A Matter of Perspective, Job 38:1-7 (34-41) , October 18, 2009
Conflict has been part of human existence since the beginning of time. Fighting between two combatants is an age-old means of establishing dominance.
• In the Mesopotamian poem “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” Gilgamesh established his leadership by wrestling Enkidu.
• In Greek mythology, Zeus rises to rule the earth by beating down his father, Cronus.
• From China to Greece to Egypt, the ancient world enjoyed competitive wrestling.
• Even before Babylon took Jerusalem captive, boxing was already a celebrated Olympic sport in the seventh century B.C. In the modern "sport-as-entertainment" era, boxing has become a multibillion-dollar industry.
• From China to Greece to Egypt, the ancient world enjoyed competitive wrestling.
• Even before Babylon took Jerusalem captive, boxing was already a celebrated Olympic sport in the seventh century B.C. In the modern "sport-as-entertainment" era, boxing has become a multibillion-dollar industry.
History shows that one-on-one combat has always been wildly popular. The story of Job is no exception. Here’s a person who seems to be doing a lot of wrestling — with his wife, his friends, his own soul and, mostly, with his God.
Throughout the book, Job wrestles with God's action (or, inaction) on Job's behalf. "Why is this happening to me?"
Throughout the book, Job wrestles with God's action (or, inaction) on Job's behalf. "Why is this happening to me?"
Whenever there is a conflict, there are two sides to the struggle. How the struggle is viewed is a matter of perspective.
--JOB'S PERSPECTIVE
In HamletShakespeare captured the frequent story line of suffering: “When sorrows come — they come not single spies — but in battalions.”
Job fits that bill. In machine-gun-like speed, he loses everything near and dear to him. His flocks are stolen. His servants are put to the sword. Celestial flames engulf his sheep. His children are crushed in a windstorm. His skin burns with open sores.
Adding insult to injury, three “friends” inform Job that his suffering is evidence of evil he has done.
The poetry of Job reads like a man fighting with his soul and with his God. He is shadow-boxing with an Opponent he can not see.
At first, Job refuses to blame God for what had happened in his life: “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:22). But after crying out with his desire to die and enduring too much scorn from his loved ones, Job is ready to brawl. His words are a warrior crashing his sword to shield before a battle.
I’d fight him if I could find him (chapter 23).
,
Job fits that bill. In machine-gun-like speed, he loses everything near and dear to him. His flocks are stolen. His servants are put to the sword. Celestial flames engulf his sheep. His children are crushed in a windstorm. His skin burns with open sores.
Adding insult to injury, three “friends” inform Job that his suffering is evidence of evil he has done.
The poetry of Job reads like a man fighting with his soul and with his God. He is shadow-boxing with an Opponent he can not see.
At first, Job refuses to blame God for what had happened in his life: “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:22). But after crying out with his desire to die and enduring too much scorn from his loved ones, Job is ready to brawl. His words are a warrior crashing his sword to shield before a battle.
I’d fight him if I could find him (chapter 23).
,
Why won’t he show up and accuse me? Accuse anyone? (chapter 24).
Is he just watching and ignoring me? (chapter 30).
In today’s text, God breaks his silence of the first 37 chapters and responds to Job’s taunts by entering the ring. God literally storms onto the scene in a whirlwind (38:1). God approaches his opponent. The NIV captures the throwdown well: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me” (v. 3).
In this chapter, God confronts Job. The poetry in chapters 38 and 39 moves in a Genesis-like Creation pattern — from the stars and heavens, created land and sea, to living and breathing creatures. (Cosmology (38:4-21), meteorology (38:22-38), zoology (38:39–39:30).
Through God's power and provenience in nature, God is telling Job the only thing he needs to know: "I am the Almighty Creator, the Eternal One. You are not. “I’m Omni; you aren’t.”
GOD'S PERSPECTIVE
Is he just watching and ignoring me? (chapter 30).
