Job
8
Like many Old Testament prophets Job is angry with the perpetrators of injustice, but he's equally cross with God for, as it appears, letting them prosper and get away with it. Is God indifferent to man's inhumanity to man? This isn't the way to run the world - 'Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.'
Chapter 27 opens with Job arguing that God has denied him justice. His friends are not connecting with him at all, he will not deny his own integrity and in verse 6 he states, "I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it."
Chapter 28 is a song in praise of wisdom - a rather unexpected interlude in this tense debate on the city dump. Of course, there are some nuggets of truth in this section such as ' the price of wisdom is beyond rubies' (verse 18) and "God said to man, 'The fear of the Lord - that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding'" (verse 28).
Job now continues his discourse and he thinks of the good old days. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end! Chapter 29 verses 2-5, "How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when His lamp shone upon my head and by His light I walked through darkness. Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me."
The air is soggy with nostalgia as he reminisces. He remembers when he was somebody, highly respected and listened to by young and old alike. "Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him" (verses 11-12). He recalls his acts of compassion and kindness to widows, the blind, the lame, the needy and the stranger. His dream was to die in his own house 'my days as numerous as the grains of sand' (verse18). He recollects how his counsel was eagerly awaited and respected. "I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners" (verse 25). Has self-pity overtaken him? In verse 25 of chapter 29 he has said I or me fifty one times. He's wrapped up in himself and boasts about the outstanding man he was.
Then it happened - a sudden reversal of fortune - "Now they mock me, men younger than I" (chapter 30 verse 1). He feels humiliated having become a joke in their eyes. Job states, "Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence (verse 11). Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud. And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me" (verses 15-16). Job feels abandoned because of the silence of God. Why won't You say something, Lord? Job becomes angry as if provoking God to end His silence. This servant of God is hurting. "I cry out to You, 0 God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but You merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of Your hand You attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; You toss me about in the storm" (verse 20-22).
Job is all churned up, his body burning with fever (verse 30). Because his hope was dead, Job's song was a funeral dirge. His harp and flute were tuned to a minor key (verse 31). He felt so utterly alone in his suffering. At times God permits His children to experience darkness on a dead-end street where they don't know which way to turn. He feels like a trapped animal - worthless, humiliated, bereft of honour and authority.
In chapter 31 Job sums up his final defence. Sixteen times he uses "If I have ..." statements, suggesting "I know I haven't" and therefore there's no case to answer. Taken out of context, one would think Job is very self-righteous. He declares he's not deceitful or lustful; he is not unjust or selfish; he hasn't put his trust in material possessions or worshipped any false god; he hasn't gloated at his enemy's misfortune. He sighs deeply in verse 35: "Oh, that I had someone to hear me. I sign now my defence - let the Almighty answer me." Job is saying, in effect, let judgement fall, if God can prove me wrong. He longs to be vindicated and his reputation restored. At times he indulged in the death wish, but not until he's set the record straight. Jesus suffered even worse than Job and died and let God vindicate Him.
Job's comforters have dried up. Rigid Eliphaz has stopped pontificating, unfeeling Bildad, the champion of orthodoxy, falls silent, and so does merciless Zophar. Job feels God has demoralised him. His very theology is being rocked, but let's pause for a moment and reflect a little.
There was a rich faith operative in Job's life before any of his sufferings occurred. When trouble strikes and questions are many, we shouldn't let what we don't know disturb what we do know. In this Job stood firm. ' He still believed God is a good God; he still kept his integrity and refused to be bullied in the 3 against 1 debating sessions into admitting he deserved what was happening and must have brought it on himself.
Life is not television. You can't switch to another channel when something's going on you don't like. A survivor from Auschwitz said, "We owe God our lives for the few or many years we live and we have the duty to worship Him and do as He commands us. That's what we're here on earth for, to be in God's service, to do God's bidding." Unwittingly, that is exactly where Job stood - in God's service, doing God's bidding.
Job's faith is remarkable, not logical. He runs to the arms of the very God (my vindicator) whom he accuses of causing him so much damage. As Philip Yancey writes, "Job's faith survived with no outside help or explanation."