Job's Journey With God
December 23, 2012 | Anita Retzlaff | Job 2:1-10, 9:1-4,15-21, 38:1-11, 42: 1-6
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. Christmas celebrations are at hand as today we look into the Book of Job, a story that has captured the hearts and imaginations of many, many people over countless centuries. It might seem at first blush that the story of Job is at odds with the birth of our Saviour. But what is the story of Job if it is not the articulation of a series of questions that have been asked by all of us at some time in our lives: if God loves me how is it that I feel tormented so? If Jesus was born to take away sin why do we continue to suffer? Is God not a just God? What did Job ever do to deserve the loss and pain that was inflicted on him? When I suffer like Job suffers; where is God? At Christmas time the light of God’s love shines on us in a special way; inviting us to see that the baby Jesus born in insignificance goes on to bear a great deal of suffering and changes the course of history. Divine love comes to earth to change hearts. Job and Jesus are not unlikely allies.
Once upon a time….
One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them, to present himself before the LORD. The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
Thus begins an ancient folk tale that is well known throughout the Ancient Near East at the time. This old, old story is told in the first two chapters of the Book of Job and then again in very last verses of chapter 42 forming the bookends of the story. What takes place in between the telling of this archetypal tale is an adaptation, an addition, by the Hebrew people, by Israel – God’s faithful - as they are learning to understand the heart of their God. For this tale is going to explain the ways of the world, the ways of the gods and the seeming misery of human existence. This is the story Children-of-Israel-style.
The story goes like this: one day those who live in the heavens witness a contest, if you will, whereby Satan challenges the LORD to test his super-duper faithful servant Job. Notice that Satan is merely one of the heavenly beings who present themselves to God. Translated from the Hebrew, Satan is actually The Satan literally meaning “The Accuser.” The Satan is convinced that even God’s most devout supporter Job will turn his back on God when he loses everything that he has. In other words, The Accuser expects to prove that Job loves God only because of all the wealth and prosperity that God has given him. We join the story this morning where Job, after losing all of his servants and cattle and hearing of the deaths of all of his children, is about to lose his health too and because he is in such physical discomfort literally scrapes the open sores on his skin with pieces of broken pottery. “Skin for skin,” The Satan has predicted.
What happens next in the story is the new part to the old folk tale; the Hebrew version of events. Chapter after chapter reveals Job questioning God, demanding answers to his predicament. Far from being patient with the circumstances of God’s dealings with him Job is outraged at God’s lack of justice and fairness and he basically freaks out at God. Job’s journey with God is not an easy one. God has not kept promises made, Job contends, and doesn’t allow for a fair hearing. All the cards are stacked in the Divine favour. Job rants and raves: “Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe that he would listen to my voice. For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause; he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?” Job’s goose is cooked he maintains because God has all the power.
You can’t convince me that we haven’t thought those very same thoughts when we are caught in one of life’s binds! And now add to this another truth. Has it ever been your experience that when you have been up to your eyeballs in crisis there have been well-meaning friends who say all the wrong things, sometimes hurtful things… and the situation feels all the more daunting, devastating! Three friends, who supposedly have Job’s best interest at heart hang out with him, lecturing him as to why he has incurred God’s punishment. Bildad, Zophar and Eliphaz unload on Job and just like people we have known take it upon themselves to defend God – as if God needs that kind of defense.
Therefore one friend feels justified in telling Job that he is being punished for sin. It is not unlike the story told to me by a close friend that when his father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a neighbourhood preacher came by and told the family that this must have happened because that father had sinned. How is that for heaping one injustice upon another! Needless to say Job balks at this accusation and all the other explanations that his companions offer from their holy and pious perspectives.
Job continues on his rampage of words adamant that he has done nothing to deserve such punishment from God. He yells at God: “Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.” (7:19-21) Job says to God, “One day you will be sorry. You don’t let up on me at all. I will die, my body will be buried in the ground and when you want me for something I will be gone. So there!”
You see, it is this strong language that too often leads to an incorrect conclusion. We are inclined to think that Job has sinned big time because of the language he uses in addressing God and the apparent insubordination and sacrilegious tone of his inquiry. Yet Job has not turned his back on God. He does not curse God as his wife proposes right from the beginning. Job refuses to accept bromides and tidy answers. He doesn’t believe that he has done anything monstrous enough to deserve God’s punishment. He doesn’t believe that cursing God is a solution and he doesn’t believe the tripe that his friends shovel onto his ash heap. So he continues to confront God head on refusing to back down.
By now most of us would have given up in one way or another. When faced with relentless suffering we are wont to either curse God or cling to gloomy theologies of human depravity; that human beings are so disgusting they deserve to be punished. That was the ancient mindset: human beings are worthless and the gods enjoyed making sport of their situation. Not so the Israelite understanding of YHWH their God. So, Job does not give in or give up the fight…. UNTIL he hears the voice of God.
Out of the whirlwind - for God can never been seen directly - comes the voice of the Creator, who proceeds to answer Job’s questions with more questions. God’s response is almost sarcastic, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge…. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth…or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?” (38:1, 4, 8) Thirty-eight chapters into the story God finally shows up. And after ceaseless inquiry and protest Job is finally rendered silent and humbled. God speaks and from this Divine encounter Job learns and we learn that God’s justice is not human justice, that human understanding is extremely limited when measured against the power of the force of creation. Our questions are not God’s questions but though the inner workings of the creation remain a mystery to us, our suffering remains God’s concern.
And so Job’s love for God which never deserted him was rewarded in the end, not with easy answers but with the realization that God is present in phenomenal and intricate ways! That’s it! The world will not become a more just place because we love God. Those who love God will not be immune from terror and trouble and trials. That is not how the creation was set into motion. Life does not become fair because we go to church on Sundays. One line from a play written by Archibald MacLeish in 1958 sums it up beautifully. Job’s wife says to Job, “you wanted justice and there was none – only love.”
Hopefully because we love God the world will become more just because of the things that we do to make it so. Hopefully those who love God will eventually be spared some of the trouble and terror in life because we love those who would become our enemies otherwise. Hopefully life will be fairer when those of us who go to church on Sundays provide hospitality to strangers, the lonely ones, those who have no family. God’s answer to Job is that there are things that humans cannot know: why cancer visits some of us, why tsunamis claim human victims, why children must die at the hands of guns and grenades. God’s answer to Job is that creation reflects the care that God has for all creatures. How much more will God care for human beings?
“You wanted justice and there was none – only love.” Suffering remains. Suffering is not the result of God’s wrath but rather the reality of living. Suffering is carried and covered by the heart of God. And so it is really no surprise that the birth which we celebrate becomes the container for all the suffering that the world experiences. God came to earth, from out of that whirlwind into a place and a space where people did see him face to face. The result was a great deal of suffering for Emmanuel, God-With-Us, yet it was suffering not as punishment but as redemption.
God came to earth as a baby to empower humanity to rely on love above all other things. The story of Job is a similar reminder – love wins! The peace of Christ is our salvation. The love of God is our redemption.
Prayer – God of power and might we behold your creative genius and give thanks for the ways in which we are wondrously made. As we await the birth of your Son, our Saviour, we remember that your power is translated always into love. May we then become heralds of this good news, that your incarnation, the birth of Jesus the Christ, is a sign of your love for all the world. O come Emmanuel. AMEN
