****We met for our final session this past Wednesday. It was entitled – “From the Whirlwind!” We discussed our impressions of God’s speech to Job and we were stuck by the fact that God really doesn’t answer the presenting question that we have been dealing with for about 39 chapters. It was suggested by one of us that God “belittles” Job in a way. Another of us noted that a lot has to do with tone. If we perceive God’s speech as being presented in an authoritative, angry and harsh manner then it is easy to feel belittled. If, however, we can imagine God using a gentle loving voice for the same words then perhaps there is something else being said.
*****Ultimately it comes down to this – while the presenting problem may be the question of “why do bad things happen to good people, and the reverse” ultimately the central issue of the book of Job has to do with the limits of human wisdom. Job has been reminded (perhaps gently) that he is not the center of the universe. Frost says on page 69: “The search for a key to the complexities of this book ends here – in the line ‘Then God Answered Job.” For us 21st century humans this is not very comforting as we like to have answers, we want to know, and we perceive that we are the center of the universe. But the word of God from the whirlwind is that no – there is a limit to human understanding, there is a limit to human wisdom and it does not compare to God’s.
*****For me the answer to the question is Jesus. What God does in his response to Job is to at least indirectly assure him of God’s presence and attention in the midst of his suffering. The cross and resurrection of Jesus make this promise much more directly. So what is the answer to the question of suffering? It is a part of the human experience – it is often beyond human understanding – but in the midst of it there is God, through Jesus. Through the passion of Jesus God enters into human suffering and redeems it from within and we are thereby assured of his presence with us no matter what.
*****Job’s response is acceptance of these limits. Job’s response is: “With the ear’s hearing I had heard of You, but now my eye has seen You. Therefore I recant and reconsider about dust and ashes.” The translation is by scholar Ellen Davis. We know that things will never be the same for Job. He is different now. Despite the “restoration” things do not return to the way things were. Job will no longer assume that the world is all neat and tidy; that obedience will bring him blessing or that God owes him any explanations. He is called to live within limits and he accepts these. The point is here that we are like Job – called to live our lives in our uncertain world faithfully, within these same limits.
*****We concluded our session with consideration of a quote from A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss by Gerald Sittser. This book was written out of his experience of watching his mother, his wife, and their four-year-old daughter die in a car accident. This paragraph is near the end of the book, where he considers the courage it takes to live and love after experiencing such tragedy.
*****Still, I realized then, as I do now, that there is an ominous dimension to love,
especially after loss. If loss increases our capacity for love, then an increased capacity for love will only make us feel greater sorrow when suffering strikes again. There is no simple solution to this dilemma. Choosing to withdraw from people and to protect the self diminishes the soul; choosing to love even more deeply than before ensures that we will suffer again, for the choice to love requires the courage to grieve. We know that loss is not a once-in-a lifetime experience. So naturally we dread the losses that loom ahead. But the greater loss is not suffering another loss itself but refusing to love again, for that may lead to the death of the soul.
****Finally I offer these verses from the Prophet Habbakuk as a closing prayer for our study of Job:
Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18
****There is much more in this wonderful book and I hope we may all have the opportunity to continue our study. Thank you for your participation in the bible study. Also I want to acknowledge the book “Job and the Life of Faith” by Dr. Carol Bechtel and “The Color of Night” by Gerhard Frost as these were the primary resources used.
May you experience God’s presence and love especially through this coming Christmas season.
SBD+
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