8. The Silence in Job
8. The Silence in Job.
“Job replied to the Lord God, ‘I am speechless, Lord, in awe. Words fail me. I should never have opened my mouth in the first place. How could I ever even begin to find the answers to Your questions! I have nothing more to say, I have said too much already. I will put my hand over my mouth. I am ready to listen… Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, miraculous things so wonderful that they are beyond my comprehension, so amazing that I can’t even imagine it all.” (Job, Job 40:3-6 and 42:3).”
Faith More Precious Than Gold – Mission House (Live)
An Old Book Full of Silences. One would have a difficult time finding a more perplexing book in Scripture than Job. It is ancient, so old that many scholars believe it is the oldest written book in the Bible, written before Genesis, by an unknown author. The land of Uz might as well be the land of Oz since no one knows where that land actually existed. Job was a Jew before Abraham, in the sense that he had a direct knowledge of God. The name of God is used 150 times in the book. And yet Job was also a Gentile, since he has no knowledge of the Torah, the Temple, or Israel. In all of Job’s questioning of God, God never actually provides an answer to Job’s suffering. Job asks ‘Why,’ and God seems to answer ‘Because.’ All of Job’s ordeal is orchestrated by Satan, and yet Job never has a hint that Satan is even in the picture at all. Job’s plight is to live into the mystery of suffering in the dark silence of the Lord. In fact, silence is one of the main characters in this puzzling Book of Job: the silence of Satan’s presence as the source of Job’s troubles; the silence of Job and his friends in the beginning; the silence of God during most of the story while Job is suffering; the silence of the enlightened Job at the end.
- The Silence of Satan’s Presence. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you noticed my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who honors God with deep reverence and completely rejects any form of evil.’ The Accuser replied to the Lord, ‘Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!’ The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, you may test him. Everything he has is in your hands.” (Job 1:6-12).
The Handcuffs Are Off. The Evil One was only too happy to oblige, now that God had taken off the handcuffs. And true to the old slogan that actions speak louder than words, Satan never said a word directly to Job. He let his actions do all his talking. Satan was speechless but effective in testing Job beyond what any person could endure. The Accuser was in the background pulling all the strings behind the scenes and treating Job like some helpless puppet. Satan was the silent assassin, and Job never even suspected that there was a personal evil behind all his suffering. Satan was never even mentioned in the story after the first two chapters, but his fingerprints are all over Job’s horrific ordeal. Up until the divine whirlwind in the 38th chapter, Satan is silently lurking in the shadows, sneakily making things happen without saying a word. And Job never had a clue.
The Accuser at Work. Job experienced rare and extreme suffering. First, Job had his wealth and property and livelihood destroyed. Then all ten of his children were killed in a natural disaster, a desert whirlwind that came out of nowhere. Then Job was struck with the type of skin disease that would drive most people out of their mind, a condition of itchy boils from head to toe. This disease caused him to be abandoned, an outcast in society, untouchable. Then his wife offers a cynical word of advice to Job… “Just curse God and die.” (2:9). Her ridicule of his faith in God certainly caused discord in their marriage. And her words proved to be a major temptation through the book as he agonized in his pain and suffering and loss. Without a home, a family and a marriage, as well as cut off from society, Job had no choice but to sit at the local garbage dump by himself and scratch his boils with broken pieces of pottery.
- The Silence of Job and His Friends in the Beginning of the Story. “When Job’s three friends heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him. They sat on the ground with Job for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” (Job 2:11-13).
Friendly Enemies. Unfortunately, these so-called friends were not joining Job in his grief, they weren’t partners with Job as he mourned. Evidently during this whole week of silence, they were mentally putting together their strategies to explain all of Job’s misfortunes. They were analyzing Job during this week of silence, imagining Job’s hidden sins and the logical reasons for his suffering at the hands of God. They assumed Job deserved what he was getting. They were well-intentioned, but added only judgment and confusion to the chaos and pain. These friends turned out to be shallow, mean-spirited, callous, and were only able to offer Job the cold comfort of religious cliches. They didn’t end up comforting Job in the least, far from it. When they continued advising Job that he certainly must be guilty of something truly awful, Job only grew angrier and more agitated as the story continues. Look at what Job has to say to his friends at one point: “Would that you were totally silent! At least that would make you seem wise… So keep your mouths shut around me, and let me speak to God.” (13:5, 13). With friends like these, who needs enemies?
- The Silence of God Through Most of the Story. “And now, finally, Lord Yahweh answered Job from the very heart of a raging whirlwind. He said, ‘Why do you confuse the issue by questioning my wisdom, by darkening my counsel with words without knowledge? Why do you talk, Job, without knowing what you are saying? Pull yourself together and brace yourself like a man, Job! I have some questions for you, and want some straight answers from you! Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much! Who decided its size, and who came up with the blueprints and measurements? Certainly you’ll know that! And what supports its footings, who laid the cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy.” (Job 38:1-7; refer to Job 38-39for God’s first round of questions for Job).
