Upended

December 3, 2009

The book of Job came from a distinct theological worldview. To oversimplify it, if one does what is right, God will bless that person. If one does what is wrong, God will inflict suffering on him. Job suffered immeasurably. Therefore, Job must have sinned horribly.

Job’s friends along with the young critic Elihu insist on this theological worldview. Job, also a product of this worldview, cannot accept it. Whatever he may have done wrong, he knows the suffering imposed mercilessly upon him is not his fault. By insisting that what everyone has known to be true isn’t true, Job stumbles into a radical paradigm shift. It seems to him that God in fact does not punish the evildoers and reward the righteous. God is arbitrary and Job is suffering needlessly.

In the end, Job is vindicated. God does not agree with the numerous accusations Job hurled heavenward. God does not affirm what Job has said. God affirms that Job’s theological orientation was correct. Job remained pointed toward God. In that he wa sin the right. Furthermore, God does crush the presumption of the theology piously voiced by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

And strangely, three are never heard from the final chapter. In Job 42, we see no mention of Satan. Elihu has nothing left to say and is not even so much as an afterthought. And, Job’s wife does not reappear. Curious.

Even more unexpected is the rush of characters we have not met to this point. Is it appropriate to be introducing new people, 41½ chapters into a 42-chapter book?

“All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and dined with him in his house. They offered him sympathy and comfort concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. Each one gave him a qesitah, and a gold earring” (42:11).

Where were the relatives when Job’s life fell to pieces? On the one hand, they didn’t judge him theologically the way his friends and Elihu did. Moreover, they didn’t discourage him the way his wife did. Nor did they doubt him as Satan had. On the other hand, they didn’t help him until now. The financial gifts (a qesitah is a monetary unit of unknown value) would secure his future. But why didn’t this extended family provide a defense against the onslaught of theological harangues from the three and young Elihu?

I think the reason is they couldn’t. These family and friend who obviously loved Job and had no heart to accuse him even if he had turned out to be in sin weren’t ready to question the theological assumptions that ruled their world. The theology of retribution (diving rewards for righteous behavior, divine damnation for sinful behavior) was the rule of faith. The book of Job was a minority voice, an alternative theological vision for the faith community circa 5^th century BCE.

The paradigm shift is artistically displayed in the final lines where we learn that Job fathers 10 more children. Already this book has stepped way outside of what had been established and accepted lines. Already this book has declared that everything we assumed about God isn’t all there is to know about Him. God exceeds our knowledge and all of us – the criminal and the saint, the scholar and the barroom brawler, the street urchin and the king are small in God’s presence. That’s understating it. We are miniscule in God’s presence.

Still, God notices us and takes interest in us. And, God loves us (though it would be stretching credulity to claim that Job asserts God’s compassionate love for us). Reading Job alongside Song of Songs, we know God is a passionate lover. Reading both books alongside Genesis 1-2, we know humankind is the apple of God’s eye. Indirectly, Job 38-41 does affirm this.

The final step out of convention’s established walls comes in Job 42:14-15. Job’s three daughters are awarded an inheritance along with his seven sons. That did not happen in the ancient world. Furthermore, of Job’s 10 children, the only ones the narrator bothered to name were the daughters. There’s no reason given for not naming the sons. The final word is a whimsical, quizzical way of reminding the reader, if the message hasn’t already gotten through, question everything. Theological rules won’t contain God. Assumed truths cannot be trusted. To know God, one must commit to holiness (virtuous living) and fallback on prayer when holiness fails. And it is more important that the prayer be embarrassingly honest than properly orthodox. It is more important that prayer from the heart than from the rule book.

I believe that is the final word in Job.

In the End - God

Filled with anxiety and loneliness, Moses had reached his wits’ end. After leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, he climbed the mountain to receive the law and while he was up there, the people at the foot of the mountain forgot about him and about God. In his rage their idolatry and ingratitude, God thundered and threatened to wipe out Israel. Moses spoke out on Israel’s behalf and convinced God to withhold his punishing hand. “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster he planned to bring on his people” (Exodus 32:14).

Leading the people, receiving the law, contending with God – it all took a toll and Moses was worn out. So he appealed to God, and what exactly did Moses ask for? “Show me your glory, I pray” (Exodus 33:18). More than anything, Moses wanted to see God with his eyes. God granted that request – he allowed Moses to see his backside glory.

And what of Jacob, the man whose name would be changed to Israel? His brother Esau, a much mightier man, had threatened to kill him. That had been several years, 2 wives, 2 concubines, and 11 children earlier. Now, he was fearfully figuring out how to face the confrontation he had dodged for so long. The night before the meeting, an enigmatic, angelic figure wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. The contest ended with Jacob’s hip being permanently knocked out of socket. The assailant then blessed Jacob and Jacob concluded, “I have seen God face to face and yet my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). After that the reunion with Esau was peaceful and anticlimactic. The key event for Jacob was to see God.