In today’s text, God breaks his silence of the first 37 chapters and responds to Job’s taunts by entering the ring. God literally storms onto the scene in a whirlwind (38:1). God approaches his opponent. The NIV captures the throwdown well: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me” (v. 3).
In this chapter, God confronts Job. The poetry in chapters 38 and 39 moves in a Genesis-like Creation pattern — from the stars and heavens, created land and sea, to living and breathing creatures. (Cosmology (38:4-21), meteorology (38:22-38), zoology (38:39–39:30).
Through God's power and provenience in nature, God is telling Job the only thing he needs to know: "I am the Almighty Creator, the Eternal One. You are not. “I’m Omni; you aren’t.”
GOD'S PERSPECTIVE
Omniscient: God knows all. His opponent doesn’t understand enough. Job doesn’t know chapter 1’s cosmic background story. Like any of us in his position, Job wants to know “Why?!?”
But God asserts himself — God alone — as the one who knows all. God is ultimately wise (vv. 36-37), while Job lacks omniscient understanding (vv. 2, 4).
The tension for the reader of Job is that Job’s lack of understanding in his suffering never resolves itself. The because, which would be the answer to Job's "Why," never arrives.
But God asserts himself — God alone — as the one who knows all. God is ultimately wise (vv. 36-37), while Job lacks omniscient understanding (vv. 2, 4).
The tension for the reader of Job is that Job’s lack of understanding in his suffering never resolves itself. The because, which would be the answer to Job's "Why," never arrives.
God’s ways are not our ways. God knows things we do not know. We can no more know what’s best for us than children can know what’s best for them when faithful parents are training, disciplining and challenging them.
God’s grip on Job is bracing: I am designed to know all; you are not. Come to terms with that, Job.
Omnipresent: God is infinite and present everywhere. His opponent has boundaries and limits.
Like any of us who feel and lament God’s absence, Job cried out, “God, where are you?” Are you in the north, south, east or west (ch. 23)? God’s answer: “Yes.” He had seen and been to places that Job couldn’t imagine (38:16-24).
Unlike Job, God has no boundaries and limits. His eye sees all as his presence touches all. The message to Job, and suffering saint today, is that we are never out of God’s sight. He never forgets or forsakes us.
God is omniscient, omnipresent and
God’s grip on Job is bracing: I am designed to know all; you are not. Come to terms with that, Job.
Omnipresent: God is infinite and present everywhere. His opponent has boundaries and limits.
Like any of us who feel and lament God’s absence, Job cried out, “God, where are you?” Are you in the north, south, east or west (ch. 23)? God’s answer: “Yes.” He had seen and been to places that Job couldn’t imagine (38:16-24).
Unlike Job, God has no boundaries and limits. His eye sees all as his presence touches all. The message to Job, and suffering saint today, is that we are never out of God’s sight. He never forgets or forsakes us.
God is omniscient, omnipresent and
Omnipotent: God is powerfully capable of anything he wills. His opponent has no control, only dependence.
God designed the world (vv. 4-7) and limited it (vv. 8-13). Though creation is forceful and wild and dangerous, God tamed it from the beginning. That means the creature Job — who’s far less powerful than storms and seas — is equally under the providence of his Creator.
In his book Seeds of ContemplationThomas Merton writes: “The light of God affects that soul the way the light of the sun affects a diseased eye. It causes pain. God’s love is too pure. The soul, impure and diseased by its selfishness, is shocked and repelled by the very purity of God. It cannot understand the suffering caused by the light of God. It has formed its own ideas of God: ideas that are based upon its natural knowledge and which unconsciously flatter its own self-love. But God contradicts those ideas.”,
God designed the world (vv. 4-7) and limited it (vv. 8-13). Though creation is forceful and wild and dangerous, God tamed it from the beginning. That means the creature Job — who’s far less powerful than storms and seas — is equally under the providence of his Creator.
