June 28, 2020
Job 31:35-37; 38: 1-11 (25-27)
Our journey with Job continues…
So far, after God has turned his life over to satan, Job has lost his children and possessions … he fights with his wife over his faith in God’s sense of justice … he’s received some pretty bad advice from three friends and … last week … in the midst of lamenting to God about the afflictions he has suffered … Job gains a sense of hope as he considers the new life within creation that is represented by a nearby tree.
Like anyone who suffers such losses or experiences health issues … Job wants answers. Throughout his story, Job keeps asking, “why.” At best, Job feels forgotten … at worst … Job feels persecuted. So, he begins making an argument for his innocence and an end to his suffering.
Leading up to the start of today’s reading, Job lists the ways people can come up short in God’s estimation – he goes through every way that you could sin, by action or inaction, and points to how he met the letter of the law.
Lying? … nope, never did it
Lust? … nope, never entered his heart
Adultery? … nope, never considered it
Not fighting for justice for the oppressed? … nope, always had the welfare of slaves in mind
Job runs through a pretty lengthy list as he tries to prove he has acted as a good person should act and doesn’t deserve the pain and suffering that has been inflicted upon him.
Then, Job says, he wants to see the accusations against him … in writing. Job is defending himself against assumed statements against his righteousness.
Last week, we heard of how Job’s relationship with God was changing and how the way he communicated with God was being altered by all the suffering he had endured and by the series of unanswered questions Job had posed.
By now, Job is speaking directly to God through pleas and prayers… and he calls on God to be accountable for what God has allowed to be done. Job has been looking for God.
In today’s reading, God finally shows up.
God shows up in the ordinary world … in a pretty extraordinary fashion … and speaks for the first time since giving control of Job’s life to satan.
In the version we just heard, “The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,” creating images of Elijah and the whirlwind in his story.
But when Job’s story is translated from the original Hebrew, the line changes a bit. Instead of a whirlwind, God speaks from a storm and issues a warning to Job.
“Brace yourself,” God tells him before he questions Job for having the impudence to call God into question and shows Job all that God has done since the beginning of creation. Most contemporary translations … including the one we heard a few moments ago … change the line into “gird up your loins.”
This sounds more like a battle is looming rather than a time of revelation.
German scholar J. Hempel said that the conversation between God and Job is about “the last truth about God.”
“Brace yourself…” I like that translation because it warns us that whatever is coming can be life-altering … it could be something to wash over us and carry away things … transient things … perceptions or prejudices … the useless things that aren’t properly anchored in love or in faith.
Whirlwinds can be impressive … they can be destructive … pulling things out of the ground and leaving them in a heap of debris miles away.
Storms can also change landscapes … they can reshape rivers … changing their courses and they can do the same with lives. The storm in this week’s passage has the potential to reshape … redirect … Job’s life.
If Job is going to understand this “last truth of God,” then he should be braced.
God takes Job on a tour of the cosmos … something that likely sweeps away any notion that God has been absent or inactive in the life of the world. Throughout today’s passage, God peppers Job with questions.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding,” God asks Job
“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?“
After lamenting and demanding answers … Job has none of his own when the tables are turned.
But instead of answers … perhaps God wants affirmation from Job… an affirmation of what he has witnessed … of what God has done and continues to do.
God does not address Job’s suffering directly, … God never answers Job’s question of “why?” … but in being offered this vision of creation, Job’s vision is expanded.
The “why” may no longer be the most important question.
Job is invited to take his eyes off himself and his suffering, and to see the world around him. He is invited back into life again after great suffering, and next week … in the final part of this preaching series … we see whether or not he accepts that invitation.
Maybe we should also consider if we have fully accepted such an invitation, as well.
Looking inward is natural inclination when we are in pain or suffering … and we can be overwhelmed by a storm of sorrow and doubt. During the pandemic, we might lament the lack of connection we feel … or the uncertainty the coming weeks hold. We can easily find ourselves placing congregational self-interest ahead of community interests.
But it is in such storms where God can still be found … it is in such storms where we are called to make God’s presence known … through our ministry of caring and comforting. Our discipleship calls us into relationship with the world … to be with the oppressed and the marginalized and … like the tour … like the tree last week … serve as a reminder of God’s ever-present grace and power.
AMEN