Job presses God for many things. He asks that God relieve his suffering by taking his life (Job 6:8-10). Job asks God for pardon (even though Job never admitted sin) (Job 7:21). Job wants God to promise no rod of punishment because without that specter hanging over him he could speak and justify himself (Job 9:34-35; 13:20-23). Job declares his desire to speak directly to God and thus justify himself (13:3, 13-19; 14:15). He also asks why God hides his face (13:24).

Job also accuses God, “he has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit” (17:6). “Know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me. Even when I cry out, ‘violence!’ I am not answered; I call aloud but there is no justice (19:6-7).

Furthermore, Job talks a lot about what he would do. “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might even come to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mough with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. There an upright person could and I should be acquitted forever by my judge” (23:3-7).

Job reasons, argues, accuses, makes claims, and makes assumptions. His own innocence is as clear as it can be in his eyes. I have cited a sample of the ways Job expresses his desire to go one-on-one with God. Job thinks he knows how this will turn out; he’s just not sure the opportunity will ever come. Job expresses both hope and despair, faith and faithlessness.

In the end, Job gets what he desired – a hearing with the Almighty. God shows up. And God does not answer any of Job’s complaints. God does not give Job opportunity to ask any of his questions. Those questions seemed huge to Job when he laid there wallowing in his own (very real and very sharp) pain. But the largess of Job’s issues shrink to nothingness when God speaks from the whirlwind. In the end, Job only gets exactly what Moses got; exactly what Jacob got. Job gets the physical presence/manifestation of God.

Swiss theologian Loenhard Ragaz states concisely the divine response to the problem of suffering in Job. “God does not involve himself with arguments for and against his dominion, but lets himself be seen. His answer consists in His manifesting His greatness in powerful speech and creative deeds. This rather than arguments of God’s defenders [Elihu and the three friends] causes Job to go silent and beg God’s forgiveness. He has been afforded no incite into the enigmas that have tormented him, but he has seen God himself” (from The Dimensions of Job, edited by Nahum Glatzer, p.130).

The end of the book of Job is God – Job meets God. In chapter 42, there is a denouement, and what is said there is very important theologically. But, the big issues of justice and suffering are not resolved by book’s end. The only place the reader of Job, attentive to Job’s pain as well as his own, can land is in God. The sum of God’s testimony is to simply show up and be seen. That enough was overwhelming to Job as it would be to anyone.

Pain Speaks

As I delve deeper and deeper into Job, I am convinced that the book of Job exists to show that God receives it when His people speak from their pain. Job isn’t counted as speaking rightly because of what he says. He’s counted as speaking rightly because he speaks to God and he speaks with unrestrained honesty. God tells Eliphaz that God’s wrath is against him and the other friends (42:7) because “[they] have not spoken of me what is right, my servant Job has done” (42:8).

A simple analysis of Job’s comments and the friends’ comments in Job 3-27 and Job 29-31 will reveal that much of what Job says to God is not something we’d affirm. “Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. And he has shriveled me, which is a witness against me; my leanness has risen up against me, and it testifies to my face. … God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me as his target; his archers surrounded. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground. He burst me open again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior. … My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure” (Job 16:7-8, 11-14, 16-17).

Who among communities of faith today would call God an enemy warrior who rushes against them? Look at the violence in Job’s words! If his description were played out in images or in a movie, it would be rated ‘R’ for being so gory. When is the last time we sang a song praise – “Praise God, King of Kings, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Slasher of Kidneys, the God who shows no mercy”? We don’t say what Job said about God and yet Job is the one who spoke rightly about God.

On the other hand, consider the words of Job’s friends. God is sovereign, they say! Amen, we shout! God is just, they say! Amen, we shout! So many of the words about God spoken by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are indicative of theology we find elsewhere in scripture. It is a theology about God’s lordship and goodness. This theology is crucial to what we believe.
So Job says things we wouldn’t say. His friends say things we constantly say. And Job is counted by God as right, and his friends as wrong. In fact, they are so wrong, their only hope is to have Job pray for them (Job 42:8-9). Does this mean we are to change our theology so that it conforms to Job’s? Do we praise the God who “seizes [our] necks and dashes [us] to pieces”?

That would be a mistake. We know the story of the cross. We know that God loves us, heaps grace upon us, and desires a love relationship with each of us. We know that! What we have to do with the book of Job is understand how the Holy Spirit has used it to empower disciples in their expression of faith. The book of Job is God’s way of saying to His children, “When you hurt, bring it to me, no matter what it is.”