In his book Seeds of ContemplationThomas Merton writes: “The light of God affects that soul the way the light of the sun affects a diseased eye. It causes pain. God’s love is too pure. The soul, impure and diseased by its selfishness, is shocked and repelled by the very purity of God. It cannot understand the suffering caused by the light of God. It has formed its own ideas of God: ideas that are based upon its natural knowledge and which unconsciously flatter its own self-love. But God contradicts those ideas.”,
With the clear assertion of who God is and who Job isn’t, God applies a spiritual submission hold. It turns out that after all of his lip toward God, Job is finally humbled. “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?” (40:4).
Job couldn’t judge, see or control those things done long before his suffering came along. The world of sin and suffering was set in place long ago. Job couldn’t comprehend those acts of God, and neither could he understand the hidden reasons for his afflictions. Job's perspective was limited to his earthly understanding of how the world works.
Job couldn’t judge, see or control those things done long before his suffering came along. The world of sin and suffering was set in place long ago. Job couldn’t comprehend those acts of God, and neither could he understand the hidden reasons for his afflictions. Job's perspective was limited to his earthly understanding of how the world works.
Job's perspective is limited; God's perspective is "Omni-everything." This brings us to
OUR PERSPECTIVE
What lessons can we learn from God and from Job?
First, our spiritual hardships aren’t just about us.Miguel de Unamuno said it well: “Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.” Often, it is in our struggle that we draw closer to God.
Suffering tends to be rather egocentric — “Why me?” Although Job never got the answer he wanted, he did realize that his hardships were about something bigger than his personal afflictions.
Our question of 'why' may not get answered, but we could change the why to a what. What is God doing in me and through me during my hardships?
Second, Job’s God is also our God. He is unchanging, still able to claim knowledge and control of things we can’t access. Although it’s an uncomfortable lesson, we need to remember that we are creature and God is Creator. This leads to humility, eternal perspective, submission and dependence.
Third, we need to be careful to never say things to God that we will regret later. Because our sight and understanding are limited, we should question God carefully and in a manner of “not my will but yours be done.”
Fourth, Job teaches us that we should continue to live faithfully, even though our faith is wavering. People often lose their bearings — emotionally and spiritually — and begin to make decisions they later regret, with lasting consequences. Continue in the path of your life and the journey of your faith.
Finally, sometimes you have to wrestle with God to understand him more deeply. Poet
What lessons can we learn from God and from Job?
First, our spiritual hardships aren’t just about us.Miguel de Unamuno said it well: “Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.” Often, it is in our struggle that we draw closer to God.
Suffering tends to be rather egocentric — “Why me?” Although Job never got the answer he wanted, he did realize that his hardships were about something bigger than his personal afflictions.
Our question of 'why' may not get answered, but we could change the why to a what. What is God doing in me and through me during my hardships?
Second, Job’s God is also our God. He is unchanging, still able to claim knowledge and control of things we can’t access. Although it’s an uncomfortable lesson, we need to remember that we are creature and God is Creator. This leads to humility, eternal perspective, submission and dependence.
Third, we need to be careful to never say things to God that we will regret later. Because our sight and understanding are limited, we should question God carefully and in a manner of “not my will but yours be done.”
Fourth, Job teaches us that we should continue to live faithfully, even though our faith is wavering. People often lose their bearings — emotionally and spiritually — and begin to make decisions they later regret, with lasting consequences. Continue in the path of your life and the journey of your faith.
Finally, sometimes you have to wrestle with God to understand him more deeply. Poet
Job wrestled with God, giving us permission to do the same. We can learn from his struggle. In the end, spiritual unrest is a battle that teaches us about ourselves and our God. Hopefully, it strengthens us through the fight.
Prayer: Lord, when we are honest with you and with ourselves, we admit that understanding eludes us. We admit that we hate the way our world works and that we mistrust you much of the time. Somehow, someway, O Lord, shed your light on our hearts. Help us in our unbelief and mistrust. We need you to light our way, even if it is just a glimmer and even if it is short-lived. We need you to light our way.
We put our faith and our trust in you, our God, Creator, Redeemer and Friend. Amen.
Rev. Rosemary Stelz
