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Friday, February 22, 2019

What kind of God is this? Thoughts on Job and "the heart of the tempest"


“So, the Lord said to Satan... Did you pay any attention to my servant Job?”
–Job 1:7-8

“Then from the heart of the tempest, the Lord gave Job His answer.”
--Job 38:1

From the heart of the tempest, the Lord gave Job His answer.  Out of the heart of the tempest comes the Lord’s answer.  This feels key.

There are two aspects of the Book of Job that are particularly troubling to me:

1.      What kind of God would do this or allow this to happen to His beloved servant? To anyone? Is He malevolent, or just an underachiever?
2.      The Lord’s response.  What is the meaning of God’s “answer” to Job? Or, to put it more concisely: what is God’s answer?

Speaking out of the tempest (aka. storm; whirlwind) God makes no defense of His actions (or inaction).  He offers no explanation of what has happened to Job, to his family, his slaves, his livestock; though God allowed all of it  –even instigated it (in some interpretations).  No. Instead of defending or explaining Himself, God shows up in the midst of some great storm wind, and presents Job with a series of unanswerable questions:
Where is the storehouse of snow? The house of light? Darkness? Can you fasten the stars? Untie them? Will rain fall at your command? Lightning come at your call? Will the wild ox be your pet? Behemoth? Leviathan? What about the glorious horse—did you make that? Surely you did!
At times He even takes an ironic tone, taunting and challenging Job to let it all hang out; take your best shot!
“Come on, display your majesty...
let the fury of your anger burst forth...” (40:10-11)

Though, God never explains Himself, somehow these confounding questions seem to satisfy Job.  How?  I’ve been wondering about that.  There are a couple of possible answers that come to mind: first, that Job is so intimidated by God’s awesomeness that he covers his mouth and retreats—basically acknowledging that he can’t compete with God. In other words, on some level he’s been beaten into submission. Or, second, that somehow God’s response actually satisfies Job, answers the essential question he’s been asking for app. 37 chapters: Why? Why would God do this to his faithful servant?

For the longest time I fell somewhere in the middle of all this. I had kind of stumbled around the edges of this beautiful ancient text assuming that on some metaphorical or allegorical or spiritual level what satisfied Job was God’s awesomeness.  That –yes, he was frightened into submission; putting his hand over his mouth as a way of acknowledging the vulnerability of his position: I’m not worthy BUT, somehow the inscrutableness of God’s presence not only intimidates Job, but also satisfies him.

Now, however, I find myself stuck on that tempest, caught by the image of God’s answer coming “from the heart of the tempest.”  Is it possible that where God speaks from is part of the answer that satisfies Job? That God’s answer comes “from the heart of the tempest…”   
 
Let me put this into a little context.  Last week my wife was preparing to teach the beatitudes to her classes, and on the way home we were talking in the car, trying to recall all 8 beatitudes and see if we could put in teachable words the blessedness that arises out of each.  Pretty quickly we got hung up on mourning. 

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” –Matthew 5:4

Inspired by Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth books and The Ladder of the Beatitudes by Jim Forest, I was speculating on how mourning was somehow positively attached to the identity of Christ, to His presence. He mourned (& wept), and therefore to be like Him…  But I couldn’t even convince myself.  I couldn’t make the connection stick in my own head.  That whole night I was troubled by a kind of sour feeling of my own failure; as if I knew something was true but couldn’t prove it and it was eating at me.  I suspected that somehow I was just wrong; my whole idea of Jesus and the beatitudes was wrong.  And there was also that sting of embarrassment. Here I was trying to say something profound and yet… I couldn’t.  Of course, that isn’t news to anyone who reads these posts.  But, the next morning, I opened my Bible and read:

“Then from the heart of the tempest, the Lord gave Job His answer.”
--Job 38:1

And I almost slapped myself. That was what I was trying to say!  It is from the storm, from the heart of the tempest that God speaks to us.  Why is it blessed to mourn?  Because when we are mourning, we are entering into the heart of the tempest.  There –in the midst of life’s storms, in the heart of the tempest—the Lord will speak to us; He gives us His answer.  It comes out of the heart of the tempest.  Which says to me, that God’s long list of awe-inspiring questions and imagery is only part of His answer to Job. God reveals Himself not only through this series of questions, but also through how He shows up.  God reveals Himself through the storm, through the strife, in the heart of the tempest He reveals Himself.  On the road to Calvary, He reveals Himself…

So—of course—Yes! Blessed are they who mourn; of course, they will be comforted –because in their mourning God reveals Himself to them.  It is in the mystery of mourning that God’s mysterious nature may be glimpsed; and our insufficiency made ineluctably clear.   

Which sends me back to my other question: what kind of God would do this to His beloved servant?  I guess the same kind of God who would send His only begotten Son to die for the sins of others.  That cry from the cross: My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? is prefigured in the questioning of Job, the demanding of God to show Himself. 

So, in our suffering, in our mourning, perhaps we are being offered a chance to see Christ, to see God, and to be comforted by knowing we too have a part in His cross.  We share in His grace. We share in His mystical body.  And to know that, is to be blessed.  

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