Healing Rays of Righteousness

Read Job 1-2

In our effort to understand why bad things happen to good, godly people I think it important to hear the story of a good, righteous man named Job.  Job is a wealthy, highly respected, successful, godly man who suffered greatly.  His story of sufferings begins with this backdrop, “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job.  This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.  … He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”  This sterling characterization of Job is repeated by the Lord in verse 8 and in chapter 2, verse 3.                   

But then tragedy struck and in quick succession Job loses everything precious to him.  His flocks are stolen.  His servants are put to the sword.  Celestial flames engulf his sheep.  His children are crushed in a windstorm.  His skin burns with open sores.  It’s hard to imagine the severity of Job’s sufferings.

Beginning in chapter 3 and for the next 35 chapters, we hear Job, his wife, three of his friends, and a pretentious young man named Elihu wrestling with Job’s question, “What have I done to deserve this?”  It’s the same question many of us have shouted out to God when we were emotionally and spiritually overwhelmed with painful losses of things and persons precious to us.

Just like his fellow believers in God, Job’s faith is anchored in God’s divine sovereignty.  He believes God is firmly in control of the universe.  Furthermore, his religious tradition is anchored in a system of strict moral retribution:  “God blesses the righteous, but curses and afflicts the unrighteous.”   In other words, good people are rewarded and only wicked, evil people are punished.

However, Job finds himself suffering the punishments of the wicked without having done the deeds to deserve them.  And so, Job’s moral universe has crumbled into a pile of confusion and controversy, causing Job to now be a man without a creed.  He can’t explain what has happened to him.  He can’t find an adequate response to the counter the criticism from his friends .

Biblical scholars say that Job’s story is mostly about whether or not Job will abandon his faith in God under the anguish of severe suffering.  And as the story progresses we discover that the crux of the matter is more about Job’s faith in God then about his sufferings, which is expressed in Job’s question to his wife, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (2:10).

At first, Job refuses to question God for what had happened in his life.  But after crying out to God with his desire to die, and after suffering so much scorn from his wife and friends, Job is ready to have it out with God.  “If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!  I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.  I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say to me.” (23:3-4); and later, “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.” (30:20).  In these verses we hear the anguished cry of Job’s deeply wounded soul saying to his Lord, “You don’t seem to care about me, Lord.”

Finally, in chapter 38, God breaks his long silence and responds to Job’s taunts by counter-challenging Job’s challenge for God to defend himself.  Interestingly, God’s response to Job is a series of rhetorical questions that Job cannot begin to answer, and no answer is expected.

We may question the purposes of God in this lengthy series of questions to Job.  But I am confident that it was not to display and confirm God’s righteousness within the moral, religious framework that Job and his friends propose, but rather the purpose is to shift the focus of debate from Job’s innocence to Job’s ignorance, and the role this ignorance plays in Job’s questioning the “why” of suffering.

I say this because I too experienced similar questionings from God’s Spirit when journeying through my times of bad things happening.  And I believe that God’s questioning me did more to evoke within me the feelings of majestic awe and mystery then what any direct statements describing God’s power and glory would have done.

Through the telling of his power and sovereignty in nature, God is telling Job the only thing he needs to know in his time of suffering:  “I am who I am.”

•  – I am all-knowing and wise while you lack understanding (38:2-4, 42:3);
• – I am all-present.  My eye sees all and my presence touches all;
• – I am all-powerful and can do anything I will.
• – I designed the world (38:4-7) and I control it (38:8-13).

I believe God’s speech to Job portrays the encounter of a mere human with the Almighty, who is the powerful, all-loving and ever-caring God.  As is always his intent, God’s speech brings Job to his knees.  And in similar fashion the psalmist is brought to his knees and ponders, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”  (Psalm 8:3-4).

God’s speech ends as it began, completely ignoring the narrow, elementary questioning with which Job and his friends have approached the problem of suffering.  God did not give Job any answers, but instead  overwhelmed Job with a verbal display of his indisputable supreme knowledge, presence, and power as creator and controller of all things, and whose actions in all creation are way beyond our human comprehension.

Yes, this refocusing of our thoughts regarding God’s sovereignty and majesty can be helpful in reassuring me of God’s ability, but where is God when I hurt?  More about that next week.