Job 42:1-6, 10-17 (NRSV)
Then Job answered the Lord:
2 “I know that you can
do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that
hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did
not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I
did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will
speak;
I will question you, and you declare
to me.’
5 I had heard of you by
the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise
myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
10 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. 11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and
all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they
showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of
them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more
than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a
thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. 13 He also had seven
sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, the second
Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land there were
no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an
inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one
hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children,
four generations. 17 And Job died, old and full of days.
In
the Epilogue of Job 42, we find the theme of theodicy continued. The literal
rendering of the project of theodicy is to justify the ways of God to humanity.
It specifically addresses how suffering and evil can become part of the ways of
a good and just God. For a human being to offer a conclusive theodicy is
impossible, since that human being would have to see matters the ways that God
does. Theodicy also continues the questioning of the human mind. We ask why and
thank God that we do. Yet, the question seems to have no answer when it comes
to relating suffering and evil to the ways of God. This
dramatic climax — the Lord’s first direct address to Job and Job’s only direct
response to the Lord — has been anticipated by much of the content of the book,
but especially by the prediction of the “satan” (the adversary) in 1:11 and 2:5
that, given the chance, Job would curse the deity to his face in response to
Job’s travails. Job’s railing has led one to anticipate such a possibility, but
the actual response turns out to be quite different, one of the many
unanticipated twists in this story.
Then Job answered the Lord (yahweh[1]). The Lord has just asked Job, in two
detailed speeches (38:1-40:5 and 40:6-41:34), whether Job’s knowledge and
abilities extend to the creation and management of the natural world,
elaborately (and sometimes whimsically, 41:5) described by the Lord. The
purpose of the speech(es) is to confront (and crush) Job’s sense of moral
outrage at his treatment with the larger, cosmic framework in which Job’s life
runs its course, and in which Job’s perspective is painfully constrained.
2 “I know that you can do all
things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Job affirms the omnipotence
of God, meaning that the divine power knows no limits, unlimited and infinite.[2] 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel
without knowledge?’ We have here a
near quotation of the words of the Lord to Job in 38:2, a rhetorical question
that needs no answer. Therefore, I have
uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not
know. Elihu made the same charge in 34:35. Job acknowledges the truth
that he does not understand the mysteries of creation. Yet, he does understand
that he did not deserve his sufferings. 4
‘Hear, preparing the reader for the response of Job in verse 5, and I will speak. I will question you, and
you declare to me.’ See 38:3b and 40:7b for a duplicate of this statement.[3] The
Lord refuses to submit to the questioning of Job. He also refuses to list the
sins of Job. In speaking about the wonders of nature and control of the world,
Job sees the folly of questioning the wisdom and justice of God. He has challenged the
goodness of God. The speech from God at the end reaffirms the parental care of
God for all creation and by implication for human beings. In his act, Job
reveals that through his experience of suffering and evil, he becomes a person
worthy of us remembering and from whom we can learn. The story of Job invites
us to relate to the world of suffering and evil in the way Job did. We can
become such persons worthy of remembering if our experience of suffering leads
us to a deeper encounter with the Lord. (Stump 2010) . 5 I had heard of you by the
hearing of the ear[4]
(hearsay). Its use here seems to describe
unreliable or unconfirmed information, such as rumors or secondhand reports
(cf. also 28:22 and Psalm 18:44 ;
the phrase “in the hearing of” ordinarily simply means “in the presence of” or
“overheard by”; cf. Genesis 23:10, 13; Exodus 24:7; Numbers 11:1). However, now my eye sees you (he has personal experience). To see the
divine with the eyes was a privilege rarely accorded individuals, and was
thought to be accompanied by mortal danger (cf. Hagar’s statement in Genesis
16:13; Moses’ request to see God in Exodus 33:12-23; and Isaiah’s fearful
temple vision, Isaiah 6:1; in contrast, see Exodus 24:9-11). Thus, he
