If Job and other thinking, caring followers of God see these same sights, is the failure to respond God’s or ours? Do these horrors exist because God doesn’t care enough, or because we do not care enough?

When we, like Job, have the courage to hold God accountable for the tragedies and injustices that surround us on every side, we too must be held accountable. For, like God, do we see all of these things and pass by on the other side, holding our garments close to us so as not to soil them? Is that not time for us to shout, “I OBJECT?”

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Those with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.