Job 38:1-11
And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:
“Why do you confuse the issue?
Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?
Pull yourself together, Job!
Up on your feet! Stand tall!
I have some questions for you,
and I want some straight answers.
Where were you when I created the earth?
Tell me, since you know so much!
Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that!
Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?
How was its foundation poured,
and who set the cornerstone,
While the morning stars sang in chorus
and all the angels shouted praise?
And who took charge of the ocean
when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?
That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,
and tucked it in safely at night.
Then I made a playpen for it,
strong boundaries so it couldn’t run loose,
And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.
Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’
One of the first things I was told on entering seminary was to always remember that “God is God ... and you are not.” This is very much the message of today’s reading. I don’t like the book of Job. I may as well state that right up front. There are bits of it, like today’s reading, that I can read and accept, and even enjoy – but the book begins with a picture of God that I simply find repugnant. I understand that the form of this story is a literary device to allow the characters to say certain things and it is written from the point of view of a tribal culture – but, still.....
At a casual read the book of Job asks a question: Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s the age old problem of theodicy. But on a more careful reading it turns out that is the wrong question. The real question asked here is: Why are good people good?
At the beginning of our story God recognizes that Job is good, but wants to know why he is good. It is to make himself feel good about himself? Is it to look good in God’s eyes? Is it because, seeing God’s goodness, he wanted to look good too? Or maybe Job believes that we are good for goodness’s sake – that this is, in truth, our natural state?
The story begins with a discussion between God and Satan (who is described here as the “Designated Accuser” - I love that title) as to just why Job is such a good man. Satan declares it is only because God has spoiled him rotten by showering him with riches and good things and never letting anything harm him. By this time, God is somewhat wondering God’s self and this is the point where the story loses me, because God tells Satan he can do whatever he wants to Job. The image of a being who would so casually toss aside all that Job loves just to settle a philosophical argument is not one I can reconcile with the God I love and serve. As I said, it is a literary device ... still...
Because, taking God at God’s word, Satan does every rotten thing he can think of. Within the course of one day
• marauders slaughtered all Job’s farm stock as well as his field hands
• lightning struck and fried all his sheep – as well as all the shepherds
• Chadean raider stole every one of his camels and massacred his camel drovers
• as lastly, word came that every one of Job’s children, who were gathered at the eldest son’s house for a party, were wiped out when a tornado hit the home,
but even with all this Job refused to sin by blaming God – he remained true and faithful. So ... on another day, God told Satan to take it even further, and Satan inflicted Job with boils – running, open sores all over his body – but Job remained true.
At this point three of Job’s so-called frends come to him and begin grilling him, claiming to comfort him but actually trying to convince him that somehow he must have done something wrong to bring this all on himself. The story goes on for many, many chapters but that is the drift of his friends’ counsel - somewhere you brought this on yourself. And Job holds firm that he did no such thing – he has done nothing wrong and he does NOT deserve this. He even calls God to listen to his testimony of innocence and then demands that God justify God’s self to him – Job.
Which God does by asking a series of questions: Where were you when everything that is was created? Did you set the stars in the skies? Do you control the tides? And so on ... And after a few more chapters, Job agrees, yes, you can do what you want because all that exists is yours – it was never mine. And, finally, having made his point, God restores all that was taken from Job – and that appears to strike many as a happy ending.
I have never understood or found any satisfaction in this resolution to the story of Job. It may have made sense in a tribal culture in which the idea of individuals mattering didn’t really exist, but somehow, the idea that you can wipe out a man’s family and then simply plug in a new one later on and every thing is peachy keen just doesn’t work for us today.
This is one of the primary differences between the Old and New Testaments – the role of the individual. Sometimes in the Old Testament God seems invested in individuals, such as David the shepherd boy who became king, but then God will turn around and slaughter hundreds of innocent people with no apparent thought for the human persons involved. The Old Testament God is often very puzzling to us today.
Historically, the role of the individual person didn’t really begin to flower fully until the late Middle ages and the Renaissance - but the idea that God sees and cares for each of us individually is a goodly part of Jesus’ message. We are no longer interchangeable cogs in a machine. We matter.