contrasts his hearing of the Lord in the past with his seeing of the Lord now. There are a number of ways to interpret this exchange, but
the most likely seems to be that Job has come to an awareness of the divine he
did not have before. The contrast Job seems to be making, then, is that he once
heard of God’s ways (from his friends and from his religious tradition, both of
which conflicted with his lived experience), but now he has indeed “seen”
(i.e., experienced) how God actually operates, and now he understands. In other
words, now Job gets it. Job becomes convinced of the providential
care of God. God has met the demands of Job, for something had to convince him
that God was on his side and would vindicate him. It seems as if we have
reached the culmination of the entire of saga. Yet, what does Job see? He sees
that he does not see. The ways of God are beyond his understanding. His desire
for God to vindicate him reduces God to little more than an idol created by
human imaginings. 6 Therefore, I despise (ma’as) myself,[5]
and repent in dust and ashes.” Of course, according to 2:8, Job is already
in ashes. The phrase, “dust and ashes,” can describe the human condition in
general, especially human finitude (e.g., Genesis 18:27), or it can also
describe being placed in abject humiliation or degradation (as appears earlier
in the book of Job, 30:19). Job may be repudiating the human perspective he
brought to divine mysteries, or he may be affirming his newfound awareness and
denying the need for further humiliation. The ambiguity of these, Job’s final
words, is almost certainly deliberate. Job repents, something his friends had
recommended throughout their dialogue. Does he reject his former speeches and
attitudes? What Job might repent of is the desire to occupy the place of God so
that he could justify the ways of God to himself. Of course, he will never
occupy that place. Job acknowledges his finitude and the limits of his
wisdom. Why the change? He experiences God in the whirlwind, in the
turmoil. He does not regret what he has
said. Rather, this experience of God has
changed his perspective. He cannot know what only God can know. Job recognizes human limits and accepts the
power of God. Thus, the epilogue acknowledges that 1) one comes to this point
only through struggle, 2) Job was right to be angry, 3) This may be all that
human beings can say. God can do all things, but we cannot comprehend God's
purposes.
Job 42:10-17, part of a
segment that began in verse 7, has the theme of the restoration and enlargement
of the fortunes of Job. Readers and scholars alike
have found the epilogue, by turns, perplexing, consoling, unsatisfying and
frustrating, and whatever comments one makes about it one must make with due
regard for the provisional understanding that attends the work as a whole, and
the relation of that work to the broader context of theological and
philosophical literature in general. Indeed, when we examine opinions regarding
these final verses, they seem to relate more to whether one thinks of human
life as a fundamentally tragic or comedic structure.[6] Thus, many readers (and, presumably, hearers)
have found this section of the book deeply unsatisfying, as it appears to
confirm the central theological tenet espoused collectively by Job’s three
friends: The righteous receive reward and the wicked receive punishment. Such a
view, foundational to Deuteronomistic and prophetic theology, is extremely
difficult to reconcile with the deity’s statement to Job’s friends in 42:7,
that they “have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
Scholars have offered various proposals to smooth the rough edges, usually
involving a “history of composition” of the book approach. In such cases, the
conflict is the result of two different, incompatible theological perspectives
from two different periods and authors. While such an approach resolves the
conflict, it avoids the problem of the canonical text as we have it.
Admittedly, we may have preferred that the story of Job end
with his final speech. Job demands an explanation for his suffering. The Lord
appears from out of the whirlwind, swats away the questions of Job, and affirms
divine majesty. Job responds with humble contrition. His words seem appropriate
to all that has gone before. The text puts everyone in their place. It exalts
the Lord. It humbles Job. The painful questions regarding believing in the
goodness of the Lord in the presence of so much suffering and evil receive no
easy answer. If it ended here, it would not attempt to explain the mysteries of
the purposes of the Lord. Such an ending would seem true to the rest of the book.
It would be a realistic conclusion regarding the experiences of those who
suffer. Yet, the epilogue that concludes the book of Job as we have it seems
like prosaic prose. We have the happily ever after ending of a fairytale. We
like such happy endings. Yet, we tend to be suspicious and skeptical of them as
well. This ending seems as jarring as a conventional Hollywood happy ending
would be at the end of King Lear. The temptation is to follow the course of
many others and ignore it or skip over it as quickly as one can. I would like
to consider the benefits of doing neither.
