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Dr. George A. Purnell
October 25, 2009
“Faith, Fables and Fairy Tales”
Job Chapter 42
I love Job. His integrity is impeccable and his honesty refreshing. He does not tolerate fools nor does he hide his anger at God from God. Job is awesome.
In fact, Diane used to say if we ever got on that newlywed game – where you are asked your spouse’s favorite color, favorite movie and other favorites – and the question what is your husband’s favorite book in the Bible was asked, she would answer Job.
It may have been a long time since some of you have read the Book of Job or thought about Job much. And since today’s reading is the last chapter in the book, I need to bring us up to speed on the story leading up to today’s closing chapter.
The book’s opening chapter introduces us to the main character. Job, whom we read, was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” Job was rich. He had so much livestock (7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 donkeys) and so many servants that his wealth made him the “greatest of all the people of the east.” Job had seven sons and three daughters.
One day God and Satan are having a conversation and God says to Satan: “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man…” Satan responds by saying words to the effect: Of course he’s blameless and upright! Why wouldn’t he be? He is rich and protected. (1:8-10)
But take away all that he has, “and he will curse you to your face,” Satan says (1:11). God accepts this challenge and agrees to let Satan take all that Job has from him. All God asks is that Satan not raise his hand against Job and harm him physically.
In a series of catastrophes everything Job has is taken away from him. A messenger comes to tell him that his livestock was all stolen; his servants all killed; and his ten children killed simultaneously when “a great wind came across the desert” and destroyed the house where they were all eating. (1:13-19)
Upon hearing this news, we read:
“Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and
worshipped.
He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return;
the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’”
(1:20-21)
See, God tells Satan, Job has remained faithful even though all has been taken from him. Of course, Satan responds, because he has not been personally afflicted. If you “touch his flesh…he will curse you to your face,” Satan says. Fine, God replies, I will accept your challenge again. Do whatever you want; “only spare his life.” (2:5-6)
Satan then “inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” (2:7) At this point Job’s wife tells him to curse God, but Job said to her – “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” (2:9-10)
Beginning in chapter 2 and continuing throughout the book, Job’s three friends come to offer him comfort and counsel. But they are of no comfort and offer really bad counsel.
As readers, you and I know that Job is the pawn in a wager, and is blameless in his suffering. His friends, however, don’t believe that Job could be innocent. They tell Job to confess and repent to appease God and keep more bad stuff from happening to him.
Job rejects his friends’ counsel. He is not going to confess and ask repentance for things he is not guilty of having done.
Contrary to the cliché, Job is not patient. He calls on God to vindicate him. His anger and frustration with God are evident in many of his speeches throughout this long book. He challenges God’s integrity. He curses the day he was born. Job is demanding of God. “Why should I not be impatient,” he asks God. “Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” (23:4, 7)
From chapter 3 to chapter 38, Job lets his feelings be known. He takes his case directly to God, insisting on his innocence and demanding vindication from God.
Job loves God enough to let God know of his anger. He knows that God can accept this; indeed God expects this from him if the two of them are to have an honest and intimate relationship. (Job is not alone among the Hebrew writers to let God know of their unhappiness. The Psalmist expresses his anger toward God in several Psalms…Jeremiah and Isaiah and others speak frankly with God when they feel they have been deceived, abandoned, turned into objects of ridicule…)
When God has heard enough from Job, God comes down in a mighty wind to respond:
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know!’” (38:1-5)
Now this speech from God goes on for four chapters to make sure Job gets the point.
Job responds to God in the opening verses of our reading today. God’s speech has changed Job. He acknowledges God’s power (“I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” and then quotes from God’s opening words to him at the beginning of the speech (in chapter 38). Job confesses that it is he who has “uttered what he did not understand, things too wonderful for me, that I did not know.”
