April 13, 2006

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Then Job answered:
‘Today also my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
O that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
I would lay my case before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would learn what he would answer me,
and understand what he would say to me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.


‘If I go forward, he is not there;
or backward, I cannot perceive him;
on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;
I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me;
If only I could vanish in darkness,
and thick darkness would cover my face!

What changed for Job? Yesterday he seemed so very wise, so very able to reconcile his suffering with God's love for him. Today he struggles to reconcile that within himself. He wants to come before God and reason with Him. He perceives God's silence and his own inability to understand as God's absence. There is even psalm of sorts in our reading for today, the antithesis to psalm 139...and it calls to mind Psalm 139.

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Even in Job's groaning, he still rests in the wisdom of his faith. The psalm in Job calls to mind the promises of 139. I imagine that the same promises are in Job's mind. Even in despair and anger, Job rests in his relationship with God, calling upon God to own up to what he has done. For Job is in the outer darkness. And in his trust of God he will call God to task.

I am always encouraged by Job's relationship with God. It is not that Job assumes some equal standing with God. No. He knows that God is the Almighty King of the Universe and that he, Job, is sitting in darkness. But he knows the quality of the God who has true Judgment. And even though he knows that God's hand is somehow in his suffering, he believes in God's justice and mercy.

This is a different assumption than I often make. I tend to ask "Who do you think you are to do this to me? How dare you have your hand in this?" I forget my place. And even as I write this, the words seem cruel and oppressive to me.

To know my place...words that are used to oppress. But when I read Job I see something new. My place is not to accept an oppressive God. That is to forget my place as well. Job remembers his place. Even in darkness he remembers his place. Job is the recipient of God's true Judgment and Mercy. This is and has always been his place. He knows that it always will be.

Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.
I pray today that I might know my place. Even if I stumble in darkness, making my bed in Sheol, I am in the presence of the one who has true Judgment and Mercy.

Posted by tripp at April 13, 2006 06:03 AM