The poetic
section of the book is concluded, and the prose framework that opened the tale
(1:1-2:13) resumes. Beginning in verse 10, the Lord restores and
enlarges the fortunes of Job. Job receives comfort from his relatives and friends and the
Lord restores double his wealth and family. Like the disasters in the prologue,
the blessings of Job in this life have no explanation. We might assume that his
repentance is the reason, but the text does not say this. The Lord simply
decides to bless Job in this life. As the Lord took away the blessings of this
life in the beginning, the Lord brings beatitude in this life at the end. The
Lord does not explain suffering, but neither does the Lord explain beatitude.
They are twin mysteries. The reason for either one is beyond our view or
understanding. Suppose at the beginning of the story, before the tragedies, Job
demanded an audience with the Lord so that the Lord could explain why he had so
much in contrast to what other people had. The answer of the Lord would have
been the same. The speeches of God would be the same. Yet, as the story ends,
now we want to know why Job experiences so much beatitude in this life. When we
do, we must realize that beatitude in this life is equally as much a mystery in
this life as is evil and suffering. It has the feel of “and they lived happily
ever after,” fairy tale ending. Job had raised such large, penetrating,
existential questions, only to cave in at the end and submit to the
traditionalist view that God is good and always rewards good people with good
things. 10 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. Job's prosperity brought back
friends and family. The Lord does not simply restore
the fortunes of Job; the Lord doubles them. Job’s family and friends also
return to him, overcoming the alienation that had proved so bitter to him
earlier (19:13-22). I invite you to consider whether this was an easy process
for Job. Was it easy to pray and make offerings for the friends who made
accusations against his character? I suspect it was not. 11 Then there came to him all his
brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with
him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil
that the Lord had brought upon
him; and each of them gave him a piece of money (qesitah[7]) and a gold ring. Persons who had abandoned him become friendly again,
now that the Lord has restored his good fortune in this life. Was this a
happily ever after ending? I think it was not. I suspect this involved much
forgiveness from all sides. It also required the recovery of trust. Anyone who
has been through that process knows how hard that can be. 12 The Lord
blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen
thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand
donkeys. The herds of Job also flourish. Such rebuilding of the family
business undoubtedly took years of faithfully engaging the normal work of
everyday life. 13 He also had
seven (shib`ana[8]) sons and three daughters. People of that culture would view the surplus of girls
as a calamity, but they are more prominent. 14
He named the first Jemimah (dove is a symbol of female beauty), the second Keziah ("Cassia"
is cinnamon used in perfume), and the
third Keren-happuch (Kohl was paint for around the eyes). 15 In all the land there were
no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an
inheritance along with their brothers. His daughters were beautiful and
given an equal share of inheritance. Women did not receive an inheritance
unless there was no son. This is unique
in Old Testament and elevates status of women within patriarchal society. 16 After this Job lived one
hundred and forty years (twice the normal life
span; cf. Psalm 90:10). This
number amounts to three lifetimes for Job, fitting nicely into the theme of the
Lord restoring double to Job. Further, he saw
his children, and his children’s children, four generations. The epilogue
makes no mention of the removal of the physical affliction or the appearance of
his second wife, since Job’s first wife was the
mother of 10 grown children at the beginning of the book and it seems unlikely
that she remained fertile long enough to bear 17 children more. These quibbles bear little on the text, however, which is
folklore and not history, and the point, regardless of the specifics, remains
that Job’s latter days more than compensated for his earlier suffering, not
necessarily as a reward for his faithfulness, but simply as an unmerited
blessing. We learned in the final speech of Job that he has learned repentance
and humility before the majesty of the Lord. We have now learned that he had to
live this new posture toward life. He has reunited with his wife, had many
children, and revived his cattle business. After all that happened, imagine the
difficulty of reuniting with his wife. Such reconciliation must not have been
easy. Actually, such results are far from the conventional happy ending. He
will live his daily life out of the new perspective on the Lord, self, and the
world that he has gained. What may strike us as a happy ending may be more like
an extraordinary act of faith. After such tremendous losses, he does not end
his life. In fact, he resumes his life as it was before, willing to risk losing
it all again. To have twice as much as before is to double the risk. To embrace
his wife is to embrace life, in spite of potential suffering and unanswered
questions.[9] To have many
children, which every parent knows is a lot of work in the daily grind, and no
answers or assurances is a profound expression of humility, trust, and even
hope.[10] 17 Further, Job died, old
and full of days. Such a statement is an echo of
the formulas designating a blessed life (Genesis 25:8; 35:29; 1 Chronicles
29:28). To the modern mind, a quick reading seems to take away
whatever gains one might have thought one had in the dialogue. I like to think
I have shown, however, that read another way, this ending is fitting to Job as
a faithful witness to the Lord. Further, given the cultural context, this
conclusion is quite natural, for it shows that the Lord has accepted Job
completely. In fact, I wonder if some asceticism does not get in our way here.
