The Thin Place of Job’s Whirlwind
The Thin Place of Job’s Whirlwind.
“The thin place is where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer that it is easy to step through.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way).
This term from an ancient Celtic tradition has stood the test of time. The idea of a thin place between heaven and earth has captured our imaginations, and yet is not just a metaphor. Thin places are literal as well.
The traditional thin place as the Irish understood it has been described in many ways: where the veil between heaven and earth is so thin as to be porous, permeable, practically transparent; where the space between the divine and the human has narrowed; where the boundary between heaven and earth has collapsed; where the wall between heaven and earth have become indistinguishable; where the doors between heaven and earth have cracked open enough to walk through, if only temporarily; the place where eternity and time seem to join together.
Those descriptions of thin places have recently been expanded to include… wherever God has chosen to reveal Himself and make Himself known with unusual intimacy; wherever the sacred interaction with God’s presence is more pronounced and accessible; wherever the Holy Spirit is released in a particularly powerful way; a physical space where one can more directly and intensely experience God’s presence. I like to think of a thin place as when the Spirit of God opens the skylight of the earth’s roof and helps us climb through it into the cellar of heaven.
“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).
Whirlwind: (Hebrew, “hassearah”); often translated as tempest, raging storm, powerful windstorm, tornado, funnel cloud; usually accompanied by the loud roar of the gusting winds; occurs when two powerful air currents meet to create strong circular motions and rapidly rotating columns of forceful winds; examples would include waterspouts, sandstorms, and tornadoes. Whirlwinds have been known to accompany God’s appearances on earth (such as Nahum 1:3 and Psalm 77:18). God’s whirlwinds sometimes communicate His judgment (for example, Proverbs 1:27 and 10:25; Ezekiel 1:4; Isaiah 66:15; Jeremiah 23:19) . But His whirlwinds also signify a thin place where heaven meets earth, such as 2 Kings 2:11, when Elijah was swept into heaven in a whirlwind. Instead of the tempest bringing earth to heaven like with Elijah, though, in Job’s case the Lord wanted to bring heaven down to earth. As early church theologian John Chrysostom once said about this whirlwind in Job, “It was as if God wanted to place heaven itself next to Job, as if God had brought His throne near to him.”
Thin places could wait around every corner, from the hushed spaces that are holy ground and call for undistracted reverence, to the majestic mountaintop, to those special spots in nature in which we can simply soak in God’s presence. In Job, the thin place where the veil between heaven and earth are practically non-existent, happens to be a raging storm, a violent tempest out of which Lord Yahweh spoke so clearly with his faithful friend Job. This man has been bearing with the criticism of his wife and the half-truth counsel of his friends. He has endured unthinkable suffering in the midst of dramatic spiritual warfare. All this time in his memoir, Job has been patiently yearning for a private audience with the King of the Universe. Job’s spirit has been pleading for a private word with the King that would help to solve this mysterious and painful turn of events in his life. And sure enough, this King Yahweh, like most other kings, makes an unforgettable production out of His appearance… a lot of drama, a lot of fanfare, in this case nature providing all the dramatic effects.
When God finally emerged from His silence and spoke to Job from the eye of the windstorm, 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 this 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.
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.
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).
If ever there was a soundtrack for the Book of Job, this gets my vote… Suffering, and trust, and exaltation. And now for a gentle, powerful whirlwind of grace:
It Is Well / I Exalt Thee | Celtic Worship & Praise Gathering (youtube.com)