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| William J. Blake |
In Job 23:1-9, 16-17, we read of the experience of divine absence. Job would like to get a hearing with God to defend himself. Yet, Job cannot find God, even though he has followed the ways of God. If God has chosen to judge, one has no hope. The poor receive oppression while God does not hear the appeal. The wicked go on their normal way. The passage is not a prayer, but it has the quality of a prayer.
The greatest promise through the Scriptures is that God is with us. God is present with us, and we are present with God. We speak theologically of the omnipresence of God. Paradoxically, however, God’s absence (or the inexplicable absence of favorable divine action) is also a prominent feature of quite a number of biblical texts (as in the complaints of many psalm-writers). Hence the intriguing title of Samuel Terrien’s The Elusive Presence. There are times when we do not feel any sense of divine presence. Sometimes that may have to do with our own state of mind. Maybe God chooses to remain hidden from us at times. If so, it should be for reasons that will be beneficial to us in the long run. We see that Job eventually learned what true faith is. He trusted God without evidence. Certainly, there are times when we go to church and barely manage to keep our minds on the service. There is absolutely no sense of any divine presence at all. This is often true of our prayers. We feel at times like a child throwing rocks at the moon.
The suffering of Job has led him to ponder the absence of God at this point in his life. Life has become inhospitable to him. It does not feel like a home. He is pondering God, of course, but he is also pondering his life experience. Absence is more powerful than is presence, fullness, meaning, and purpose. We do well to ponder this tension in our experience. Since reality is “becoming” and is thus never fully “there,” all we have is the fleeting trace of presence and the possibility that absence is more a part of life than we care to admit. Friends may be absent at a critical moment in our lives. We may be absent to ourselves and feel lost and alone, adrift at sea, with no guiding light. It may well be that any guiding light we thought we saw was only an illusion.
Martin Luther was working at home one day. He had been deeply depressed for days. His wife entered the room wearing black, a sign of mourning. She began closing the house, drawing the blinds, tiptoeing about until her husband asked, “Is someone dead?”’ She replied, “Yes! Do you not know? God is dead!” Martin Luther understood. If he was the man of God he presented himself to be, there was no reason for his despondency.
Then Job answered: 2 “Today also my complaint is bitter[1]; the hand of God is heavy despite my groaning.[2] 3 In 3:24, the sigh of Job is like his bread, and his groaning is like his water. Oh, that I knew where I might find God, so that I might come even to the dwelling (or judgment seat) of God! Do you not love this verse? It is hard to spar with an invisible fighting partner. He wants to go to the house of God and give God a piece of his mind. Job wants to storm heaven itself if necessary in order to contend with God. Many people groan at that statement. Job faced severe torment, and not just physical pain and grief. This good man, who never knowingly, intentionally hurt a soul, this splendid citizen, this faithful person in his religion, now finds that in the darkest moment of his life he cannot find God. What a travesty his religion must have seemed to him. 4 I would lay my case before God, and fill my mouth with arguments (the reasoning we find in a lawsuit). 5 I would learn what God would answer me, and understand what God would say to me. 6 Would Godcontend with me in the greatness of divine power? No; but God would give heed to me. If Job could have such a hearing, it would not be a one-way experience. It would be a mutual hearing. God would not overpower Job. Rather, Job would hear and understand God, and God would listen and pay attention to him. Although Job has a contentious argument with God, he wants a hearing before God. 7 There an upright person (a person of integrity) could reason[3] with God, and my judge would acquit me forever. A fair trial would vindicate Job. After all, he is a person of integrity rather than one who deserves suffering due to his unrighteousness, as his friends argue. As readers, we know from Chapter 2 that his suffering comes from the arbitrary actions of God. Job believes he would win his case, even though God is both his judicial adversary and his judge. In Job 9:32-33, Job expresses his frustration that God is not mortal so that they could face each other in the courtroom. Not can be the umpire between God and Job. 8 “If I go forward, God is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive God; 9 on the left God hides, and I cannot behold God; I turn to the right, but I cannot see God.[4] Job cannot bring his case before God because God keeps hiding from him. Since God is hiding, no matter where Job searches he cannot find God. He cannot find his judicial adversary or the judge, so he cannot have the trail for which he longs to have. Without God, he can have no case before the court. Job stresses that it is hard to spar with an invisible fighting partner. It does not seem like a fair fight. God knows where Job is. Job does not where God is. Job cannot hide from God. An interesting connection is with Psalm 139:7-10, where the author, with trust and assurance says that he cannot escape the Spirit and presence of the Lord. He can ascend to heaven or descend to Sheol, and the Lord is there. If he went to the farthest limits of the sea, the hand of the Lord will lead and strengthen him.