Before Job died, the Lord allowed him to enjoy the pleasures of this world. We
too often fail to enjoy them. Yes, a form of holy abstinence may bring us
closer to the Lord in certain circumstances. However, can we also admit that
the failure to enjoy the pleasures of this world may lead us away from God? Job
now met the Lord in the beauties and pleasures of life. From this perspective,
the world is not an obstacle on the way to the Lord. Rather, the world is the
way to the Lord.[11]
Therefore, before we get too skeptical of a fairytale
ending, I invite you to consider another approach. Maybe sometimes, good things
happen to good people. Maybe sometimes, bad things happen to bad people. Of course,
not always, but sometimes, the world is like that. A man told William Willimon
a story.
There was this person in my town. We grew up together. He
was smart, good in school, never had to open a book. He was good at sports. All
the girls loved him. He was a born charmer. Naturally, he figured that the
rules were for other people rather than for him. We lost touch after high school. I heard that
he got married to the best-looking girl in the class. They divorced a couple of
years later, due to his repeated infidelity. He roamed about a good deal.
Married again, but the marriage lasted only for a while. He was in and out of
one shady business deal after another. He took advantage of his few friends.
His own kids turned against him, because he had disappointed them so often.
Just last year I heard he was dying. Liver disease. It was the alcohol and the
drugs, best I could tell. I wrote him. We resumed our friendship. He was a
rather sad sight by this time. Last week I went to his funeral. I was one of the
two people there. Even his own children refused to come. It was a sad ending to
a life. My point, Preacher, is that God does not always punish us for our
disobedience. There is not always a sure retribution for our sin, but
sometimes, sometimes there is.
By the grace of God, bad things do not always happen to bad
people. Good things do not always happen to good people. However, sometimes, as
in the case of this man’s friend, judgment crashes upon the heads of the
unrighteous. Moreover, sometimes, as in the case of Job, there is a happy
ending. The innocent suffers receive blessing. Not always, but sometimes, good
things eventually do happen to good people. Not always, but sometimes, bad
things happen to bad people. Life is not always that way, but just enough to
keep us nervous. Thank God.
Carl Jung wrote a book, Answers
to Job (1952) on Job that he admits gives an account of the development of
symbolic entities that corresponds to a process of differentiation of human
consciousness. In essence, he puts God on the couch and analyzes the process of
God learning who He/She is. Deity is an archetype of the psyche, and is as real
as any other psychic form. For him, the Deity we find in Job shows divine
darkness, savagery, and ruthlessness. He thinks of the book as a paradigm for a
certain experience of God. Why was Job wounded? What consequences have grown
out of this for Yahweh as well as for humanity? His basic point is that this
Deity is easily provoked. Job wants to meet God on the basis of justice and
morality. Job is certain that Yahweh is arbitrary and contains an evil impulse,
but he is just as certain that good is there as well. God is an antinomy, a
totality of inner opposites, which is indispensable for divine dynamism,
omniscience, and omnipotence. Job is pious and faithful. Yahweh is the one who
easily and without reason allows a doubting thought concerning the piety of Job
to enter the divine mind. Removing the blessings of life from Job, including
the death of the family, God shows no remorse. The friends of Job do not offer
him the last comfort of sympathetic participation and human understanding and
warm-hearted support. The point Jung keeps pressing is that the divine mind
contains an inner antinomy. Thus, Job realizes God is powerful, and can only hope
that God is good. Doubt enters the divine mind because Yahweh contains
darkness. What Job discovers is that Yahweh is less than human. One submits to
such a God with fear and trembling, not with trust or moral satisfaction.
