Job: When Life Doesn't Make Sense--God

As with many books of Scripture, the most fascinating and important character is not the one the book is named after (in this case, Job) but rather the mysterious and hidden God who works through the other characters. As previously mentioned, the driving question of this book is posed by the Satan in 1:9-11. Much of Job’s story is about testing this hypothesis that people will only serve God for selfish reasons. However, there is another test being conducted…Job’s test of God.

Throughout this book, we’re forced to wrestle with theodicy (this is just a word that means, “If God is (1) all powerful; and (2) all loving; then why is there so much unjust suffering in the world?) Job wishes to put God to the test and demands answer for why this has come upon him. The counselors—fearful of having God put to the test—turn the situation back on Job and examine him. They pronounce Job to be responsible for all of his own sufferings and God to be blameless. Often, when people question why God allows terrible things to happen, we fall back into responses like those of the counselors (e.g., God didn’t really do it…He didn’t want it to happen…etc.) While those things may be true, they don’t evade the central problem that if God is, in fact, all powerful (and we believe He is) then He could stop evil. He could at least, stop little children from being molested (for example).

There is no easy way to solve the problem of theodicy. That’s another of the main points of Job. In fact, we cannot solve the problem at all. As Job learns, all we can do is have faith in God that despite the seeming victory of evil, in the end His will is being worked for all Creation…and that it is a gracious will. We can have no guarantee. We can have no binding legal contract with God for, as Job says, “Who can bring the Almighty to court?” In the end, the only assurance we can have that God will be there for us is His own word that He will be so. That’s just going to have to be good enough…because that’s all there is.

You will note, that Job never receives answer to the question, “Why did this happen to me.” What he receives, instead, is a visit and a vindication from God. The thing that Job needed most was not an answer…but his God. At times in life, we come to the place where words and explanations and rationality are useless. They have done all they can. At those times, there is nothing left to lean on except faith and one’s experience of fellowship with God.

The end of the dialogue [in chapter 28] teaches that people cannot find wisdom, whose dwelling place is known only to God, [except] in the fear of God; thus, this hymn judges the counsel of the comforters as lacking in wisdom…In the epilogue God will confirm this…by saying that the three friends have not spoken about Him rightly. (42:7-9)

Job also knows that in court he must have a witness to testify on his behalf, a witness more credible than the condemning testimony of his body. At this point, Job’s faith in God rises above his experience of suffering leading him to declare that God is his Witness (16:19), even his Redeemer (19:25-7), Whose testimony will vindicate him. Still, his pain terrorizes him and his dread is compounded by God’s silence. Finally, his confidence in his own innocence and God’s justice drives him to take a desperate course that will force God to act: He swears an avowal of innocence (chs. 29-31). Now God must answer him; for God to remain silent would be to concede Job’s claim to innocence.

Addressing Job, God affirms that He has structured the world exactly according to His blueprints (38:4-8). With this metaphor He claims that He has built justice into the structure of the universe. Moreover, God asserts that no corner of the world is outside His authority (38:16-24), thereby refuting any theory that injustice and suffering exist because God is in a struggle with a strong foe…God brings Job to realize that no human being has a proper perspective to judge the course of matters in the universe, let alone to accuse God of acting unjustly. The foundation of God’s argument in His speeches is that power and wisdom (justice) are one in the Supreme Ruler of the universe.

Awed by God’s majesty and overwhelmed that God in grace reasons with him, Job surrenders his complaint against God, realizing that a person must surrender even his rights to God because God is Lord. In yielding himself to God Job reveals beyond any doubt that he serves God out of love, not for material gain or prestige…In praise of God Job confesses, “I had heard You with my ears, but now my eyes have seen You.” (42:5). Clearly the author finds the profoundest personal answer to undeserved suffering to reside in the divine-human encounter. That God both appears to Job and speaks with him means that Job’s encounter is more than a mystical experience with a numinous force; it is a meeting with the personal God. God’s presence authenticates Job, drawing him out of his self-love to focus his affection on God. Job gladly abandons the complaints against God, conscious of the fact that he can trust God in His grace to accomplish that which is worthwhile from his undeserved suffering.
--[John E. Hartley, The Book of Job (NICOT series), (Eerdmans, 1998), 44-5, 49-50]

Of God and Men

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for these people anymore. When they fast, I will pay no attention. When they present their burnt offerings and grain offerings to Me, I will not accept them. Instead, I will devour them with war, famine, and disease.”

Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, their prophets are telling them, ‘All is well—no war or famine will come. The Lord will surely send you peace.’”

Then the Lord said, “These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts. Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will punish these lying prophets, for they have spoken in my name even though I never sent them. They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves will die by war and famine! As for the people to whom they prophesy—their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and war. There will be no one left to bury them. Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters—all will be gone. For I will pour out their own wickedness on them. Now, Jeremiah, say this to them:

“Night and day my eyes overflow with tears.
I cannot stop weeping,
for my virgin daughter—my precious people—
has been struck down
and lies mortally wounded.
If I go out into the fields,
I see the bodies of people slaughtered by the enemy.
If I walk the city streets,
I see people who have died of starvation.
The prophets and priests continue with their work,
but they don’t know what they’re doing.” -- Jer. 14:11-18

As with so much else in the ministry of Jeremiah, this oracle presents a number of stark challenges to the vision of God and ministry prevalent in the minds of many Christians. To be frank, I do not know how to square all of this with the example of Jesus...but I know that it MUST be squared. We cannot act as if the God Jeremiah served is somehow different from the One we serve. That would be Marcionism. We cannot claim that God Himself somehow changed His fundamental character between Testaments (i.e., that God "became a Christian" and consequently changed all the rules of His interactions with Creation.)

With so many questions, then, what word(s) for our upcoming week can we gain from this passage? It seems to me there are at least three or four points worthy of our quiet moment ponderings:

1. God CAN change. This stands in sharp contrast to the vision most of us carry of a God who is eternally "immutable" (just a big word meaning that He never changes). The doctrine of God's immutability comes out of Greek philosophy and early on was wedded to Christian doctrine. Additionally, there are passages of Scripture which, when taken by themselves, seem to explicitly teach the doctrine of immutability. Unfortunately, too much of the rest of Scripture informs us that God can...and frequently does...change. When God became flesh in Jesus...was that not a change? When God died in Jesus...was that not a change, too? And if God cannot change, then why do we ever pray and ask Him to do (or refrain from doing) anything at all?

2. God loves us unconditionally...but there are purposes in the universe of more weight than satisfying our human cravings. Just because we are the most-loved part of Creation, that does not mean that humanity is center or the purpose of Creation. All that is exists with the purpose of glorifying and serving God...not the other way around. Jeremiah's message, again, suggests that we may so rebel against God that we forfeit our right to be called His people.

3. People have always found prophets who tell them they've nothing to repent of, and that God is quite pleased with their lives just as they are. Worse yet, we have a dangerous tendency to seek out the voices that preach "all is well--no war or famine will come. The LORD will surely send you peace." This is an inherent danger of having ministers who are financially beholden to the congregations they minister to. It is the rare church that can hear...that is willing to hear...a less-than-adulatory message from its preacher. Yet, if we learn anything from Jeremiah it is that greater disaster might very well have been averted had the people been willing to listen to the hard truths he spoke.

No doubt, many could find fault with the three points I have outlined. And I will be the first to admit that there are problems with each of these points. As I said at the beginning, I make no claim to have all the answers on these topics. Indeed, the older I get, the more convinced I am that the most profound truths of God and our relationship to Him simply CANNOT be put into words...they can only be lived...experienced. I ask, then, that you consider my three points not as doctrinal propositions to be either refuted in debate, or committed to rote like a catechism. Rather, take them as lenses with which to understand your experience of life and your walk with God. Try them on. See if they make the picture clearer and your steps surer. Don't staple them to your head, as it may be they are not the lenses you need right now...but don't throw them away either. If Jeremiah and Judah needed these lenses in their lives, it's a fair bet that you will--someday--need them in your own.

January 15, 2009 (Matthew 15:32-16:4)

Today’s reading features the second of Jesus’ miraculous feedings. As a kid, this section of Scripture always confused me. Just one chapter earlier, Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. (14:13-21) Yet here—with fewer people—the disciples still ask “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?” (15:33)

I always thought of this as an example of how unbelievably dense Jesus’ apostles must have been. After watching one miraculous feeding of a multitude how they could they still not get it?

