Our Wondrous God According to Job
Our Wondrous God According to Job.
“O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! What a deep wealth of wisdom and knowledge He has! How incomprehensible are His decisions, how unsearchable His judgments! How undiscoverable are His paths, how mysterious His ways, beyond finding out! Who has understood the mind of Yahweh? Who knows how the LORD thinks, or what His thoughts are? Can anyone discern the LORD’s intentions, His motivations? Who knows enough to give Him advice? Is there anyone qualified to be His counselor? Who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? Who could ever have a claim against Him? For everything was created by Him, everything lives through Him, and everything exists for Him; So to Him must be given the glory forever! Amen!” (Romans 11:33-36, also Isaiah 40:12-14).
Job in the Dark. 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 was. Job was a Jew before Abraham, in the sense that he had a direct, personal 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 seems to be 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.
Innocent until Proven Guilty. 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. If only God would tell him what those reasons are! Job’s ultimate hope was in God, even if God was pulling all the strings in this misery. He wondered at the mysterious powers of God in 26:14, “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?” God’s 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).
Holy Stubbornness. 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 constantly in prayer, 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.”
The Wondrous God according to Job:
Pili (pil-ee), Pala, or Pele = the Hebrew word which means: wondrous; miraculous; unsurpassed; something so wonderful that it is beyond comprehension; remarkable, extraordinary, marvelous; so awesome it cannot be understood by humans; so amazing that it seems impossible or too difficult to accomplish; so uniquely set apart from human understanding that it is God’s secret.
“If I were you, I would appeal to God and present my cause to Him. He performs wonders (“pala”) that are too marvelous to understand, and countless miracles as well.” (Eliphaz, Job 5:8-9).
“God’s wise heart is profound, His power is vast, and His strength immeasurable. Who has ever challenged Him successfully? He does wonderful things, even confounding wonders (“pala”) that cannot be fathomed. He performs an infinite number of miracles. If He snatches someone in death, who could stop Him? Who would dare to ask Him, ‘What are you doing?” (Job, Job 9:4, 10, 12).
“You have granted me life and steadfast lovingkindness, and your care has preserved my spirit… But if my head were lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again display your awesome wonders (“pala”) against me.” (Job, Job 10:12,16).
“God thunders wondrously (“pala”) with His voice; He does marvelous things which we cannot even begin to comprehend. Hear this, O Job; stand still and consider the wondrous miracles (“pala”) of God. For do you know how the clouds are balanced in the heavens, or how He moves those clouds with wonderful (“pala”) perfection and skill? Out of the north comes golden splendor, for around God is awesome majesty. We cannot find the Almighty One, He is out of our reach, for He is highly exalted in power; in His justice and plenteous righteousness, He does not oppress. No wonder people everywhere reverently fear Him.” (Elihu, Job 37:5, 14, 16, 23, 24).
“Then Job replied to the Lord, ‘Behold, I am so small and insignificant! How can I answer you? I will cover my mouth with my hand, for I’ve already said too much…. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, great things too wonderful (“pala”) for me to know.” (Job, Job 40:3-4, and 42:3).
A Divine Conversation in the Dark. 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.
“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 38-39 for God’s first round of questions for Job).
Speechless. After Yahweh’s barrage of rhetorical, unanswerable questions, Job was suitably humbled, to say the least. “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 am ready to listen.’ Then the Lord challenges Job once again from this divine whirlwind, saying to him, ‘I have more questions for you, so stand tall and tell me the answers.’” (Job 40:3-7). The Lord God was not letting up. He wanted to make sure He got his point across to Job.
A Person is the Answer. 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. “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. I take back everything I have said. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. I repent now before you, Lord God, and I mourn my own ignorance. Please forgive me.” (Job 42:1-6).