Yahweh will not destroy humanity, but will save humanity. In Job, with the
acknowledgement of Satan as part of the heavenly council, we learn that God is
not sure what He/She thinks of creation in general and humanity in particular.
One reason is that Job showed greater moral clarity than did God. Monotheism,
then, must grapple with the idea that opposites must remain within God. Yet,
monotheism tries to smooth out the metaphysical disunity. To do so, Yahweh must
neutralize Satan. Jung will offer a reflection on the divine collective
unconscious. Christ is a myth that overcomes the darkness within the divine. As
Jung sees it, the danger of this approach is that it overlooks the necessary
irrationalities of his psyche, and of imagining that the divine can control
everything by will and reason alone, which he sees in socio-political movements
as well, such as socialism and communism. Christ shows divine love of the
heavenly Father and keeps at bay the fearful side of God. Yet, Christ has some
misgivings, recognizing that at his death another comforter, the Holy Spirit,
will need to continue the work of Christ and do greater things. Jung offers a
reflection on Sophia, the feminine form that symbolizes Wisdom, and therefore
love for humanity. Christ in the Incarnation symbolizes this Wisdom and love
for humanity that God steadily has. The Logos of the Gospel of John is
embodiment of this Wisdom. The development of the dogma of Mary is another
Incarnation of Wisdom. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the Incarnation of the
divine in humanity. In fact, God continues to want to be human. Of course, the
Incarnation will never be complete for an enlightened person remains what he or
she is, and is never more than a limited ego before the One who dwells within.
The result is that everything depends on humanity. The question is whether
humanity will use its power for good or ill.
Karl Barth briefly refers to the book as throwing a good
deal of light on the psychology of the professional psychologist. It does not
consider the book of Job that we read. His book offers little insight into what
the book actually teaches.
Instead, let us consider the obvious. Job questioned the
goodness of God due to his experience of suffering and evil. As the story ends,
the invitation contained in the text is to relate to a world of suffering and
evil in the way Job did. We become worthy persons, even worth remembering, if
our experience of suffering leads us to a deeper encounter with the Lord. In
that way, the prologue and epilogue reflect upon Job as the pure form of the
true witness. Who is Job? He is among those witnesses in the Old Testament who
are outside the covenant of Yahweh, but who still arise and work as true
witnesses as prophets of Yahweh. Although he is an Edomite, the Lord refers to
him as “my servant Job.” Since there is none like him in piety, sincerity, the
worship of the Lord, and hatred of evil, he is a unique figure in relation to
whom the Lord is quite sure of the divine cause will be successful in him. The
Lord will pledge the divine honor against Satan and entrusts it to Job. The
Lord has confidence in Job. He will not curse Yahweh. He will not say anything
concerning Yahweh that implies separation from Yahweh. He will say what is
right concerning Yahweh. We see the attitude of the Lord toward Job in the
external blessings the Lord gave to him. He maintains the positive character of
his life with the Lord with an unparalleled confidence. Job will assert his
practical commitment to the Lord. Armed with his own declaration of his
innocence and righteousness before the Lord, he calls for the corresponding
accusation against him. Where is it? He wants to see and read it. He wants to
lift it on his shoulder like a trophy, and wind it round his head like a crown
or turban. It will prove to be untenable at every point, and will thus speak
more strongly for him than anything he might say. Adorned with this writing, he
will meet the Lord like a prince. His relationship to the Lord is not just
personal, but is priestly on behalf of others, for his children and for his
three friends. Job made this intercession, Yahweh accepted it, and in response,
the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before. The true witness does not
merely unmask them, but also effectually intercedes for them. The relationship
between Yahweh and Job has the character of freedom rather than caprice. How
does Yahweh come to be the Partner of the Job in the drama of this history? The
basis is the good-pleasure of Yahweh. The basis is not a moral or judicial law
secretly presumed as existing above God. The basis is divine fidelity, and in
one sense, free and royal conduct. The Lord appears to Job to be an enemy and
persecutor. The Lord does not owe a favor and can allow disaster to fall upon
him. He can also end the experiments of Satan. W. Vischer who commented on 1:9
and the little phrase, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” In this “for nothing”
is the righteousness at issue in Job. God would not be God if God were not able
both to give and take away. Job would not be Job if he were not free to receive
both evil and good from God. He fears and loves the free God, and concerns
himself with God and not any divine gifts. In the rest of the story, he will
move through temptation to this goal in a new offering of himself and under a
new blessing of God. In all of this, Job prefigures the true witness we find in
Jesus Christ.[12]
What
are the three most important words in the English language? "I love
you." Perhaps. "I forgive you," or "Please forgive
me." Maybe. Certainly, at the top are the words, "I don't know."
