Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 "I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, `Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, `Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes." Job42:1-2
If yesterday's devotion left you with a sense of "God is God and you are not so shut up and accept your fate," you would be missing the point of this beautiful encounter.
Job started his journey of suffering with great trust: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." (1:21) But he had three friends, who were immersed in an "action and consequence" theology, who were convinced that Job had done something wrong and this had brought about the suffering that he was going through.
Their view of God was too small. They saw God as a "cause and effect" God. They simplified Him to a set of rules - "If this, then that." This created a faith of reward or punishment. God was a cold impersonal being who simply applied the rule-book and it was a simple to understand Him - stick to the rules and it goes well and vice versa.
Job wouldn't and couldn't buy his friends' version of a mechanistic cause-and-effect God. So, partly in reaction to his friends' bad theology Job swings to the other side of the pendulum to make God so personal and private that Job could "have his day in court" with God.
Where Job lands up after God reveals His spectacular grandeur and awe-inspiring majesty is that he realises his own finitude and comes to a place of trust in God even though he doesn't understand God's ways.
The story ends with God putting the three friends in their place and He tells them to ask "my servant Job" to pray for them. He restores Job's health and riches and lives happily ever after.
What is powerful about Job's story is that it wrestles with an adequate God picture. Is God a cold cause-and-effect God or a God who is accountable to His creatures? Job discovers that God is neither of the afore-mentioned, but rather that He is sovereign, free and that we must trust Him even when we don't always understand Him.
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Theo Groeneveld theo @ emmanuel.org.za