Job is able to see God with new eyes now (“now my eye sees you”); through eyes that see a God who is greater than Job had ever imagined. To “despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” is to recognize the limits on being human. Job has a new understanding of who he is and who God is…
Now it is the three friends who hear from God. These guys have assumed all along that Job deserves the curses he has received from God. They have advised Job to come clean before God, and maybe things would get better for him.
God tells the three friends that it is “my servant Job” (repeated 4 times in these 3 verses) who has been honest with God. God tells them they must take rams and bulls to Job for a burnt offering, and God says that God will accept Job’s prayer for them.
Now we come to the final scene in the story, the happy ending. When Job prays for his friends, God restores Job’s fortunes twofold. He ends up with 14, 000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen and 1,000 donkeys. His siblings come to comfort him and eat with him (where were they before?) He gets 7 more sons and 3 more daughters. (This almost makes it seem like children are interchangeable…oh yeah, the other batch of 7 sons and 3 daughters were killed, so here’s a new set for you.)
This ending seems lame to many readers. One commentator I came across in my preparation for today wrote that for him this is “the most disappointing paragraph in the Bible.” Because it is so inconsistent with the rest of the book, many scholars insist that this is not the original ending to the book of Job; but was added later by a redactor.
I don’t know if I would say this is the most disappointing paragraph in the Bible, but I do find this fairytale ending dissatisfying. I think it trivializes what is a powerful story of faith. And I think it is misleading in that it supports the idea that people will be rewarded with good fortune in the end for being faithful.
Job becomes twice as rich as he was before, and he lives a long and happy life. But many life stories do not have such endings. And some people might conclude that their situation is so bad because they have not been faithful, and God is making them suffer. So, this ending is even harmful for some people.
The point of this long saga for me has nothing to do with Job’s fortune being restored in the end. For me, this is a powerful story about coming to a new understanding of God. Job comes to see the transcendent nature of God; how God exists above and independent of the material world.
The story of Job is universal and timeless. I don’t know anyone of faith who has not either confronted God with demands, or wanted to but was too afraid to do so.
WHERE ARE YOU GOD? The writer of the Psalms asks the question. Jeremiah asks the question. Jesus asks the question. We ask the question. In my darkest hours, how can you be absent? How can you justify this awful thing that has happened? Talk to me! Don’t ignore me! I deserve to be heard.
Job asked God for answers. He challenged God’s justice. My complaint is bitter, said Job. God “destroys both the blameless and the wicked. When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked…” (9:22-24)
It takes a strong faith and an intimate relationship with God to speak to God like this. We find this faith in some of the characters we read about in the Bible. Beginning with Abraham, our ancestors in faith made demands of God. When God decides to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, for example, Abraham objects to undeserved suffering that will be visited upon any righteous people who live there, and he calls God to account:
“Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?...Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked… Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”(Genesis 18:23, 25)
Moses causes God to change God’s mind about letting the Hebrew slaves die in the desert after finding them worshipping the Golden Calf. “Turn away from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.” (Exodus 32:12) Remember your promise to Abraham: “I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you…I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:6-7)
A faith strong enough to engage in honest confrontations and conversations with God is a faith strong enough to enable us to deal with the suffering that is an inevitable part of living. We can deal with it in large part because we trust God, in good and bad times.
Do I believe that Job’s is a real life story? No, because the God I worship would not enter into a wager with Satan and intentionally inflict the unspeakable horrors that were visited upon Job. But the story of Job gives me hope as I journey with God through this life. Job tells me that I can have a real relationship with God and that my relationship with God and understanding of God will grow deeper and deeper, even as my questions grow more frequent and penetrating.
But we need to be ready to hear back from God, just as Job did for four chapters. If we ask – what did I do to deserve this, Lord when tough times come, we need to be ready to answer God when God asks – what have you done to deserve even one of the blessings you’ve known. The door swings both ways in honest dialogue.
God will reward my honesty, not with a fairy tale ending of riches, but with the incredible joy that comes from knowing God; which, Augustine told us long ago, is the only thing that can satisfy our hunger. Amen.
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