Friday 11 October 2024

Psalm 9:1-10

Background
His friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar visit Job and give explanations for his suffering. God, however, does not! Instead, God bombards Job with a list of over 40 questions, such as whether Job is able to guide the stars or number the clouds. The intention is to underline God's control of the universe and the gap between God and Job. The first group are cosmological as God tests Job’s knowledge of the heavens, the stars and the earth (38:4-38). In the second set God examines him on what he knows about lions, goats, donkeys, oxen, ostriches, horses, hawks, hippopotamus and crocodiles (38:39 - 40:24). This avalanche of relentless interrogation sweeps away Job’s agenda. Indeed halfway through the zoological examination God wants Job to say something but he cannot now trust himself to speak (40:4-5). He knows his words are without knowledge.

Note how God’s reflection on creation has resonances with the opening chapters of the book of Genesis: the emptiness of the deep, the turning of darkness to light, the creation of the stars, the sea and the animals. Is Job another Adam and is he being tempted by Satan? All the questions fired at Job arise from two basic questions: "Who are you?" and "Where were you?"

While Job’s comforters may have been theologically correct in their spelling out of timeless truths, they are wrong because they ignore a real-life context. Job is righteous because, unlike his theological comforters, his troubles are so traumatic that he has been forced to let go of everything including his traditional understanding of God. His terrible experience has burnt away the easy answers. He also learns something else that is even more important; namely that the God we are dealing with comes to us not with answers but with commands and questions. It is in our responding that we discover the answers for ourselves.

To Ponder:

• If God asked "Who are you?" and "Where are you?" how would you respond?
• God came to Job not with answers, but with commands and questions. Do you think God does that to us, today?
• How often do you communicate to God your difficulties as well as your praises and petitions?

First published in 2021.