July 5, 2020
Job 41: 1-8; 42:1-17

Our time with Job comes to a conclusion this morning.

We’ve journeyed with Job through his losses, through his health issues, through his friends’ attempts to console and help Job understand … rather poorly, I might add.

We have seen Job’s relationship with God change.

Job’s relationship becomes more direct … he speaks to God through prayer and lament. Job questions God’s actions and inaction toward his life and the life of the world.

Last week, after hearing Job’s demands that God be accountable for what has happened … God’s presence becomes known.

God questions Job for having the nerve to question and make demands of God and takes Job on a tour of creation to show him proof of God’s actions.

Today’s Job is a contrite Job.

Leading into today’s passage … Job had worn his emotions on his sleeve and he gave his emotions full flow when he spoke to God. It was an honest and direct conversation.

Job keeps asking the question “why?” but through this passage it becomes clear that he didn’t comprehend the question, so he could never understand any answer.

Now, Job tells God that he is ashamed that he spoke of things he didn’t understand and of things he didn’t know. Job displays a sense of humility in the face of God’s majesty and mystery.

If you were to place this in a self-awareness tool, it’s clear that Job didn’t know what he didn’t know when he was lamenting and claiming the God was persecuting him.

He tells God that he will listen.

Job tells God that he takes back all the things he said. He makes a full recantation.

God forgives Job and shows that their relationship is still a loving one.

In this story … in the relationships present … God has the final say.

Then, God has something to say to Job’s three friends who at first sat vigil with him after his losses and then tried to help Job find some rationale for the losses and health issues that had plagued him.

The friends tell Job that if he is suffering, then it is because of something he has done … something he needs to correct within himself and … once he does … he will find peace and everything will be alright.

In essence, the three friends accuse Job of not being pious enough … remember that when the story began God boasted that Job was blameless and upright … an example of a pious life.

At one point in the story, Job rebukes his friends and … despite his pain and suffering … remains faithful to God and God’s promises.

The translation we heard earlier has God commending Job for “speaking rightly.” A better translation is speaking “of me what is right.”

The difference in the translations is subtle, but it is important.

If Job … despite everything … has spoken rightly … then, his friends have done the opposite. What they have told Job about God and God’s relationship with him was just plain wrong.

It was what we now call bad theology.

The friends … as we heard … earned God’s wrath. But instead of being punished, as they would argue should be the case, God instead instructs them to go to Job … make a burnt offering … and Job will pray for them.

The three do as they are told … Job accepts their apology and prays for them.

We are never told what Job said in his prayer … what he asked God to do … we are led to the edge of the prayer and then right over it.

I don’t think we need to know what was said. Because we can see what was in Job’s heart and we know what happens next, we can trust that he spoke what is right.

God accepts Job’s prayer … forgives the three men … and all the relationships are made right once again.

And Job’s relationship with the world is restored.

He has a new family, he prospers and lives another 140 years … and … the story says … was full of days when he died.

Some read this story and say that if you are faithful … through your personal pain and suffering … that God will restore you at the end.

Certainly, there is an argument to be made that the restorative gift of grace we have received makes this a valid perspective for some faith communities … except that … at least from the Lutheran perspective … nothing we do earns or enhances this gift … it is freely given.

God’s actions … not our actions or our works … are what offers grace.

In Job’s time … with Jesus’ resurrection still centuries off, there was a belief that there was a connection between prosperity and piety.

A deeper reflection on Job’s story should move beyond such connections … there are more important things to take away from what we have heard over the course of the past five weeks.

Job’s story calls us to consider our relationship with God.

God commends Job for speaking rightly, which leaves us to ponder, “what is right?” and “do we speak rightly?”

Is there a disconnect between our speaking rightly and our acting rightly?

When we are faced with suffering or injustice is our faith such that we can speak frankly and directly to God on behalf of others or on behalf of the world?

Job’s story calls us into a prayerful life … in good times and in bad.

Job underscores the importance of speaking honestly to God … by giving voice to the pain we feel and the pain we witness … not laying blame or trying to comprehend how the situation came to pass … but rather looking for how God could be active in the world and to continue to believe that God is always present … always loving … and always just.

When we speak and act rightly … relationships are repaired or are made whole … equality and harmony are present … and grace abounds in life … and God’s actions … in these moments … are made known to the world.

AMEN