How would the world be a different place if people would simply say, "You
know what? I do not know. I do not have enough information. There may be more
to this than meets the eye." There is a saying in the Talmud, "Teach
thy tongue to say 'I don't know.'"
Job
was a good man. The Lord says so in Chapter 1. He was an exemplary man of his
community. At the end of story of Job, the Lord tells the friends to ask Job to
offer sacrifices for them and pray for them. Job receives double in the end in
comparison to what he had in the beginning, an unmerited blessing of grace from
the Lord.
However,
the story of Job poses the question of the moral structure of the world. The
accuser of Job before the Lord says that Job will curse the Lord and die if
circumstances remove the good things of this world from him. Enemies killed his
children. They destroyed his property. Finally, disease attacked his body. He
carried on a dialogue with his three friends, later joined by a fourth,
concerning why such suffering attacked his life. In order for the story of Job
to be a moral story, surely he must have sinned, the friends argued. If he only
repents, God will bless him. The argument Job has is only in part with this
friends. His primary argument is with God. He demands an audience with God. He
questioned the wisdom and justice of God. He has moral outrage concerning the
story of his life.
Finally,
the Lord speaks to Job from out of the turmoil. The Lord says that Job, a good
man, but speaks out of ignorance. He needed to learn that it was OK to say, to
some questions we human beings have, “I do not know.”
The
Lord refuses to submit the questioning of Job. Job wanted to turn God into an
idol he could manage. The Lord does not list the sins of Job. The Lord is the
one who made the world and offers providential care for the world. As the Lord
speaks to Job, Job receives his audience with God.
The
perspective of Job changes. Job realizes that his story, as painful as it has
been, is part of a much larger story that he does not comprehend. The story of
Job is not a moral story because Job was a good man. Rather, the story of Job
is moral because of the much larger canvas our lives are part of, a canvas of
which we do not see the totality. The Lord puts Job in his proper place. In
that place, Job has found freedom and peace. He had heard about the Lord from
others. Now, he has experienced a reality of the Lord that he had not
understood before. The ways of the Lord are beyond human understanding. Job
acknowledges his finitude and the limits of his wisdom. He recognizes human
limits and accepts the power of God. Yet, Job comes to this point only through
struggle. He cannot know what only the Lord can know. Human beings cannot
comprehend the purposes of the Lord. Job repents of his human perspective that
he had sought to impose upon the divine mysteries.
Bruce
Almighty, a
2003 movie, stars Jim Carrey as Bruce, Morgan Freeman as God, and Jennifer
Anniston as his girlfriend Grace. A washed-up television reporter blames God
for his misfortunes and then gets a chance to do God’s job for a week.
Throughout the movie, there are signs, signals, and a homeless man that show
Bruce the way but it takes a long time for him to realize that the signs are
for him. In one scene, a homeless man has a sign that says, “Are you blind?”
Another sign says, “Life is just.” When things were going badly, Bruce did not
want to hear that. After Bruce loses his job and everything is going badly that
day, he claims God is out to get him. He says, “I have a mediocre life,” which
is not what his girlfriend Grace wanted to hear. As he drives along, he sees a
sign that says, “Caution ahead,” and another that says, “Dead End,” all the
while praying for direction from God. He wants God to answer him, so he gets a
call on his pager. Even when a car has crushed the pager, it still gives him a
message. He then receives an address, and thus begins Bruce’s journey to see
what it is like to be God. In fact, if you have seen the movie, in a humorous
way, Bruce will have a meeting with God that leads him to the same point to
which the Book of Job comes. He eventually learns that God has a different
perspective than does Bruce. He also discovers that he has the simple gift of
making people laugh and a wonderful girl who loves him.