In verses 13-14, for now, God will not listen. God will do what God wants, with no input from Job.
Every one of us who have personal tragedy can understand this poor man saying, 16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty (shaddai[5]) has terrified me. Job has a profound sense of holy terror before Almighty God. He stands in awe or dread. In spite of that experience, he wants to engage God in the courtroom. In spite of it all, Job wants to engage God in courtroom fight, fair or not. He expects to win, even if he imperils himself by being so bold. What an intimate, enigmatic, terrifying relationship with God! We may think we have “tamed” God in our world today. However, Job knew the untamable God, and chose to wrangle with God anyway. 17 If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face! Yet, a part of Job would like to disappear rather than have a direct encounter with God. He wants to engage God in battle and hide from God. Job wants to hide from God in the darkness, but realizes he cannot do so. It seems God can see in the dark. God hides from Job, but Job has no way of hiding from God. Again, note the contrast of tone with Psalm 139:11-12, where the writer admits that even if he becomes so discouraged that he thinks darkness covers him, and the light around him seems like night, the darkness is like light to the Lord. Such trustful confidence the psalmist had does not describe the experience Job is having. In any case, most people who have taken their walk with God seriously will testify to dark places in the journey. Yet, could it be that the darkness is part of our training for the tasks and the mission God has for us? Even our fears can train us to meet the challenges of life. The key is not to surrender to darkness and fear. We prefer the moments of sun, happiness, health, and success. Yet, most of us have learned much in the treasures contained in the darkness and in the fear. Darkness and fear will pass, but what one learns through them for their journey and mission in life will last.[6]
What do we miss by not discovering the terrifying holy majesty and might of God? Moreover, what do we miss by choosing to avoid wrestling with the Almighty because of our fears? God is “big enough to take it”; on the occasion that we might go too far, God will let us know when to back off, as with our biblical forebears. Nevertheless, given the biblical examples, Almighty God welcomes our own spirited interaction. Such a person is taking seriously, indeed. Unlike the practical atheism many of the people of God seem to have.
Arguing with God has many biblical parallels. Many of the poets/psalm-writers show such holy boldness. As do such biblical folks as Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Jeremiah. Abraham, in Genesis 18:16-33, asks God to have mercy on the people of Gomorrah and Sodom (where his nephew Lot and his family resided), if only even a few were righteous there. Moreover, God considers Abraham a worthy challenger, even filling him in on the divine plans and going tête-à-tête with him for several rounds. Jacob wrestles with God (Genesis 32:24-32) at Peniel (“the face of God”). Moses also goes up against God, on more than one occasion. For example, see Exodus 32:7-14, where Moses objects energetically to God’s planned destruction of the people of Israel, for their idolatry; and God listened. Jeremiah the prophet frequently complained boldly to God. Nevertheless, God kept him on as prophet.
Not surprisingly, some of God’s people through the centuries follow their example. See Elie Wiesel’s Night (p. 65, 1982 Bantam edition), where he says (with reference to God’s non-intervention during the horrors of the Holocaust), “I was the accuser, God the accused.”
Have you ever felt that God was letting you down and that you had nowhere to complain. In our modern experience, our dominant experience of God may be one of distance and absence.[7] Thus, as modern as we are, we can identify with the ancient figure of Job. Yet, for us, the roles in the courtroom have reversed. Job viewed himself as the accused. For us, God is the accused, and we are the judge and prosecutor. Does God have a reasonable defense for making and permitting a world of so much war, poverty, and disease? We are ready for God to answer our questions. We are in the judge’s bench, and God has the right to offer a defense. We might even acquit God, if God has a good answer.[8]
Early in 2015, Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne interviewed the English comedian and actor Stephen Fry, who is a self-declared atheist. At one point, Byrne said to Fry, "Suppose it's all true, and you walk up to the pearly gates, and God confronts you. What will Stephen Fry say?" Fry responded, "Bone cancer in children; what's that about? How dare you? How dare you create a world where there is such misery that's not our fault?" He then added a second question: "Why should I respect a ... God who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain?" They posted that segment of the interview on YouTube, where, within days, it received five million views. Not surprisingly, the responses to the clip ranged from admiration to anger, with the head of Ireland's Presbyterian Church branding Fry as "spiritually blind." Fry later apologized for any offense he might have caused and said he was not referring to any specific religion. He explained that he was merely saying things that many better thinkers than he was had said over the centuries.
