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7. Seeking To Understand God
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Job 23 (New International Version)
1 Then Job replied: 2 "Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
3 If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! 4 I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say. 6 Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. 7 There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge. 8 "But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. 12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. 13 "But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. 14 He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. 15 That is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. 16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. 17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.
Seeking To Understand God
If there is a God, what can we know about this God? In this series of sermons based on the book of Job, we have looked at the suffering faced by Job and the attempts of his friends to make sense of what is going on in Job’s life. We reach a point today where there is a measure of frustration evident in both Job and at least one of his friends.
You may remember last Sunday I presented the idea that most, if not all, of us have a conviction about how the world works. One of the things that may be behind the writing of the story of Job is the conflict which is, I suppose, as old as time between the traditional wisdom that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked and a recognition that these sorts of categories often do not work to explain the world.
In Job 22 the third round of discussion begins and Eliphaz has decided he has had enough of the argument going back and forth. Listen carefully to what he says. “Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The powerful possess the land, and the favored live in it. You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you have crushed” (Job 22:5–9).
Once again, we are at an advantage listening to the story, because we have heard the prologue. The curtain has been pulled back for us. Deliberations in the council of heaven have been revealed to us. If you need a reminder, Job was described by God as a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil (Job 1:8). We know then that what Eliphaz says is not true. In fact Eliphaz himself in his first speech says of Job, “you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees” (Job 4:3, 4).
Why then does he say such things about Job? Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Like Job’s other supposed comforter, Zophar, Eliphaz is convinced he knows how the world works. No one can deny that Job is suffering greatly. Someone has taken the news of Job’s misfortune to these three friends. The sight of him was such a shock and horror to them that they wept aloud and engaged in traditional signs of mourning—they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads (Job 2:12).
Now it is time to move things along, to get on with life, to pronounce the verdict and wrap up this unfortunate story with a tidy bow. “Job, you are suffering. Therefore you are being punished by God. Therefore you must be guilty. Let me suggest a list of likely misdemeanours. I don’t know about you Job, but I am tired of this conversation. I have given you a list of things you are more than likely guilty of. Admit it, repent, then we who are wise can give thanks that once again the world works as we understand it. And, yes, now that you mention it, we can be done with this business of having compassion for you.”
But Job will have none of it. He wants the conversation to continue. He wants to pursue his questions about God, because he is convinced these so-called friends have not got much of anything figured out and that if there is a God then trying to discover what one can truly know about this God is a worthy and, indeed, life-giving pursuit.
Job asks two timeless questions. Where can God be found when I need him? Why does God not punish those who are evil? For the remainder of the time we have today I want us to look at how Job asks those questions and at the answers God has made available to us.
If you have your Bible with you, open it to our text from Job 23. In the pew Bibles the text can be found on page 471. The verses we look at will also appear on the screen behind me.
These questions that Job asks are timeless. Not everyone discovers the same answers to these questions. It is helpful for us to note the Bible never sheds a negative light on Job as he asks these questions. Questions are not the enemy of faith. In fact some would say that without questions faith can never become mature. Job is looking for God. He has not abandoned the search. “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his dwelling!” (Job 23:3). Job is convinced he needs God in his life right now. I take it that Job is saying something like this—God, I prayed to you when all was well; I worshiped you when the days were bright. I felt your presence in my life then. I need to know your presence once more.
Job does not deny God’s existence. His struggle is that he cannot find that connection. “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” (Job 23:8, 9). There is something to take note of here. Job has said that he wants to argue his case before God, to be vindicated by the one he calls my judge. This is the connection that he cannot make. Job is trying to discover an explanation for what may be unexplainable. Perhaps what we are being told is this—when it appears as if God has abandoned us or is unavailable to us, what in fact God is saying is either there is no answer this side of heaven to our question, or, we are not ready to hear the answer that God is ready to give.
I suggest this because of what Job says next. “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold” (Job 23:10). Job is not some ancient version of the 21st century skeptics that are writing books and cashing in with their ridicule of the idea of god and an aggressive denunciation of faith. Job is saying, “There’s something I don’t get about this. If you want to know the truth it strikes me as unfair. I can’t find God but God knows exactly where I am.” Out of that faith comes this anticipation of victory, “I shall come out like gold.”
Friends, it would be shallow and callous of me to say that I know everything you are feeling today as you deal with illness and grief and financial pressures and the limitations that come with age and perhaps even the diagnosis the doctor is to deliver later this week. But here is what I do know. The faith of Job is not something merely read about in the Bible. As a pastor I have had the great joy of knowing people who in the midst of their questions trusted God completely because they were certain God knew every step they were taking and was with them each day.
The second question Job asks is in chapter 24. Job’s three friends have tried to tell him that he is being punished by God for his sin. As I said at the beginning, Eliphaz is so certain that God punishes the wicked that he makes up stuff about Job in order that Job fit the pattern of this traditional wisdom.
Job says that the problem with this traditional wisdom is the only way to accept it is to turn a blind eye to reality. The wicked remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. They drive away the donkey or the orphan; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves (Job 24:2–4). In effect Job tells his friends that he wishes what they say was true about God punishing the wicked. Job believes that God is the God of righteousness and justice. Why then is justice delayed?
Jesus, in what we call The Sermon on The Mount, says our Father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). Job, and I think many of us, would say, “yes, we know and that’s just the problem. Why are you not punishing those who are so richly deserving of punishment?”
Sometimes even the punishment comes late as far as we are concerned. Bernie Madoff was convicted last year of defrauding clients out of billions of dollars and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Without doubt, he will die in prison. But what about the more than 13,000 people who were the victims of his schemes? Last weekend some of Madoff’s personal belongings were auctioned with the money raised going to the victims. These items included six Rolex watches with a pre-auction estimate of their total price between $250,000 and $280,000. To put it another way, Bernie wasn’t shopping at Wal-Mart while he was stealing from people who trusted him. Where were you God while Bernie was living high off the stolen hog?
At the end of this question, Job is no closer to an answer than when he began. He says, “If it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and show that there is nothing in what I say?” (Job 24:25). The fact is the only answer that I can discover in the Bible comes from the New Testament. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Here then is the answer of God’s Word to this problematic question. God is righteous. God is just. God is bringing the world to the place where he can set the world to rights. But God takes no pleasure in the punishment of the wicked. God takes delight in every one of his creatures and every part of his creation reflecting this glory and grace. Why are the wicked not punished? Because God desires the healing and wholeness of every one whom he has made. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (John 3:16).
One last thing—perhaps the reason there is no answer to this question in Job is that in the context of that story, there is no answer. For when would you bring down the curfew? At what point would the wicked get their reward in your universe? How patient could you be, or should you be? Those are questions only God can answer. The person of faith makes the courageous choice to leave those questions to God.
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