During my graduate studies, however, I learned something that helped make better sense of the apostles’ reaction. Apparently, the context for the feeding of the 5,000 was the land of Israel. Jesus was among His people—God’s people; But the setting for the feeding of the 4,000 is among Gentiles. These were folks who were “outside the camp” of Israel. If this distinction is correct, I think it’s a little easier to understand why the apostles reacted as they did. They may have been thinking: “Sure, God showed up to help us before, but that was because He was feeding the chosen nation…just like He did for Moses and our ancestors in the wilderness…but these guys are another story. Who knows if God even wants to bother with stirring up a miracle for them?”

After feeding the 5,000 Jews the apostles gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers. As I’m sure you’re aware, twelve was a number with significant meaning in Jewish tradition. It could be taken as symbolizing wholeness…completeness…the idea that Jesus represents all that Israel needs now and forevermore. Similarly, the seven baskets gathered after the feeding of the 4,000 communicates a similar message for Gentiles with a number that was of symbolic significance for them.

The notion that God might hear the prayers and bless the lives of those outside the “chosen circle” was one that Christ’s followers continued to struggle with for some time. For many it was incomprehensible that someone could be a follower of Jesus without first being a follower of Moses. In fact, this mindset was so entrenched, that God found it necessary to take the step of imparting the Holy Spirit to some Gentiles just to get the point across. (see Acts 10)

Christians today can fall prey to this same temptation to assume that God only works amongst us…that in order for the LORD’s merciful power to be unleashed upon a person’s life he/she must first become like us. Let us disabuse ourselves of the notion that God is constrained by our “boxes.” He is Sovereign of all. It is not our job to bring God to the rest of Creation so that He can start working there…it is to open our eyes to the work He is already doing, and join Him in it.

-- Justin

January 7, 2009 (Matthew 13:24-25)

If the truth be told, I suspect that most of us join the church not primarily to be in fellowship with God; but to be in fellowship with people who we trust will love us, nurture us, and forgive us. It comes as a tremendous disappointment, then, when we first realize that the church is not all good, and that the Kingdom values do not always hold sway among those who name the name of Christ. When this happens, two reactions usually follow.

First, we become angry at the church…and not just at the people who may have hurt us. We get angry at everyone else for allowing them to hurt us—As if the entire congregation always knew 100% about what everyone else was doing and they had all placed their “stamp of approval” upon whatever we’re upset about.

Second, after our ire is good and riled up against God’s people, we turn it on Him as well. After all, if we can justify being mad at everyone in the church for the injustices they have allowed, then it only stands to reason that God (Who is the all-knowing head of the church) is to blame as well.

It is precisely at such times, that we need to be reminded of the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Jesus tells the story of a farmer who sows his field. But during the night an enemy comes and sows weeds among the field, and no one realizes it until the plants have started to sprout. When they realize what has happened, the farm hands react in the same way I often do. They are angry…incensed…they want justice and they want it NOW! They ask the farmer, “Should we pull out the weeds?” (13:28) To their surprise, the farmer says “No. You’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.” (13:29-30)

We must learn that God’s patience and forbearance is not a sign that He doesn’t care about us, or about the evil that may well be present in His field. Rather, He is patient precisely because He cares so much. To unleash His judgment before the right time, could well destroy wheat along with the weeds; And God has made the decision that it is better to let a few weeds grow than to risk destroying a single stalk of wheat. So the next time you find yourself frustrated by the weeds among you, rather than focusing upon uprooting them, look for little wheat stalks nearby who are struggling just as much as you are. Nurture them. Love them. Water them. And most of all, make sure you do your part to get them as much “Son light” as possible.

-- Justin

For the Kids: Wheat and Weeds coloring sheet

January 5, 2009 (Matthew 13:1-9)

From the perspective of a person who has spent the last twelve years of life deeply-engaged in ministry of one form or another, the Parable of the Sower has especial meaning and poignancy for me.

I have never yet been what would be popularly-considered “successful” as a minister. I’ve never landed the big name job. I’ve never had a group that quadrupled in size in a year. I’ve never had money start flowing into any ministry that I was responsible for heading. Not only have I never measured up to the typical standards of ministerial success, I have all too often been reminded of that fact (both by my critics and myself.) All of these facts have conspired to make me succumb to recurring bouts of mild depression. In my quiet moments, my mind is tortured by voices that whisper: “You’re a failure.” “You’ve wasted your life.” “I told you. You should have gone to med school.”

