Power and a Bigger Picture – Job 38

A text – Job 38:1-11

38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
38:3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
38:5 Who determined its measurements–surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
38:6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone
38:7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
38:8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?–
38:9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,
38:10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,
38:11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?

A reflection:

The Book of Job tells an ancient story about suffering and faithfulness. It poses, among many other questions, whether all suffering is due to sin and whether all success is a reward from God for faithful and upright behavior. In the story God and Satan wager on whether Job will remain faithful to God even if all his success and riches are taken from him. Indeed, he loses everything. Everything. His friends reckon this change of fortune to something terrible Job must have done, but Job knows he has not done anything deserving this kind of punishment. He asks many big questions of God. In this passage, God begins to answer Job.

What do these 11 verses sound like to you? A very important, very powerful someone with all the plans and all the knowledge for taming a chaotic universe is telling a very small someone with no power at all that the little guy will never understand the bigness of life or the control that God can exercise over the chaos. God and creation are not comprehendible to us. God is not just a big human somewhere – God is completely and utterly Other, a great and wonderful mystery. And God happens to love us puny humans, so we must trust God always. Even if we are angry when bad things happen that we did not deserve.

In the story of Job, God and Satan conspire to let many bad things happen to Job. But it is not a true story. God does not wish bad things to happen to us beloved children. When bad things DO happen, we trust that God is with us and knows our suffering, because Jesus became human and went through suffering, was punished unjustly, was tortured, and knew grief. God knows our suffering, has participated in our suffering, and our trust in God during those times can bring some relief. Bad things happen that God doesn’t cause. But God is faithful and hears our distress cries and sends us help. When God responded to Job’s questions and laments, Job knew he had been blessed by the true God, not a human. Job knew this was God, someone Other than human with a much bigger picture and power.

In our Gospel lesson from Mark, a storm arises and Jesus is asleep in the boat. His followers are terrified. Jesus awakes and stills the storm. The disciples know then, if they weren’t exactly sure before, that Jesus was human but also Other in a deep and powerful way, with a much bigger picture and power. He was their friend and teacher, but he was Other to them, powerfully.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for answering Job’s questions and laments with the knowledge that you are Other, biggest, and more powerful than we can ever understand. Help us to remember that, no matter how we suffer, your son Jesus suffered too, and you know how it feels and what bothers us human children of yours. Protect us and keep us in your love. Amen.