Even
when the signs are obvious in our emotional life, in our personal relationships
or in our relationship with God, we may not read them.
How do you find your way through a confusing relationship
conversation?
How do you find your way through the confusing realities of life
to discover the will of God for your life?
The theme song to the classic sitcom, Cheers —
popular in the ’80s — says it well:
“Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve
got/
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a
lot.”
I
think Job is looking for that type of break.
First, life
became confusing for Job. He was not
sure where he stood with God. The book captures the portion of the life of Job
that is a test of who he is. He experiences a test of his character and
commitments. Throughout the book, he has endured difficult trials and
less-than-helpful counsel and explanations from friends. Therefore, he wants a
break from it all in the form of a little divine clarity.
“Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me” (13:22 ).
“Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!” (23:3).
“Oh, that I had one to hear me!” (31:35).
“Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!” (23:3).
“Oh, that I had one to hear me!” (31:35).
Does that not
reflect how we feel before God at times? We have questions about the fairness
of life. Life seems so chaotic and sometimes violent. It seems as if life is a
mess. What are we to do with God then? While the Lord’s ways have been
mysterious to Job, God did not remain silent forever. In chapters 38-41, God
gives Job an indication of where he is in his relationship with God.
Second, this
story reminds us that between God and us are an infinite, qualitative difference. “Job, I am here. You are
there. Don’t ever be confused about that difference.” Okay, here is a little Theology
101. Take a piece of paper and draw a thick line up the middle of it. On one
side of the line, write “God.” On the other side, write “My world.” With that
line, you have just drawn an important piece of the Christian worldview,
because only one side of the line is subject to the other. This same line has
always been since the Creation of the Universe. God always was. God made us, along with the
world around us. That line will always run between Creator and created things.
In his encounter with God, the simple sign he received was the reminder that a
vast difference exists between God and us.
By the way, if we can fully
comprehend God, would God really be God? If we could fully comprehend life, we
would no longer be human beings. We would be God. It may well be that our anger
and frustration with life, our demand for God to answer our questions
concerning the unfairness of life, are signs to which we need to listen
carefully. We may well be wrestling with our limits as individuals and as human
beings.
Some years ago in Vancouver,
British Columbia, police arrested and charged one Morris Davie with setting a
forest fire. While Davie was in jail awaiting
trial, a police officer saw Davie Davie Davie
"The
word 'person' is used in the statutes of Canada
That is exactly right. God is wholly other than we
are. Our limitations do not bind God. Since God chooses to be present with us,
that means that when we trust God, we are in touch with One who has power and
love beyond anything we can imagine.
The
book of Job reminds us of some basic realities concerning God.
First, let us
explore the notion that God is all-powerful,
all-knowing, and infinite; we are
not. We have limits. Job lost his possessions, his home, and his children. He
lost the support of his wife. We like the times in our lives when we receive.
We do not like the times when life takes away things and people. In Bruce Almighty, when Bruce became
God for seven days, he thought he would answer Yes to the prayers of everyone.
Later, God tells him, “Since when do people know what they really need?” In one
of the deleted scenes from the movie, a young person prayed that God would give
him the strength in gym class to go up the rope. Bruce figures, “Why not?” In
the end, God says that the struggles of his life would make the boy, as an
adult, a poet. The struggles and losses of life are painful. We would not
choose them. In the song, The Dance, Garth Brooks imagines a
relationship as a dance. He is glad he did not know at the beginning of the
relationship that she would leave him, for,
“I could have missed the pain,
but I would have missed the dance.”
We will never have the view of our lives
that God has. Pain and loss are part of this life. We will get angry at times.
Yet, such anger can lead to increased openness to God.
Second, people
will often take what they want to see happen, and rubber stamp “God’s will” language onto it. If you
read carefully what the friends of Job say, you will notice that they are quite
sure of what God wants to say to Job. The Book of Job would tell us that we
would be better off if we have some humility in this regard, especially as we
consider what we say to other people. The story of Job and his friends is that
of several men trying to put together puzzle pieces to form a clear picture of
God and to answer the question “Why?” Their problem is that they have not
received all of the pieces of the puzzle. One lesson is that we dare not reduce
the suffering of others to trite answers.
