Session 3 - The Impatience of Job

***As we move from chapter 2 to chapter 3 in the book of Job we experience a major shift. First there is a shift from prose to poetry. But more important there seems to be a complete shift in the story. At the conclusion of chapter 2, Job and his friends are sitting in silence. In chapter 3, Job speaks and gives vent to his anguish. It seems like this is a different Job from the one we met in chapters 1 and 2. Also notable is that Job and his friends are left on their own – there is no narrator anymore, and God no longer speaks. Job is left only with the comfort of his three friends, who we will learn are not much comfort.
*****Hebrew poetry is different than English poetry in that rhyme is not important. For Hebrew poetry we look for the parallelisms. We learned that there are three basic types – synonymous parallels (see Job 3:3 – “Let the day perish…..born, and the night….conceived”); contrasting parallels (see Proverbs 10:1 – “A wise child… glad father, … foolish child… mother’s grief”); and pervading it all is a kind of stair-step structure which intensifies the images as we progress (see Ps. 6:2 – “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me … shaking with terror”). This last type is often found in conjunction with the earlier two types. Also, like English poetry, we find word-painting, metaphors and comparisons which enable to poet to make profound statements with few words. As you study the poetry of the Old Testament and particularly of Job, as yourself two questions: 1. What is being compared to what? 2. What are the emotional associations the poet is trying to make?
******The structure of chapter 3 is as follows:
3:1-2 – Introduction
3:3-10 – Curses on day and night
vv. 4-5 – Curses on “that day”
vv. 6-9 – Curses on “that night”
vv.10 – reason for curses
3:11-26 – Lament
vv. 11-19 – Why did I not die?
vv. 20-26 – Why must I live?
Job speaks now. He breaks his silence and his anguish gushes forth. We talked about the silent Job of chapter 2 vs. the verbal Job of chapter 3. Is one more faithful than the other? Is one to be preferred? It seems to me they are both faithful. Job has experienced horrible and catastrophic loss. In the immediate aftermath of that experience what can be said? Silence seems appropriate as an initial reaction. This silence is not a sign of the end of faith. Nor is it a sign of some kind of trite acceptance. All that has transpired needs to sink in – he needs to come to grips with it. But then he speaks and his pain is given voice. Once spoken this pain can be named for what it is. And in naming the pain he can begin tohe process of working through this experience and moving forward from it; not pretending it isn't so bad, not trite acceptance, not any kind of trivialization of his pain, but an honest confrontation of it and allowing it to become part who he is.
*****This speaking takes the form of curses and laments. Job never curses God directly, but he does confront God. We are often so non-confrontational as though we are afraid that if we express how we really feel we will either knock God out of his tree or God will abandon us. There is a long Hebrew tradition of Lament which gives voice to honest confrontation but then brings transformation and healing – see Psalm 22.
*****I remember once listening to a man give a “testimonial” when I was in college. This older man shared how he had lost a child to a terrible accident. But described his grief reaction as saying he had been “rebellious and angry” with God for a little while, but then had finally been able to accept this “will of God.” To me it did not ring true. It sounded dishonest. He had lost a child, whom he had loved – but then was willing to shrug this loss off as the “will of God” rather than give voice to his anger and pain. The way he presented it seemed to trivialize it. He seemed to me to be afraid of offending God, or that maybe God would abandon him if he gave voice to his feelings of pain and anger. I believe that the pain and suffering that visits us is a part of the human experience. Even so, it is always a sign of the fallen-ness of creation and not something we have to pretend is good, or something that for some odd reason God wanted to happen. It isn’t good. It is horrid. God did not want this to happen. The cry of "Why" is profoundly appropriate.
******WHY! WHY! In the face of this kind of tragedy and misery this is a valid and appropriate questions. But we must also recognize the limitations of our knowledge. Ultimately this question may be unanswerable in the way we expect to receive answers. Since the enlightenment we like to have answers to our questions that satisfy our reasoning capabilities. But there are some questions which simply cannot be answered in this way and we need to allow that ultimately there is a limit to human knowledge. We need to accept mystery. Much of our human experience is shrouded in mystery, despite how much we try to pull back the curtain. There is much continues to remain hidden to us. Can we accept this mystery? We are now previewing God’s response from the whirlwind in the book of Job .
******As Christians we must also consider that Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, death and resurrection is also God’s response to human suffering. Through Jesus, the suffering servant, who was a “man of suffering and acquainted with grief;” through Jesus, God enters into the human experience of suffering and redeems it from within. Jesus enters into the valley of the shadow of death in order to lead us through it.
******We closed the session with small groups exploring two quotes from the Forde:
1. “But don’t we, too, know moments when we hurl our NO! into the face of God.”
2. “A why can be a child’s empty cup, held up to the love and wisdom of our gracious God. Our Lord doesn’t need to fill it to the brim, but he satisfies each person’s need. He is too kind to drown us in all the knowledge we crave. He doesn’t give more than we can hold; sometimes we must wait to be made larger cups.” From pages 26-28 in “The Color of Night” by Gerhard Forde.
*******Our next session will be at 6:00 on November 12. It is entitled “When Familiar Answers Fail.” We will focus on the dialogues with the three friends. Please review Job 4-27 – but focus on Chapters 4, 6, 8-13. Also in the Forde please have read through to page 68 and look through the questions on pages 105-108. I also wanted to mention that there are several books I am using as I study and prepare for these classes: besides the Forde, there is the commentaries by Samuel Ballentine and Gerald Janzen; also the resource book “Job and the Life of Faith” by Carol Bechtel (most of the handouts come from this book). In the future I will post a list of the artists and titles of the artwork I have posted here on this blog.
*******God bless you as you continue to study and grow in your understanding of the Book of Job!