God does not want us to clean up our language and get our act together and then come to Him. He wants us to come when we are a mess. Remember, the rightness of Job is in the fact that He speaks directly to God, attributes all to God, and speaks completely honestly. Only when we turn our attention on God and speak with absolute honesty (transparency is another way of thinking of it) are we ready for whatever response God will give.

Beware of writers who turn to the book of Job for answers. When someone offers a neat set of precepts that reduce debilitating pain to a problem solved by following the steps, and they reference Job in support of their trite solution, it is a clear indication that they do not understand Job at all. A lot of writers do this. The most recent one I read is Rick Warren. I love most of what he does, and would recommend it. But don’t trust him when it comes to Job. He writes a piece about being free of past pain. To bolster his teaching, he turns to Job. He writes “Job says,” but then he quotes Eliphaz (5:2). We’ve already attested to the fact that Eliphaz is counted as speaking wrongly.

I say this about R.Warren and about other excellent writers because Christians who teach through the writing of articles and essays and books write under a sense of pressure to provide answers. But, the book of Job doesn’t offer answers! Job offers permission. Maybe beyond that, Job prods us to speak from our own darkness. In our moments of deepest pain, Job, which is poetry not didactic narrative, tells us to speak clearly, creatively, emotionally, evocatively, and even accusingly to God. God can take it. God will match our emotional intensity, and God will not abandon us. Things won’t necessarily get easier. But without God, there is no outlet for the pain and no relief. Nor is there any purpose it. God doesn’t cause it. But God will bring good from it if we stick with Him.

So, use Job as an example. Look to Job as a role model. Speak to God directly. Don’t hold back. Say exactly what you feel.

For the Rick Warren piece, go to http://www.pastors.com/blogs/ministrytoolbox/archive/2009/08/12/five-reasons-to-let-go-of-hurt.aspx

Words about God spoken wrongly

I am taken aback by the beauty of the poetry in Job, specifically Eliphaz, as he speaks in chapter 4. The problem with saying that of course is that Eliphaz and his partners are condemned in the end. “The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what right, as my servant Job has’” (42:7). From beginning to end, we operate with the idea that we can’t trust what the friends say. After all, God rejected them.

Is there anything worthy holding on to from the speeches of the friends?

The apostle Paul thought there was. He quoted Eliphaz. Paul said of God, “he catches the wise in their craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19, a direct quotation of Job 5:13). In fact, Eliphaz’s entire message in chapter 5 is something we would absolutely say is true of God.

Job 5:8-16 (New International Version)

⁸ "But if it were I, I would appeal to God;
I would lay my cause before him.

⁹ He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.

¹⁰ He bestows rain on the earth;
he sends water upon the countryside.

¹¹ The lowly he sets on high,
and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹² He thwarts the plans of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are swept away.

¹⁴ Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;
at noon they grope as in the night.

¹⁵ He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;
he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts its mouth.

Who among God believers would contest the truth of any of Eliphaz’s words in these chapters?

What is possibly more controversial is his claim to have had a vision that revealed to him the absolute sinfulness of man. I believe the Bible reveals and human history confirms that all humans are sinful. But I also believe that through the practice of spiritual discipline and the work of the Holy Spirit in a person, that person can be righteous. Obviously Eliphaz disagrees.

Job 4:12-21 (New International Version)

¹² "A word was secretly brought to me,
my ears caught a whisper of it.

¹³ Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴ fear and trembling seized me
and made all my bones shake.

¹⁵ A spirit glided past my face,
and the hair on my body stood on end.

¹⁶ It stopped,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a hushed voice:

¹⁷ 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?

¹⁸ If God places no trust in his servants,
if he charges his angels with error,

¹⁹ how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more readily than a moth!

²⁰ Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
unnoticed, they perish forever.

²¹ Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
so that they die without wisdom?' ^[a]

I am not a poetry critic. In fact, I have had trouble understanding and appreciating poetry. But the words of Eliphaz’s vision blow me away. I don’t know why, but they do.

So what then? Eliphaz has not spoken rightly about God. In 5:8-16, he speaks the wisdom of Proverbs and in 4:12-21, he speaks the poetry of Psalms. How do appropriate the words of Eliphaz and the other friends, and Elihu? Even Job? In his anguish Job proposes to take God as his opponent in a court of law, and Job is sure he will win. And God says Job speaks rightly!

Maybe the key is the friend and Elihu pontificated about God without truly attending to the wounds of their friend. They spoke from the safety of the ivory tower. Had they uttered the same words from the sewers that run through the ghettos, their words would be able to stand on the truth of God’s Word intersecting with human reality.

Job, irreverent as he was, spoke the truth. He was angry with God. He attacked God and accused God of attacking him. But, he did not judge others. He took it straight to God. Maybe that is why his words are deemed to be right, the words of his self-righteous friends deemed to be in error.