You can form your own opinion about Fry as a thinker, but he did synchronize with many people when he said he would question why God did certain things we mortals do not like.
Many of us have likely had similar thoughts. Just imagine that some force could transport you to heaven for an hour to talk face to face with God -- with the assurance that God would answer one question for you. What question would you ask? Perhaps, you would want to toss around one of these questions:
- Why am I suffering from pancreatic cancer?
- Why are some of us capable of child abuse?
- Why can't we have wisdom when we are young and would really benefit from it?
- Why the earthquakes in Nepal?
- Why the evil and brutality of ISIS?
- Why the unending conflict in the Middle East?
- Why do you allow the Boko Harum to kill hundreds of innocent women and girls?
- Why the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide or the Khmer Rouge slaughter of millions?
I doubt if I could find a limit to the questions we would like to ask God. Our questions do not come from idle curiosity. Many of us are experiencing some pain or grief common to the human condition. We have a personal investment in the questions we would ask. We think answers from God might help us deal with what we cannot avoid.
If you watch the Fry video clip,[9] he speaks with passion and personal anger. He sounds a little like what we might imagine Job sounding like. Suffering often makes us puzzle about God.
Attention to suffering can increase understanding of the situation. Stephen Covey tells of an unusual experience on the New York subway. While people were sitting quietly in the car, a man entered with his noisy and rambunctious children. The man sat down and closed his eyes as though he were oblivious to his rowdy children. The once quiet subway car was now a disturbing place of chaos. The children’s inappropriate behavior was obvious to everyone except their father. Finally, Covey confronted the man about his children. The man opened his eyes and evaluated the situation as if he was unaware of all that had transpired. “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”
Our discussion of such matters will not answer our questions. No answer exists in our world. Thus, we need to patient toward the unsolved questions of our hearts. We need to love the questions with which we live. Demanding answers today from questions that have no answers today is fruitless. We might not even be able to live with the answers! We need to live the questions, and in the process, without noticing lit, we live into the answer.[10] We will need to live with enough faith to keep moving forward. For Christians, we need a simple reminder. Jesus did not conduct a seminar on why suffering, death, evil, and injustice exist in the world. Rather, he brought healing, liberation, and hope of life in the rule of God. In fact, he allowed evil to do its worst to him, allowing God to work a power in which he emerged with new life.[11]
I am going to say something here that may be difficult to hear. The story of Job is a story of the tests that we might encounter in our lives. They are tests of who we are and desire to be. What is your character? Job, you think of yourself as a servant of the Lord. However, are you such, when times become tough? Will you persevere to the end and pass the test? Job is the one going through the test of whether he will trust God, regardless of the circumstances.
[1] The Hebrew text says “rebellious” (as NJB) or “rebellion” (as NASB), instead of “bitter” (NRSV, from ancient translations).
[2] The LXX Greek word is used also in Romans 8:26, where the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with sighs/groans too deep for words.
[3] The same verbal root as Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us argue it out [RSV has “reason together”], says the LORD….”
[4] Our own physical and mental maps have a north-orientation. The mental maps of the people of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible had an east-orientation (with their backs to the Mediterranean Sea, they faced east): So, in verse 8, the “forward” and “backward” can mean “east” and “west” respectively. And in verse 9, the “left” and “right” can mean “north” and “south” respectively. Verse 9b would be better translated (with the Hebrew), “He turns (not “I turn”) to the right, and I cannot see him.”
[5] The word is quite prominent in Job, appearing 31 times — including 22:3, 17, 23, 25, 26; also 24:1; just 17 other times in the Hebrew Bible.)
[6] --Leslie Weatherhead, Prescription for Anxiety (Hodder & Stoughton, 1956), 32.
[7] The 20th-century poet W.H. Auden once said that “Our dominant experience of God today is of God’s absence, of his distance.”
[8] C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock. The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. [Man] is the judge: God is in the dock. [Man] is quite a kindly judge: If God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the Bench and God is in the Dock.
[9] The Link: youtube.com/watch?v=-suvkwNYSQo Time: 2:24 The Content: Stephen Fry can't believe in a God who creates bone cancer in children.
[10] The poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) said:
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
[11] N. T. Wright, Simply Good News (SPCK, 2015).
[12] William James
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