The Stormy Conversation. Throughout Job’s suffering, God never even attempts to offer him a word of comfort, encouragement or explanation. God is speechless while Job continues to suffer. Why did God wait so long, content to leave Job wriggling like a worm on a hook? When God finally emerged from His silence and spoke to Job from the eye of the violent storm cloud, it actually was not a shocking surprise. As noted in chapter 37, there was a buildup to this whirlwind of chapter 38… a major storm front moving in, complete with menacing clouds, pounding thunder, electrifying lightning bolts, a darkened sky with torrential rain, and of course heavy winds. Apparently, the whirlwind out of which God and Job conversed was just the tail end of this dramatic tempest. This monstrous storm did its job, it prepared Job to humbly recognize Yahweh and be ready to pursue a conversation. All this weather-drama was only the prelude, the natural fanfare ahead of the personal contact that would set the tone and the context. Job, so perplexed with all his questions, needed to prepare his spirit before God before things could clear up and start making sense. In the midst of the dark sky and howling wind, Job and God have their long-awaited conversation. Right there, in the presence of a raging tempest, those two have found their ‘thin place,’ and they can finally talk heart-to-heart and friend-to-friend.
Celtic Worship – It Is Well/I Exalt Thee – Lyric Video by InBeautifulChaos
- The Silence of Job After the Whirlwind Conversation with God. “Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of His ways, mere glimpses and hints of what He does. How faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power? I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say. I take back everything I have said. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. I know that you can do anything, Lord, and I am convinced that no one can stop you from doing anything you want. I had only heard about you second-hand, as if you were a rumor, but now I have seen you with my own eyes and heard your voice with my own ears.” (Job 26:14; 40:3-5; 42:1-6).
The Answer is a Person. After Yahweh’s barrage of rhetorical, unanswerable questions, Job was suitably humbled, to say the least. We are not told when God’s whirlwind stopped whirling. But Job learned his lesson in the end… The answers to our questions in life tend to be found in a Person, not a solution. The Person of God is Himself the Answer as we trust in Him. Job’s final responses reflect that he received from God what he needed in the midst of all his tragedy. In the end of the book, God didn’t give the answers Job had been looking for. God appeared, and His presence was the answer. God Himself is the Answer to all the ‘Why’ questions. God finally offered His splendor and majesty and creative power, and even His sense of humor, and Job could only respond with awe. Job is wise enough to know that he is merely standing on the border of His ways. When all was said and done after God and Job finally interacted, God accepted Job, and Job grew in his knowledge of the unfathomable God.
Trust in Hope. For Job maintained his innocence through all the pain and suffering. He believed that this ordeal was not of his making, that he had already confessed to God whatever needed to be confessed in the past. Job tells his friends that this suffering is not his fault. Through it all, Job continued to trust in God’s basic mercy and goodness. Job trusted that God was ultimately responsible for everything in this world, and that God must have a good reason for this plight of his. Job’s ultimate hope was in God. Job never yielded to the temptation to curse God and die, even during all those moments of dark despair, depression, and his moody mental states. Job’s faith is so strong that, despite his misery, he boldly declares, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” (13:15).
Nothing to Hide. Job never tried to hide his thoughts and feelings from God. He was utterly transparent to the Lord. He laid it all out there for God to see. Job complained to God, he argued with God, he challenged God, he expressed his gravest doubts before God, his darkest thoughts. But he never relinquished his deep faith and trust in God. Job knew he was helpless and vulnerable before a powerful God, and that only God could save him from these calamities. He trusted that God was eminently fair and just, and so he kept his hopes alive. Job was in prayer constantly, he kept speaking to God. “I am not silenced by the darkness.” (23:19). The disturbing thing in the book of Job is, until the big theophany at the end, God kept Job in the dark during most of his suffering. Job cried out to God, but for the most part God didn’t answer. Ellen Davis offers this piece of insight in her book Getting involved with God… “What goads and guides Job through his pain is simply the determination not to let God off the hook for a moment. Eventually Job’s determination to hold God accountable to Himself becomes his hope of redemption.”
Redemption. Job never yielded to the temptations of sinning with his lips, of cursing God and giving up, of relinquishing the deep trust in God that Job enjoyed. His three hapless friends were forgiven by God after Job prayed for them, and they were redeemed after their disastrous verbal persecution of Job. In his outstanding book The Gospel According to Job, Mike Mason wonders if perhaps that was one of the reasons for Job’s suffering, that his friends would in the end find their salvation. And interestingly, it is only after Job’s intercessions for his friends that Job is healed and made prosperous again. There are no simple answers to why we at times plead with God in the dark and there is no answer. That only adds to the immense mystery of suffering at the hands of a righteous God. And yet, and yet, Job is able to triumphantly exclaim in 19:25, “For I know that my Redeemer lives. And He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know. That in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself.”
The Prophecy of the Last Call. Job made an astounding statement of faith in 14:15, and his declaration turned out to be messianic. He concluded his discussion with God of the afterlife by declaring that after his time in the grave, “You will call, and I will answer you!” Job didn’t understand, of course, that indeed God will call everyone out of their graves on the Last Day. Jesus said in John 5:28-29 that “a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear my voice, the voice of the Son of Man, and come out of their graves – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to condemnation.” Job couldn’t have known that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout!” (1 Thess. 4:6). Job, the prophet who believes that, when he is dead in the grave, he will somehow hear the call of the Lord.