My spirit is broken,
my days are cut short,
the grave awaits me.
Surely mockers surround me;
my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
“Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
Who else will put up security for me?
You have closed their minds to understanding;
therefore you will not let them triumph.
If anyone denounces their friends for reward,
the eyes of their children will fail.
“God has made me a byword to everyone,
a man in whose face people spit.
My eyes have grown dim with grief;
my whole frame is but a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this;
the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
and those with clean hands will grow stronger.
“But come on, all of you, try again!
I will not find a wise man among you.
My days have passed, my plans are shattered.
Yet the desires of my heart
turn night into day;
in the face of the darkness light is near.
If the only home I hope for is the grave,
if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
where then is my hope—
who can see any hope for me?
Will it go down to the gates of death?
Will we descend together into the dust?” (New International Version)
The biblical Book of Job is a troublesome story in more than one way. It not only reveals the grinding trouble of Job in losing nearly everything and everyone he had, but the story also presents some theological trouble for us.
Just when we may believe we have some understanding about how God operates in the world, the life of Job throws a theological monkey wrench into the whole thing.
Job was a righteous person, who did good in the world. He was happy and wealthy. And most people would attribute his earthly success to his spiritual piety. Yet, Job’s awful loss and suffering seem anything but a good, just, and right response from God.
Although Satan was behind all of Job’s trouble, the story makes it plain that it was God who let it all happen.
However, the Book of Job is not much concerned about God’s justice; rather, it is a story about a change in worldview. Job went from health, wealth, and happiness to sickness, poverty, and grief. It all happened quickly, one tragic event after another.
The beginning premise of the story is to question whether a privileged person in prosperity is devoted to God simply because of material and familial blessing. How would such a person look, act, and think, after having it all taken from him? Would he continue to be pious and faithful toward God, or not?
Job and his friends had the same worldview, theology, and outlook on things. But after what Job went through, a clear division opened in which the friends never budged from their views.
Yet, Job had an awakening. He saw and felt anarchy in the world. He experienced the putrid spiritual and emotional abscess of unimagined circumstances so bad that it made him wish he were never born.
Through it all, Job never lost his attachment and faithfulness to God. But he did lose his old view of the world.
Job saw firsthand that tidy theological systems of thought and belief are only that. If those systems cannot withstand the smack of worldly horror, then one needs a different system (and not a different God).
In the teeth of such misfortune, one cannot explain things in a nice neat linear fashion. In other words, bad things that happen to us don’t necessarily require repentance, condemnation, or punishment. That’s what Job’s friends believed needed to happen. But Job knew better.
A truism in life is that it’s hard to appreciate something you’ve never experienced.
You may have thoughts, opinions, and beliefs about marriage and child-rearing as an unmarried person without kids. But your world turns upside-down when those relationships become your daily reality and life. Old views become antiquated in the face of these real flesh-and-blood people.
And it’s also difficult for the privileged, the prosperous, and the well-positioned to appreciate the life of the underprivileged, the poor, and those without any power and authority in this world.
They, of course, have plenty of beliefs and opinions about how things ought to be, and what the disadvantaged among us need to do. But one cannot put themselves in their shoes, simply because the poor don’t even have shoes that the wealthy could put on.
In today’s society, it can also be difficult for the reasonably happy and optimistic among us to imagine what life is like for those whose daily reality is debilitating depression and chronic anxiety. What would happen if everything that made optimistic persons happy were completely taken away from them?
Whatever would happen, such a person’s world would never be the same again. Something would change within them. Their thoughts would be altered. There would be no going back to the status quo of things before.
Could Job, in his health and wealth, have appreciated the anguish of victims from senseless calamity? Could he have ever considered God as an enemy against him?
Maybe if one of Job’s friends had experienced terrible suffering, he himself would have responded with the established tidy worldview of telling him he needed to repent of his sin. After all, they were his friends for a reason – sharing their creed and convictions on life.
But horrible suffering opened a chasm between Job and his friends. Only Job alone knew that his disaster was undeserved – that he had done nothing against God.
Sometimes, all you and I can do in the midst of senseless and seemingly needless suffering, is to, like Job:
- affirm our innocence and our integrity, even though no one understands
- reaffirm our faith and commitment to God, even though what we are going through is confusing and makes no sense
- awaken to the plight of others who go through hard things and need a friend who will truly listen and have compassion on us
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 