When these voices begin to croak now, I try to return my mind to Jesus’ parable. He told of a farmer whose desire to make things grow. He was so passionate in this desire that he left no ground untouched by his seed. He scattered seeds in the thorns, along the path, among the rocks, anywhere that his pitching arm could send them. After he had spread all the seed he had, the farmer sat down to watch what would happen. I wonder how the farmer must have felt when he first began to realize that at least 75% of his labor was completely in vain. His precious seeds were trampled, eaten, choked out, and starved to death. I suspect that he was disappointed…perhaps even grieving. Perhaps he regretted all the time he had “wasted” sowing seed upon such inhospitable ground. Perhaps he heard voices of his own: “If only I’d listened to my parents and become a carpenter…” Yet, in time, the farmer would have come to see that although most of the seeds he planted fell to the ground never to rise again…a minority was different. There were a few seeds that sprouted. I have to assume that these seeds didn’t look particularly “special” when they were still in the sack. They looked like all the other seeds. There was no way to predict that these would sprout while the others would fail. Yet here they were, a season later—young, and green, and reaching for the sunlight.

Jesus tells us that those few surviving plants went on to produce “thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” What the parable does not tell us, however, is whether the farmer lived long enough to see just how much his hardy survivors produced. Perhaps he did…perhaps not. Jesus leaves that part of the story unanswered. In a similar way, the spiritual fruit we bear may sometimes be evident to us…but other times it does not emerge until years after our death. The calling…the challenge for us…is to simply take joy in the act of sowing itself. In the act of trying to help things grow. As you go through this day, remember the words with which Jesus ended this parable: Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. (13:9)

-- Justin

For the Kids: On-Line "Parable of the Sower" Coloring Page
For Everyone: Picture 1 Picture 2 Mary Picked the Roses video

January 4, 2009 (Matthew 12:38-50)

…Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign… (Matt. 12:38) This passage used to bother me a lot. It seemed like Jesus was being inconsistent. Didn’t Gideon ask for a sign to make sure it was really God telling him to drive the foreigners from Israel? (Judges 6:11-17ff) And didn’t the apostle Thomas ask to see the nail-scarred hands of Jesus before he would believe in the resurrection? (John 20:24-25) Surely Jesus wouldn’t have declared them “evil and adulterous,” would He?

After thirty-one years of life, I think I’ve finally come to realize the difference between Gideon, Thomas, and the Pharisees of Matthew 12. Gideon had seen his nation repeatedly brutalized by foreigners. It was nearly impossible to believe that good days would ever return to Israel. Thomas had believed with every ounce of his heart that Jesus was, indeed, the Messiah of God; but then he had to watch as that Messiah was betrayed by a man Thomas thought of as a brother…was shamefully mocked and ridiculed before being put to a torturous death…and was finally buried in a borrowed grave. It must have seemed to Thomas that all the hope, light, and goodness had gone out of life forever.

In Gideon and Thomas we have men who desperately wanted to believe that God still cared…that He had not forgotten them. Yet they had been so demoralized it was almost impossible to believe. They NEEDED a sign. In the case of the Pharisees of Matthew 12:38, they merely WANTED a sign. They were not asking so that they could believe seemingly-impossible good news. Rather, they sought some excuse to avoid what they considered bad news from Jesus (i.e., that THEY needed to repent)

Re-read the response Jesus gave them, and see if you do not also detect a difference between a miracle given to strengthening hope, and a miracle demanded in a vain attempt to forestall repentance:

…the only sign I will give…is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now Someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.

My word to you who feel that you must have a sign from God simply to be able to make it through another day is this: Don’t lose heart. If you’re right, God will provide the sign that you need. If you’re wrong, God will use even this “dark night” of your soul to shape you in His image. In either event, the Lord loves you and He has not forgotten you. My word to you who would simply demand a sign to reinforce what you already know in to be true, but do not wish to be true is simply to repeat the warning that Jesus gave: The people of Nineveh will stand up against [you] on Judgment Day and condemn [you], for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah…

-- Justin