Oct. 26, 2014                 

Background Scripture: Job 42:1-10; Psalms 86

Job has spent most of the 42 chapters of his book insisting he does not understand how his God can tolerate and remain both mute and still in the presence of injustice, violence and persecution. Neither can he understand how God can allow the innocent to suffer at the hands of evildoers.

These conditions prevalent throughout the world don’t add up for Job. They seem a denial of the God in whom he has believed and served.

Many of us, in one way or another, have voiced or at least pondered how things such as these could take place in a world created and maintained by a good and just God. Job was so upset that he challenged God to come and answer Job’s charges against him. And finally, God appears, but the confrontation does not go as Job had expected, for God also comes with devastating questions:

“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you and you shall answer me” (38:3). (Today’s English version: “Tried and True Job, For Modern Man,” is less poetic but more pointed: “Who are you to question my wisdom? You are only showing your ignorance. Stand up now like a man and answer the questions I am going to ask.”).

The first question to Job is unexpected and devastating: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (38:4-27).

A matter of ‘who’

God’s questions come fast and furious: “Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’” (38:8-11).

You may read the continuation of God’s reply in 38:12-39:30.

In other words, Job wasn’t present when God created the universe, so obviously he was not competent to question the Creator. And he was not present because Job’s mind could neither understand nor express the logic of God. The creature is not the equal of his creator.

Even if the Creator were to explain how and why he created the world, Job would not be able to understand it (nor would we). His mind at best was finite, but the mind of God is infinite, and if the finite mind could not grasp the “how” of God’s creation, neither could he grasp the “why” of it. How presumptuous of human beings to call for an explanation of that which we cannot grasp.

Since there is no higher court of appeal, we must accept the gap between the human mind and the divine. He is quick to respond: “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I have spoken once and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further” (40:5).

“Then Job answered the Lord: ’I know thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted.’” He repeats God’s response in 38:2: “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?” It is Job’s confession and he confesses further: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (42:3).

He remembers once again God’s words: “Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me” (42:4). Job confesses: “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but not my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Reward and punishment

Job not only fulfilled God’s expectations, but his strong sense of right and wrong caused him to persevere and raise the seemingly unmentionable question regarding where to pin the blame. Because he persevered, God eventually responded and gave him the explanation he called for.

Because he did not accept the erroneous conclusion of his three friends, he was eventually rewarded with answers from the Lord. Although his “friends” had doggedly pressured Job to give up and confess his sins to God, Job ended up magnanimously praying for his “friends” who had displeased God with their arguments. And God accepted Job’s prayer for Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamaathite.

Further: “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (42:10). It is important to realize that in restoring Job’s property and wealth, Job’s life was not completely restored. His property and wealth were restored, but his children were still dead. God does not erase the past and its pain, but He can give us something to replace it.

As I have previously explained, the writer of the Book of Job was refuting the popular reward-and-punishment explanation.

Although his argument is persuasive and much more conducive to contemporary experience and thought, succeeding generations clung to reward-and-punishment – and many Christians even today disregard the gospel of grace taught, preached and practiced by Jesus and elucidated by Paul.

The Book of Job still has much to  teach us today and we can say with Job: “Now my eye sees thee.”

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.