When we speak of Jesus as the bridge, the great high priest, the one who stands between us and God, perhaps this is what we mean. When Jesus says he is bringing us a “new thing” maybe this is it. What he brings is the Good News that the same God who created all that is – the One who created the dolphins and the field mice, the One who moves the tides, the One who set rings around Saturn and placed the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka in Orion’s belt – this same One, Jesus tells us, sees every sparrow and cares about me ... and you ... and values even the least among us -- especially the least among us.
God is God ... and we are not – this is absolutely true, but this God that Jesus showed us knows and names us and loves us.
Thank God. Amen.
At a casual read the book of Job asks a question: Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s the age old problem of theodicy. But on a more careful reading it turns out that is the wrong question. The real question asked here is: Why are good people good?
At the beginning of our story God recognizes that Job is good, but wants to know why he is good. It is to make himself feel good about himself? Is it to look good in God’s eyes? Is it because, seeing God’s goodness, he wanted to look good too? Or maybe Job believes that we are good for goodness’s sake – that this is, in truth, our natural state?
The story begins with a discussion between God and Satan (who is described here as the “Designated Accuser” - I love that title) as to just why Job is such a good man. Satan declares it is only because God has spoiled him rotten by showering him with riches and good things and never letting anything harm him. By this time, God is somewhat wondering God’s self and this is the point where the story loses me, because God tells Satan he can do whatever he wants to Job. The image of a being who would so casually toss aside all that Job loves just to settle a philosophical argument is not one I can reconcile with the God I love and serve. As I said, it is a literary device ... still...
Because, taking God at God’s word, Satan does every rotten thing he can think of. Within the course of one day
• marauders slaughtered all Job’s farm stock as well as his field hands
• lightning struck and fried all his sheep – as well as all the shepherds
• Chadean raider stole every one of his camels and massacred his camel drovers
• as lastly, word came that every one of Job’s children, who were gathered at the eldest son’s house for a party, were wiped out when a tornado hit the home,
but even with all this Job refused to sin by blaming God – he remained true and faithful. So ... on another day, God told Satan to take it even further, and Satan inflicted Job with boils – running, open sores all over his body – but Job remained true.
At this point three of Job’s so-called frends come to him and begin grilling him, claiming to comfort him but actually trying to convince him that somehow he must have done something wrong to bring this all on himself. The story goes on for many, many chapters but that is the drift of his friends’ counsel - somewhere you brought this on yourself. And Job holds firm that he did no such thing – he has done nothing wrong and he does NOT deserve this. He even calls God to listen to his testimony of innocence and then demands that God justify God’s self to him – Job.
Which God does by asking a series of questions: Where were you when everything that is was created? Did you set the stars in the skies? Do you control the tides? And so on ... And after a few more chapters, Job agrees, yes, you can do what you want because all that exists is yours – it was never mine. And, finally, having made his point, God restores all that was taken from Job – and that appears to strike many as a happy ending.
I have never understood or found any satisfaction in this resolution to the story of Job. It may have made sense in a tribal culture in which the idea of individuals mattering didn’t really exist, but somehow, the idea that you can wipe out a man’s family and then simply plug in a new one later on and every thing is peachy keen just doesn’t work for us today.
This is one of the primary differences between the Old and New Testaments – the role of the individual. Sometimes in the Old Testament God seems invested in individuals, such as David the shepherd boy who became king, but then God will turn around and slaughter hundreds of innocent people with no apparent thought for the human persons involved. The Old Testament God is often very puzzling to us today.
Historically, the role of the individual person didn’t really begin to flower fully until the late Middle ages and the Renaissance - but the idea that God sees and cares for each of us individually is a goodly part of Jesus’ message. We are no longer interchangeable cogs in a machine. We matter.
When we speak of Jesus as the bridge, the great high priest, the one who stands between us and God, perhaps this is what we mean. When Jesus says he is bringing us a “new thing” maybe this is it. What he brings is the Good News that the same God who created all that is – the One who created the dolphins and the field mice, the One who moves the tides, the One who set rings around Saturn and placed the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka in Orion’s belt – this same One, Jesus tells us, sees every sparrow and cares about me ... and you ... and values even the least among us -- especially the least among us.
God is God ... and we are not – this is absolutely true, but this God that Jesus showed us knows and names us and loves us.
Thank God. Amen.
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