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! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
(Job 38:1-7)
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A few years ago, an eight year old girl in the United States decided that she wanted a puppy. That certainly doesn’t make her unique, but her story is an interesting one nonetheless. Her father, you see, wasn’t enthusiastic about her getting a puppy. He apparently didn’t think she was either mature enough or responsible enough to care for a dog. So he made her a promise that he was sure would put the idea to bed forever. He would get her a puppy, he said, if he was told to get her a puppy by the President of the United States. You’d think that would be a rather daunting roadblock standing in the way of the little girl getting her puppy, but this was a very determined little girl. And so, she wrote a letter to the President, explaining in great detail why she thought it would be a good experience for her to have a dog, put it in an envelope, addressed it and dropped it in a mailbox. Sure enough, a few weeks later, an envelope from the White House addressed to the girl’s father appeared in the family’s mailbox. In a hand-written and signed note on White House stationary, George W. Bush proceeded to explain to the girl’s father that he, personally, loved dogs, and that, while it was obviously the father’s decision, he thought that children learned a lot about responsibility by having dogs and that it would be good for the little girl. Well, the little girl’s father couldn’t really go back on his promise. He now had in his hands a hand-written and signed note from the President of the United States saying essentially “get the girl a dog!” I trust that the dog and its family are now living happily ever after - all because of a most unexpected reply to a little girl’s plea.
As we continue our month long journey through some of the stories in the Book of Job today, that story about the little girl is a lot more relevant than you might think. Last week we spoke about how frustrating it is when God doesn’t give us the answer we want when we ask a question. Job had been dealing with this frustration for some time now. In today’s reading we’ve jumped ahead 15 chapters since last week, and Job is still in the midst of it We’ve seen that Job had gone through terrible tragedies and that he had experienced a terrifying feeling of being isolated from God. He may well have come to the conclusion that God was never going to give him a direct answer to his questions.He may well have been on the verge of giving up hope. And then - all of a sudden - it happened! All of a sudden (and probably quite unexpectedly) God spoke! Job must have been startled. I suspect that, in spite of all the pleas he had made, Job wasn’t really looking for a conversation with God. Maybe he was doing nothing more than venting. If he had any expectation at all, perhaps he was looking for some sort of sign (a vision, a dream, a picture burned into his morning toast, perhaps) but he almost certainly wasn’t looking for God to engage him in a dialogue. But the passage does not say that this was a vision or a dream, and there’s no toast mentioned. The passage says that God spoke. Audibly and clearly, Job heard the voice of God. It seems that in spite of his righteousness, this was not an everyday occurrence for Job - it’s probably even less so for us! I work under the philosophy that says that when God speaks - we should listen, so I think we need to consider pretty carefully what God said here in response to Job’s pleading for an answer. Maybe that will help us to figure out what God might say to us in our times of hardship.
What I really noticed in this passage is that although God is answering Job, God isn’t giving Job the answer that he wants. Last week, I suggested that God always answers us; it’s just that we don’t always like the answer God gives us. Here we have the biblical foundation for that statement. In legal terms, Job had asked God either for an indictment - which would lay out in detail what he’s accused of having done wrong - or a verdict - which Job confidently assumed would be “not guilty.” He got neither. Instead, God answered Job’s questions with - wait for it - a question! Now that must have been frustrating for Job. His blood pressure shot way up at that moment. We ask questions because we want answers, because we’re tired of seeking out the answers on our own and because we want someone else to answer the questions for us. When our questions get answered with more questions, then all we have are more answers to seek.. And that’s what Job was now facing - not only had God not answered him; God had given Job another question to ponder and another answer to seek. You might say that this was a challenge to Job from God; not the sort of comfort we usually think of when we turn to God in times of great hardship.
As I reflect on God’s challenge to Job, what really stands out to me is that although God gives no direct answer to Job, there’s also no sense of condescension - God doesn’t patronize Job and God doesn’t consider him unworthy of receiving an answer. Instead, God’s reply to Job is really an invitation for Job to consider God’s plan - not just God’s plan for Job, but God’s plan for all of creation, and how Job’s experience fits into that. There’s some really interesting language used here. “Gird up your loins like a man,” God said. I actually almost chuckle every time I read that! But it wasn’t an insult, in the way we might think of “be a man” today. It was actually a show of respect. God was challenging Job to challenge God - and that, I think, is a connection for us today. God challenges us in the same way. In a sense, God said to Job, “don’t wallow in self-pity” (because that’s essentially what Job had been doing.) “Come to me instead, with all your questions and complaints, and we’ll work this thing out together.” I suspect that God delights in these kinds of encounters - because once Job accepted that finding solutions rather than just presenting complaints was what really mattered there was an opening for building a deeper relationship with God based on a better understanding of God. So Job is invited to embark with God on a journey of discovery, and all of us are invited to join with God on a journey of discovery - one that begins with our questions and with our sincere desire to determine God’s answers.
God’s challenge to Job begins with a question: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” and then: “Tell me, if you have understanding.” The irony here is that Job can’t possibly have the understanding that God is speaking of. When God “laid the foundation of the earth,” Job didn’t exist, after all. To truly understand something we haven’t experienced is impossible. God’s plan for creation, laid out before anything even existed, is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. So, in essence, God’s response to Job was: “you’re welcome to begin this quest with me, but understand that it’s a quest that will never end, because you’ll never be able to fully understand me.” That’s also our greatest challenge, isn’t it? To commit ourselves in faith to a relationship with God even though there are so many things about God that we can never fully understand; that will simply remain a mystery. And what we discover is that as things turned out, Job could live with that. Job could live with divine mystery, as long as he could be assured of divine presence, and as long as he knew that there was a divine plan being furthered, and that he was a part of it. So, by this exchange (even though God sounds a bit harsh) Job finally understands that he hasn’t been deserted by God in his time of greatest need. He could still enjoy a relationship with God. Nothing he was experiencing would change that, and with that assurance Job could move on. And Job’s assurance is our assurance: even in the face of divine mystery in our lives, there is a still a divine presence in our lives, and there is still a divine plan being worked out at least partly through our lives. We may not understand it fully, but we are a part of it. As Paul would write centuries later to the Christians in Rome, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” And, folks - those who are “called according to [God’s] purpose?” That’s us!
I began my remarks today with the story of the little girl who must have been surprised to get an answer to her pleas from the president of the United States. I suspect it may have been even more surprising for Job to get an answer from God. “I have a plan,” God said, “and your life and all its experiences are a part of that plan.” God answers us as well, in ways that we can’t fully understand, and our challenge is to follow Jesus, even when we’re not always sure where it is that he’s taking us. That’s something I’ve had to learn; that’s something I still find myself struggling with at times. “Why here and not there?” “Why this and not that?” “Why now and not later?” The frustrating thing is that I can’t figure out the answers to those questions any better than you can or any better than Job could - but I know this: there is a truly divine plan at work, and I’m somehow a part of it, and so are you. In the words of an old gospel song: “I don’t need to understand, I just need to hold his hand.”
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