Watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4GZ-LGCPU&t=1131s
Why? I found myself asking that question, the "why question," Tuesday as
I watched the reporting from polling locations across America. Why can’t this election be ended simply,
quickly, and peacefully? Why can’t we be
united? Can’t this be easy?
Rarely
is the race for the presidency in America this close. Leading up to election day there was talk of
voter suppression, threats of lawsuits, and great anxiety. If you’re one of the smart ones, you didn’t
even watch. But for the millions of us who
did watch, this election had all we needed to stay miserable.
Supporters
of President Trump went to bed feeling good Tuesday night, while those backing
his challenger, Joe Biden, may have had trouble sleeping. On Wednesday, more votes were counted, and it
became apparent, that this race had not been decided. The red and blue maps on the news websites
tilted, ever so slightly, toward Biden. The roles of hopefully optimistic or
dread were reversed.
I
suppose in countries run by dictators where democracy is a myth, they might
chuckle at how fragile we Americans are.
For us, 2020 has been a topsy-turvy year. Our election did enough to
push both sides to their wits’ end. Why is it like this?
Why! Usually, there’s no satisfactory answer to “why.” So, in the face of the unanswerable, the book
of Job is the place to go. Job was the
subject of a wager we cannot fathom. God
dared the Satan, the Accuser, to consider Job’s righteousness. Satan – a title, not a name – challenged God
right back. Job’s is only good
because you have blessed him. So,
God allows Satan to destroy all of Job’s wealth, kill all 10 of Job’s children,
and inflict hideous, oozing sores all over Job’s body. All of it is done so that God can have the
satisfaction of seeing Job remain righteous, obedient, and faithful.
At
that point, Satan, the Accuser, steps out of the scene, never to return. When Job and his three friends begin
discussing this troubling turn in the course of his life, the issue is no
longer God’s pride in Job’s righteousness.
Job and the friends don’t know of the conversations between God and
Satan. As chapter 3 begins, the focus
shifts to the debate around unjust suffering.
Why would this happen?
Job wanted the pain to end, to go
away. If that could not happen, then he
wanted justification. Convinced that the
only reason he agonized as he did was that God caused it or allowed it to
happen, Job wanted God to answer for this.
Suffering, something each of us have
endured, or at some point will endure, stands as the problem. We want to remove it, but we can’t. So, we want justice or at least answers. Job’s friends, using a variety of arguments
but always ending at the same spot, claimed without any evidence that his
suffering was tied to sins he had committed.
It had to be his fault. They were
his true friends and knew him to be a righteous man who diligently worshiped
God and atoned for his sins. They knew
Job, but their theology of retribution insisted that suffering is a punishment from
God. They didn’t have a category for
unjust suffering.
Job knew he was innocent of the
kinds of sins theology typically listed as provocations for such pain. He knew his claims of innocence were outside
the realm of conventional thinking. Yet
he doggedly insisted he was right. He
was innocent. He wanted answers. He demanded that God give those answers.
Did God give answers? Do you remember the story of Job, a book
unlike anything other in the Bible, a story set outside of normal time? We don’t know when Job was written. No mention is made of Israel. Yet as far removed as this story is, it
speaks. The story of Job is our
story. Terrible things happen and only
God can explain it. In Job, does He do
that? Does God give Job what’s he’s
asked for?
In chapters 3-31, God is utterly
silent as Job and his three friends debate his guilt, theology, ethics, and
justice. In chapters 32-37, a younger
man, Elihu upbraids Job’s three friends for their failure to convince Job of
his sin. Then, for six chapters, he tries
to convince Job using similar arguments.
Through it all, the arguments, Elihu’s monologues, and the waiting, God
is silent.
Finally in chapter 38, the heavens
rumble. The three friends and Elihu exit
stage right. Job, with his open sores
oozing puss, sits silent and still to face God alone, as God speaks out of the
whirlwind. The question hangs in the
air. Will God give the Job the answers
he has defiantly demanded? Will God tell Job why this has happened?
No!
