God, Why me? Part 2

Hello to you if you’re reading this. We’re going to continue to explore the story of Job and his suffering. As always I hope this can be a little helpful for you as you journey along in your life and in your faith.

Here is a quick recap (please still read the last blog post) for you. God, the ultimate form of being, shares his authority with what he has created. We are part of creation and he has shared his authority with us. Human beings participate in a rebellion and God rescues them by pursuing them and partnering with them on their journey back to him. Humanity is fatally flawed, but from time to time there are righteous men who become part of the story. However in the bible even the most righteous men suffer, in fact sometimes they suffer the most. Job is part of this category.

Last week we were introduced to Job and took a look at a conversation that God has with Satan or The Accuser. The argument Satan makes is that if Job no longer receives God’s blessings he will turn away from him (we took a deeper dive into that conversation last week, seriously read it). God disagrees and Satan then asks to test this theory. God for some reason agrees. As a result Job suffers, he loses everything he’s known and loved. Again the book never tells us why God agreed, and spoiler alert, Job never learns why he suffered the way he did. However the book does allow us to view Job as he and his friends reckon with his suffering. Today I want to look at two chapters.

The first is Job 3. The first time that Job speaks after he’s lost everything. He says “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” This is heavy but it helps us understand where Job is. What these words represent is the distress of Job. In fact in his agony he is begging for a reversal of the blessing that God gives humanity in Genesis 1 (stick with me). When God creates the universe, he says “Let there be light.” He then asks humanity to go forth into the abundance of creation and multiply. Job in his desperate pleading sees his life as a tiny universe and he says “Let that day be darkness” he wants a complete reversal of his creation, because the chaos that God separated the world from is now ruling over the world that is Job’s life. “Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning, because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.” Job goes on asking the authors of creation to write him out the story. The Leviathan is usually the symbol in the bible for chaos and disorder, God will eventually have victory over this beast according to the biblical authors. But in Job’s life it is running riot and he doesn’t know why. All he knows is that he needs the agony to end. “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.” We have this picture of a man blameless in the eyes of God who is subject to agony many of us wouldn’t even wish on our worst enemy let alone an innocent man.

The story of Job goes on; his friends believe that he must have done something and that his suffering is the result of his sin. We know that Job is blameless, so does Job he continues to maintain his innocence and he questions the nature of God. In Job’s mind it is either that God is not all powerful and can’t prevent the suffering, or even worse God is all powerful and can prevent the suffering, but chooses not to. Job lands on the second statement. This leads him to the conclusion that God is unjust. Because if God were just then Job’s innocence would’ve meant that he would not have suffered the way that he’s suffered. 

This leads us to Job 9. “Who alone stretched out the heavens trampled the waves of the sea; who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; who does great things beyond searching out and marvellous things beyond number. Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.”  Job has no problem believing in the power and majesty of God. He acknowledges that God will trample the waves of the sea. In the bible the waves of the sea are also the symbol of chaos and disorder, the sea is the domain of the Leviathan so it is the place where chaos thrives. Job is convinced that God’s victory over chaos and disorder is assured. That’s faith. To still be assured of God’s dominion over evil even after evil has destroyed his life is faith that is commendable. However Job is still a man who is struggling. “Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.” Job is convinced that God will reorder the world, but he also believes that God is too big and too busy to bother to reorder the chaos that has ruined the world that is Job’s life. That is as relatable as it gets. To be honest I don’t struggle with believing that God is mighty and powerful, but I do struggle to believe that God notices the things that happen in my life. Does he really care enough to help me when chaos rules over my life? I don’t think I’m the only one that asks that question. Job is asking it here. Why would a God who is just, ignore the chaos that is running riot in the life of a man as blameless as Job? His suffering has led him to really wrestle with the nature of the God that he worships.

I’ll end it here. There is no larger lesson that I’m trying to teach. Sometimes life is awful and it makes you question if God is awful as well. Maybe the fact that thousands of years ago a righteous man like Job had questions that you relate to today can be comforting; at the very least you aren’t alone. Sometimes that can be the biggest game changer in your life and faith; I hope that it can be a game changer for whoever reads this.