Third, in 42: 5,
Job is now
convinced of God's providential
care. Job experiences God in the whirlwind,
in the turmoil. The experience has
changed his perspective. This
recognition of his limits occurs because he has new knowledge of God. Before,
he had only hearsay and religious tradition. Now, he knows God through personal
experience: "now my eye sees you."
He knew God in his head, so to speak, but now, he knew God from the
heart.
It may well be that the
struggles and questions we have concerning life and God are there for us to see
more clearly our limits and to trust the vast mystery that is God. Such
experiences can destroy the idols we have made. The
journey given to Job was not to understand God and the ways of God. His journey
was to continue to respond faithfully to God even though he did not have all
the pieces to the “Why?” puzzle.
The story of Job
is a story with which any of us can identify, simply because tests and ordeals
are part of a human life. However, we
might be frustrated by the end of the book. We probably like the idea that God
tells the friends to bring a sacrifice to Job so that he can make an offering
for them. We like the idea that God tells Job to pray for his friends. In fact,
God stresses again that Job is a servant of the Lord. Job has received his
test. He began a servant, and he ends a
servant. He becomes an encouragement to us to remain faithful. Yet, Job gets
his wealth, family, health, and a long life all back. For some of us, it gives
us something on which to hold. For others, we can think of too many times when
that did not happen, either in our lives or in the life of a friend.
One of the
persons who helped me with this was Søren Kierkegaard in his little book Repetition. How else would you like the
book to end? It began with Job experiencing so much blessing and friendship
with God. It has a long ordeal through which Job must pass where he feels
alienated from God. Here at the end, we find the friendship and blessing of God
at the end of his life. The book invites us to consider that while life will
have its trials, we can come out on the other side with a deepened friendship
with God. In fact, it may well be that the restoration of Job at the end is not
so much a guarantee that our fortune will be restored, but that we will have a
deeper appreciation of our friendship with God
and blessing from God.
If you are going
through your own ordeal, please know of the promise at the other end. You too
may have relied upon what you had heard about God from others. What you really
need is your own personal relationship with God.
Let it be so.
[1] One
of the noteworthy features of the book is its several designations for the
divinity
[2]
Pannenberg, (Systematic Theology, Volume
1, 416
[3]
Some scholars will say this means this statement is the result of a gloss in
the copying of the manuscript.
[4] A
phrase unique to this passage.
[5] NRSV
is supplying a direct object for the verb, “reject, despise,” that does not
appear in the Hebrew text. Various proposals have been suggested (including
taking the following set phrase, “dust and ashes” as the object of both verbs),
resulting in a wide range of translations with an equally wide range of
meanings. For a list of various translations of the verse, as well as a summary
of the scholarly discussion of the grammatical and syntactical issues involved,
see Newsom, 629.
[6]
(Carol
Newsom, in The New Interpreter’s Bible [Nashville: Abingdon Press,
1996], vol. 4, 637).
[7]
An unknown term that appears to designate either an amount of money or a weight
of precious metals.
[8]
The word used for seven, however, is unusual, and may be a dual form,
designating not seven but double seven, i.e., 14 (see also 1 Chronicles 25:5,
where God exalts the temple official Heman with fourteen sons and three
daughters). Fourteen sons, an exceptionally large
number, would correspond with the exceptional nature of Job’s daughters (on
whom the author dwells while supplying relatively little real information).
[9]
In J. B., Archibald MacLeish’s play about Job, two characters stand
apart from the drama and comment on it. Near the end of the play, the sardonic
Nickles asks what happens to job in the end, and Mr. Zuss tells him that Job
gets his wife back. Nickles says:
Wife back! Balls! He wouldn’t touch her.
He
wouldn’t take her with a glove!
After
all that filth and blood and
Fury
to begin again. After life like his to take
The
seed up of a sad creation
Planting
the hopeful world again
He
can’t! . . . he won’t! . . . he wouldn’t touch her!
And
Zuss replies: “He does though.”
[10]
Martin B. Copenhaver, The Christian Century, October 12, 1994 , p. 923
[11]
—Ron Miller, The Gospel of Thomas: A Guidebook for Spiritual Practice (SkyLight
Paths Publishing, 2004), 18.
[12]
Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.3 [70.1],
384-388)
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