God begins, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will
question you, and you shall declare to me” (38:2-3). If Job wants to put God on trial, fine! Job will be the witness who has to testify
under God’ interrogation. Except it
doesn’t go like that. Instead, God takes Job on a tour through the cosmos
and the animal kingdom.
Job thinks he has asked fundamental
questions about the justice of the universe.
God shows Job, not only does he, Job, not know what he’s talking
about. He has no idea what is happening
behind the scenes. God has created this
world with intimate, loving care. We are
caught up in the outcome of this past Tuesday’s election, and rightfully
so. Job was obsessed with his pain,
loss, and suffering, and even more rightfully so. God does not diminish our concerns or deep
seeded anxieties. God did not dismiss
Job’s pain or longing for resolution.
God did show Job and us that there’s more going on than we know, and he
– God – truly does have the world in His hands.
In chapters 40 and 41, God gives
extended discourses on the largest land animal, Behemoth, and the most-feared
sea animal, Leviathan. Both are of a
mystical quality. It is fruitless to try
to identify an actual animal with these mythological creatures. Some
commentators believe Behemoth indicated an elephant or hippopotamus. The Hebrew word means “powerful creature.” Power
and might.
Some
supporters of Donald Trump like him because he projects power. He doesn’t do it with flowery eloquence. He’s brash, abrupt, and loud. His admirers say he “tells it like it
is.” They raucously shout their support
at his rallies and feel that some of that power rubs off on them. God’s depiction of Behemoth shows that we
don’t even know what power is.
God
tells Job, “I made [this great animal] just as I made you” (40:15). We fear the Behemoth as we should, but God
can approaches the mighty animal. This
beast of legend is one of God’s great acts of creation (40:19). We are, not surprisingly, captivated by our
times, but God is above time, outside of time, the maker of time, and beyond
time – our times, times past, the future.
We can take comfort in seeing that God is the sustainer. God has the world in his hands. In the short term, we feel uncertainty, but
God does not share our apprehensions.
God has not lost control. The God
who toys with his great creation – behemoth – watches over us knowing
everything we are going through. God is
with us.
If
Behemoth calls to mind the terrors of great land animals, Leviathan evokes
shudders in the deepest parts of one’s soul.
The ancients feared the oceans, only able to imagine their depths and
the wonders and horrors within those depths.
Leviathan is the great sea-serpent lurking, waiting to swallow up men,
ships, swimmers, everything. One writer
I read even believes Leviathan is Satan, the great evil mentioned in Revelation
12:9, God’s ancient foe. Indeed, the
description in Job 41:12-24 sounds like a dragon from ancient lore even
including the scales and the breathing of fire (41:19-21). Verse 25: “When [Leviathan] raises itself up
the gods are afraid.”
Yes,
the gods are afraid, but not the one true God.
With the one true God, Leviathan makes a covenant, to be God’s servant
forever (41:4). Leviathan the mighty,
terror to all human beings, is happy to be God’s pet (v.5). I appreciate the commentator linking
Leviathan to the Satan. It’s an intriguing
interpretation, but one I reject.
Leviathan, like Behemoth, exists to humble human beings with its power,
ferocity, and mystique. Yet before God,
the Leviathan bows because the animal remembers what we have forgotten. God is Lord supreme, ruler of all.
Reciting
this divine resume to Job, God reminds Job of who he – God is; He also reminds
Job of who Job is. Hopefully upon
entering this story, we remember who we are.
The world is God’s. We are
small. We get anxious, mystified, and
disappointed. We lose. This week, at different points, we quite
possibly all felt like losers! That’s
okay! The Gospel is for losers.
God
didn’t have to listen to all Job’s complaints or give Job this grand display
out of the whirlwind, but God did, out of love for Job. God loves us just as much. God knows the fears we carry.
As
we consider our lives and take stock of our feelings, especially as we come out
of this post-election haze, consider this.
Consider setting your sights on God.
Look to the stars and see God’s handiwork. Looks to the animals and the natural word,
and see what a caring artist God is.
Look and know that the world has not gotten away from God. He loves us.
He loves you as an individual. He
is here. Does he tell us why things are
the way they are? Sometimes. Sometimes he does he not. Sometimes, he just says, “I am here.” And that is enough.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment