DOES FAITH EVER STRUGGLE?
June 24, 2024JOB’S FAITHFUL ENDURANCE IN GOD’S STORY
[This is chapter 6 from my Yet Will I Trust Him (College Press, 1999), pp. 153-181.]
What is man that you make so much of him,
that you give him so much attention,
that you examine him every morning
and test him every moment?
Will you never look away from me,
or let me alone even for an instant?
If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
O watcher of men?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you?
Why do you not pardon my offenses
and forgive my sins?
For I will soon lie down in the dust;
you will search for me, but I will be no more.
Job to God, Job 7:17-21
Although we recognize intellectually that there is a difference between the loss of a job and the losses of Job, the pain of the moment and the questions that are raised before God seem to dispel all degrees of suffering. While all suffering is relative (the death of a loved one hurts more than the loss of a job; or, perhaps it is better to say that it is a different kind of hurt), the endurance of suffering levels all suffering to the same plane. The suffering that is most painful is the present one. The moment of suffering is absolutized in the suffering itself. Though we may recognize the intellectual distinctions between different kinds of suffering, the pain is emotionally and spiritually indistinguishable. So, the questions we all ask, the doubts we all ponder, are the same ones — no matter what the suffering. They are the questions and doubts of Job. Consequently, the righteous man Job has something to teach us about the endurance of suffering. As we watch Job, we watch a person who passed the test. As a result, we learn something about faith. We see one whom we can emulate.
Job’s trial was a struggle of faith. He passed the test, but it was no easy one. He blazed a trail of faith, but it was no effortless task. Job’s story is the story of a believer who struggles with his questions, doubts and despair. Many empathize with this struggle. At the same time, his persistent refusal to curse God is an example of faith. Job’s trial is the trial of all believers. His victory is the victory of all believers. Therefore, it is important to watch this person of faith struggle through his trial in order to learn something about the nature of faith. The story of Job discloses something about the nature of faith and lament as well as the nature of our relationship with God in a fallen, scared world.
Job addressed his questions to God, the providential Governor of the universe. He asked the one who controls nature, the one who permits or causes natural events. As a result, the question “why” is a real and legitimate one. It is no mere emotional outburst nor venting of frustration. The question is genuine and meaningful. If God intervenes, if he permits, if he causes, God must have a reason. God does not act arbitrarily. Job knew this, and he wanted to know the reason just as we want to know the reasons for our sufferings. Consequently, like Job, we ask “Why?”
Yet, for the modern and postmodern person, “Why?” is more an exclamation than a question. It is a declaration: “What a senseless and meaningless thing to happen!” For Job, “Why?” is a real question for the moral and sovereign God. While it is an exclamation, it also asks, “Why has God done this?” It asks, “Why did God permit or cause such a senseless and meaningless thing to happen?” It asks, “What is the meaning of this suffering?” It asks, “What is its purpose?”
But the difference between a mere exclamation and a real question is immense. The former is packed full of emotion, but does not expect to find any real meaning in the suffering. The latter is also emotional, but it believes — perhaps hoping against hope — there is real meaning in suffering. It believes there is an answer to the question. It believes that all suffering has reason and purpose. The former sees the disasters which bring suffering as mere randomness, chance or luck. The latter sees the disasters as divinely purposed. It believes that God has some good reason for permitting or causing this pain. Are natural disasters the result of random chance or divine purpose (whether permissive or causative)? In the face of evil, which is the best alternative? Which is more meaningful? In this chapter we will watch Job raise these questions, see how God answers them, and how faith survives.
Job’s Lament (3:1-26)
In his opening lament Job does not directly address his friends or God as he does in the ensuing dialogue. Yet, his lament is for the benefit of both. Job vents his despair. It is a poetic complaint which implicitly addresses God.[1] Job laments that he did not die before he was born (3:1-8). The day of his birth should have never dawned. It has become to him a day without joy (3:7). Even though his mother carried him to term, it would have been better to have been stillborn than to suffer the present trouble (3:9-10). Job simply wants to die since in the grave he can rest from his trouble. “There,” Job says, “the weary are at rest” (3:17). Exiles can enjoy release from captivity in the grave, and slaves can enjoy freedom from their masters (3:18-19). But God continues to give light to those, like Job, who are miserable. Job is one of those who will rejoice at death (3:20-22) because it will be a release from suffering. He asks, “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” (3:23). Life has nothing more to offer Job. He has “no peace, no quietness” and “no rest, but only turmoil” (3:26). The only resolution he can see is death. Only there can he find peace and rest from trouble. While this is a death-wish, Job does not contemplate suicide. He knows that it is only God who has the right to give and take the breath of life (12:10; cf. 1:21). Job will not use his own hand to usurp what belongs only in the hand of God. Rather, Job laments his present circumstances. From the vantage-point of the trash heap, it would have been better had he never seen life than to have suffered as he has. Job reverses the saying, “It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” Job believes it is better to never have loved than to have loved and lost. This is the depth of Job’s grief.
The attitude of complaint is clear in the constant questioning. The most significant and expressive word for any sufferer is repeated five times (NIV, NRSV) in this short lament.[2] It is the word “why.” “Why did I not perish at birth?” (3:11a). “Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?” (3:12). “Why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child?” (3:16a). “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul?” (3:20). “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” (3:23). Job equates life with misery and bitterness. Since the womb did not shut its doors, “trouble” is now before his eyes (3:10, 20). Death and darkness in Sheol are better than the misery and trouble. Yet, Job is asking a real question. He wants to know “why,” and he knows that God has the answer. Job’s question is the lament of a despairing person — one who believes it would be better to be dead than to continue his troubled existence. He does not believe he has anything to which he can look forward. As he exclaims in 7:7, “my eyes will never see happiness again.” Death is Job’s best prospect, yet, as one who longs for death, it does not come (3:21). But though the question “why” is the expression of despair, it is also, as is clear from the coming dialogue, a live question. Job wants an answer.
In a twist of irony, Job believes that God has “hedged” him in (3:23) when, in fact, God has simply constricted the “hedge” that protected him (1:10).[3] The nature of the hedge depends on one’s perspective. For Job, God has come crashing down on him, surrounding him with a confining hedge. This is the perspective of every sufferer. He is right, of course, in that God does bear responsibility for his condition. The problem, however, is that Job’s suffering is interpreted as some kind of hostile action on God’s part. The prologue, on the other hand, sees God’s hedge as his protection of Job, a protection that is still in tact to some degree. Satan is restricted. God has hedged Job’s life — he will not permit Satan to take it. But from Job’s perspective that is no protection at all. Rather, it prolongs the suffering. Ironically, Job wants even that hedge removed. Job wants relief. He does not expect it in this life, so he wants death. Yet that is the very thing that God will not permit. The very hedge which God has around Job is the thing Job wants removed. Job, therefore, is frustrated, troubled and grieved. It is better to be dead, Job thinks, than to continue his painful existence.
Job’s lament reflects his present suffering. He expresses his pain, disillusionment and hopelessness. Sufferers wonder “why” they suffer. They think about how it used to be, and whether it was worth being born at all. They think about how death — as horrible as death is — would be better than what they presently feel. There is no quiet rest in the life of the sufferer in the moment of suffering. As believers sit on the trash heap, the only response is faithful lament which waits for God to speak comfort.
The Problem
Job knows he is innocent. He also knows that God’s hand has done this. The problem is fairness. God does not seem to be playing by his own rules. Job’s friends could draw the simple conclusion that Job is an arrogant hypocrite. While they can reason that God is justly applying his rules so that Job is punished for his sins, Job knows better. He cannot succumb to such a simplistic answer. To do so would deny his own integrity.
As readers, we understand Job’s problem. Job knows, and we know, his integrity. He knows he is God’s righteous servant, as God himself indicated in the prologue (1:1,8; 2:3). Yet, he suffers the fate of the wicked. He has no option but to wonder about God’s fairness. He cannot dismiss what has happened to him as mere coincidences or “bad luck.” He cannot believe God was totally uninvolved. But neither can he deny his own integrity. He wonders about the “evil” (or trouble) that has come upon him when such trouble only belongs to the wicked. After all, it is the “fate” of the wicked that he now suffers (27:13). Job has the whole of wisdom tradition behind him: people reap what they sow. Yet, either his traditional interpretation of that principle or his traditional understanding of God must be adjusted. In the midst of his suffering, it is difficult for him to adjust to either. Consequently, his faith leads him to lament rather than to precise theological diatribes. It evokes lamentation rather than sophisticated theological discussion.
Biblical wisdom literature generally supports the traditional wisdom of the friends. For example, Proverbs 19:23 reads, “The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” Again, Proverbs 28:14, “Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” According to this biblical tradition, the person who fears God is free from trouble. This compounded Job’s situation. He recognized that he had received “trouble” (literally, evil) from God (2:10; 30:26).[4] The writer of the prologue and epilogue recognized that this trouble had come from the Lord (2:11; 42:11).[5] Indeed, the epilogue is quite explicit in referring to the “the trouble the Lord had brought upon him” (42:11). The problem is acute: how can God give Job the “trouble” which properly belongs to the wicked when he is not, by God’s own admission, wicked? If wisdom promises blessings for the righteous instead of trouble, why does Job suffer trouble when he is righteous? Job’s plight seems to run against both the traditional and biblical understandings of how God runs his universe. God’s fairness is at issue.
Job initially asks the question that all sufferers ask: “Why?” The question arises out of intense agony and disillusionment. All sufferers can empathize. The question gropes for meaning in suffering. Job thinks, as do we, that knowing why will lessen the pain and provide the motivation for endurance. That is part of his disillusionment. Is there really any finite reason which can justify the suffering that Job endures? Is there any human reason that can make sense of the death of his children? Job can see no good reason. As a result, he questions. If the end of his life is this kind of suffering, Job asks “why” he was even brought out of the womb (10:18)? If this is the nature of his suffering, he wants to know “why” God has made him a target for his arrows (7:20)? If he is innocent and does not deserve this suffering, Job wants to know “why” God has become his enemy (13:24)? The question “why” underscores the perplexity that Job feels. He is bewildered by the circumstance — he is a righteous person who is suffering terribly. If he could just know why, if he could just know the reason, then perhaps he could understand and endure the burden. But his ignorance generates confusion and disillusionment.
Job’s “whys” become bitter complaints. His constant questioning of God receives no answer except the stinging attacks of his would-be comforters. They know why — Job has committed some great sin. But Job cannot accept that answer; he knows better. Yet, he receives no answer from the one to whom he has addressed the question. God does not reply. He does not speak. God is silent, and this increases Job’s frustration. Job becomes impatient, and his questions become bitter complaints.
In response to Eliphaz, he adamantly roars that he will not sit in meek silence and bear his punishment. Job cries, “I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (7:11). When Bildad asserts that God does not reject a blameless person but punishes the wicked (8:20), Job’s deeply felt questions become frustrating affirmations. He responds, “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul” (10:1). When Eliphaz holds out the hope of restoration after repentance and righteousness (22:22-30), Job will not relent and give up the only thing he has left — his integrity. He asserts, “Even today my complaint is bitter” (23:2a).
In these three texts (7:11; 10:1; 23:2) where “complaint” and “bitterness” are combined to express Job’s feelings (the only places in the Hebrew canon where they occur together), Job is venting his frustration. As he thinks and rethinks his relationship with God, his only resort is to lodge a complaint against him. This complaint is shrouded in bitterness. To “forget” the complaint does not rid him of the suffering (9:27,28). He would gladly give up the complaint if God would only relieve him of the suffering, or at least explain it. But the pain combined with God’s silence pushes him to press his complaint even further.
Job finally begins to accuse God of injustice. Is it really fair that Job should suffer this way? What reason could God give that would justify his treatment of Job? Since Job cannot avoid the question “Why?” and he can see no good reason for the suffering, he can only struggle with the impossible thought that God is unjust. He questions the fairness of God. Of course, Job knows better than to call God’s justice into question, but from the vantage point of the trash heap Job can fathom no other alternative. He agrees with Bildad who asks the rhetorical questions, “Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?” (8:4). No, he does not, Job would agree. But Job is confused. He is righteous but he is suffering intensely. Job must think the unthinkable. Is it possible that God is unjust and is amusing himself with the misery and confusion of his creatures? Where is the God of justice in the suffering of Job?
Job realizes that he cannot in any ultimate sense dismantle and undermine the justice of God. God is “not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court” (9:32). If Job wishes to question God about his justice, “who will summon him” (9:19)? What impure man will justify himself before the Pure One and dispute his justice (14:3,4a)? The answer is, “No one!” (14:4b). Yet, despite Job’s theological recognition that he is no match for the Almighty God, his suffering drives him to vent his frustration and his anger by charging God with unfairness, by raising the unthinkable questions. These are the questions no one dares to ask, but which everyone does ask.[6]
In chapter nineteen Job becomes particularly frustrated with both his friends and with God. He accuses his friends of betrayal. In this painful explosion, he expresses his disappointment (19:5-7):
If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me,
and use my humiliation against me,
then know that God has wronged me
and drawn his net around me.
Though I cry, “I’ve been wronged!”
I get no response;
though I call for help,
there is no justice.
This passage responds to Bildad’s question, “Does God pervert justice?” (8:4). Job responds that God has “wronged” him so that he receives no “justice.” The verb “wronged” (translated “pervert” in 8:4) and the noun “justice” are the same terms Bildad used. Given his experience, Job knows that Bildad is wrong. God’s justice does not mean that only the wicked suffer. Job himself is an innocent sufferer. “There is no justice” rings in the ears of all sufferers in the midst of their suffering. Everyone can empathize with this exclamation. We all have felt it even if we have not voiced it as boldly as Job does here. Job, like all of us, sees a serious problem with the justice of God in relation to innocent suffering. His experience existentially affirms what he knows is theologically impossible. The existential moment of the sufferer is a far more powerful thing than the intellectual, theological reflection of happier times. In this context, and as the dialogue reaches a climax, Job, in the framework of an oath, emphatically states that God “has denied me justice” (27:2).
The sufferer, and Job is a primary example, can see no good reason for his suffering. Where he can find a good reason, there he would acknowledge God’s hand as punishment or discipline, or even redemption. But finding good reasons is rarely achieved in the moment of suffering. We may find it in hindsight, but even then a good reason is often elusive, and rarely found. There are some things, many things, which seemingly defy any hope of finding “good reasons.” The moment of suffering, however, cannot discern them even if they are there. The natural frustration of the believer, then, is vented in complaint to God. Even righteous Job, the man whom God acknowledged as the best on earth, could not escape those feelings. In the moment of pain, in the heat of the dialogue, Job sees no alternative other than to conclude that God has denied him justice.
In the context of traditional wisdom it is understandable that Job would raise certain questions about his situation. His first question is “Why?” His second question is “Is it fair?” His questions were accompanied with pleas and requests. Finally, his pleas became demands. In particular, he demanded an audience with God himself. He wanted a list of charges and a trial to establish his innocence. This demand pushes Job to use a “legal metaphor.”[7]
The Legal Metaphor
Job, in fact, was already on trial. Köhler has suggested that the whole dialogue (Job 3-27) exhibits the formal proceedings of a legal assembly at the gates.[8] It is as if the city elders are debating the righteousness of Job. Their heritage of wisdom which clearly distinguishes the consequences of righteous and wicked living is the legal principle. Their evidence is what God has done to Job. The three friends are engaged in a grand legal discussion which is tailored to answer one question: Why has Job suffered so much? The legal argument proceeds along these lines: (1) Only the wicked suffer the loss of their children (among other things); and (2) Job has lost his children (among other things); (3) therefore, Job is one of the wicked. What is the cause of Job’s suffering? The friends can only answer: Job must have done something to anger God, that is, Job is a great sinner. Job, armed only with his own integrity, seeks to rebut the charge.
Because Job felt wronged, he wanted his case tried. Either his friends must bring forth specific charges against him or he must hear them from God. Satan’s accusation was continued by his own friends. Job is fed up with his friends, and he knows his only recourse is to present his case to God. He tells his friends, “What you know, I know; I am not inferior to you. But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God” (13:2,3). The friends must be quiet, and he will present himself before God if God will summon him. He challenges the friends, “Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die” (13:19). Job wants to speak, and then he wants God to reply (13:22). He wants the list of sins he has committed which have resulted in this trouble. “How many wrongs and sins have I committed?” he asks. “Show me my offense and my sin” (13:23). He asks God to remove his “hand” from him and to “stop frightening” him with “terrors” (13:21). He calls upon God to summon him into his presence so that he may speak and hear God’s reply (13:22).
Of course, both Job and God, as well as the reader, know that there is no list of sins. God has no indictment against Job. Satan is the accuser and God is the defender. God refutes Satan’s accusation through Job’s faith. God has confidence in his servant.
Job believes that given his day in court, “there an upright man would present his case before him,” and he would be “delivered” (23:7). Lest we misunderstand, we should note that Job’s confidence is in his integrity, not his sinlessness. Job admits the “sins of [his] youth” (13:26). But he protests his innocence in the light of his integrity before God. This is the crux of the test — God seeks authentic hearts that reach out to him in faith. Even in the midst of his suffering Job has remained a disciple of God, treasured his words, and kept his commandments. Even though he suffered under the burden of God’s hand (23:1), he remained committed to God. His credo is steadfast (23:10-12):
But he knows the way I take,
when he has tested me,
I will come forth as gold.
My feet have closely followed his steps,
I have kept to his way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the commands of his lips,
I have treasured the words of his mouth
more than my daily bread.
Rebuking Eliphaz’s implication that Job had turned his back on God’s instruction (22:22), Job replies that he has never rejected God’s words. On the contrary, he has always treasured them more than bread itself (cf. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). Job is confident that when God has finished testing him in this darkness, he will come out of the fire like gold. In the midst of his trial, suffering did not push Job over the edge into accepting the counsel of his friends — to profess a false self-incrimination (19:4-6) — nor the counsel of the wicked to admit that serving God is unprofitable (21:16). God, then, should justly decide in his favor. God should be pleased with his faithful endurance, and we know from the epilogue that God was so pleased (42:7-9).
Job’s problem is that he cannot find God. In God’s presence he could state his complaint and have it acted upon, but where is God’s presence in this suffering? Everywhere he looks, God is not there (23:8, 9). God does not answer him. He does not come to him. God is silent. In fact, Job is perplexed by God’s hiddenness. “Why,” he asks, “do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?” (13:24). “Why,” he questions, “does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?” (23:1). In other words, why does not God act so as to set the world aright and repair the world’s injustices.[9] God’s silence makes him appear apathetic, both to the tragic circumstances of his saints (like Job) and the prosperity of the wicked. When the poor are oppressed and starve (24:4-5), God is silent. When the children of the poor are seized for debt payments (24:9), God is silent. When murders, thieves and adulterers pillage humanity (24:14-15), God is silent. “God charges no one with wrongdoing” (24:12).
Even though God is silent, Job will not remain so. He invokes a curse upon the wicked and calls upon God to judge them.[10] Even though God is silent, Job is confident that God’s “eyes are on their ways” (24:23), just as God knows Job’s “way” (23:11). Job invokes an imprecation (a curse upon the wicked) in the hope that God will no longer be silent. God, in the final analysis, is the only one who can rectify the situation. He alone can condemn the wicked and redeem the righteous (24:22). Job, therefore, seeks an audience with God to discuss the fallen nature of his universe. He seeks an explanation as to why he is treated as though he were wicked and the wicked are treated as though they were righteous. Of one thing Job is certain: God “does whatever he pleases” (23:13). Why then does he not do what is just?
After his friends have fallen silent, after they had given up on Job’s conversion, Job gives an extended declaration of his case. Chapters 29-31 function as Job’s legal brief in the divine courtroom where he makes his own his case for his integrity. It is his legal complaint. The climax of this legal approach is this bold plea (31:35-37):
Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
I sign now my defense —
let the Almighty answer me;
let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,
I would put it on like a crown.
I would give him an account of my every step;
like a prince I would approach him.
Job has presented his case. He has given a history of his situation. His circumstance has moved from blessing (29) to suffering (30). He has affirmed his ethical lifestyle (31). Now he wants God to hand down the indictment. He wants to know the exact charges against him. What is the sin that permits God’s justice to cause him to suffer so intensely? If there is no such sin, as Job contends, then Job should be acquitted. But the acquittal of Job is the indictment of God. If Job does not deserve his suffering, what right did God have to lay it upon him? Job is confident about his case. He knows his integrity. He will approach God “like a prince” because once he knows the charges, he is confident he can answer them. He is confident of his acquittal. Job’s problem is not self-righteousness, but ignorance. Job knows his own integrity, but he does not know the prologue. He knows his integrity, but he does not know the purposes of God or how he works.
The Victory of Faith
Despite his ignorance of the prologue, Job’s questions are neither simplistic nor illusory. They are hard and real. His despair is no momentary pitfall, but the bottom of a deep ravine. Suffering has evoked depressing thoughts (God as an enemy, 19:11), severe accusations (God attacks him in anger, 16:6), and bitter complaint (7:11). Job has lost hope of ever seeing happiness again (7:7). He despairs over the loss of all his dreams and goals (17:11). He yearns for the grave where he can find peace and rest (17:13ff). Yet, this is “patient” Job! He is not patient in the sense of some kind of sentimental self-imposed acquiescence. In fact, Job admits his own “impatience” when it comes to the frustrations of his experience (21:4). Rather, he is patient as one who continues to trust in God. Job is not known for his “patience,” but for his enduring faith. This is precisely the point which James makes — Job was an example of endurance (James 5:11). He is the supreme example of an enduring faith. But can a person of faith accuse God? Can a person of faith despair? Can a person of faith lose the hope of joy in this life? Job did all three.
What we see in Job is the struggle of faith — the struggle to believe despite the circumstances around him. He believes even when there seems to be no reason to believe. Job’s wife thought that the best resolution was to curse God and die (2:9). But this was the essence of the test. Will Job believe even when he has no reason to believe? Will he maintain his integrity where there is no gain or profit? Everything was taken from him materially, physically and emotionally. Will Job maintain his integrity, his fear of God, even in this desperate circumstance? The answer throughout the book’s dialogue is a resounding “Yes!”
Throughout his vacillations between despair and anger, between doubt and terror, Job maintained an implicit trust in the God of the universe. Job would not deny his integrity, but neither would he curse his God. He trusted God and continued to hope in him. Several texts offer a window into Job’s faith.
Job 13-14
In chapter 13 Job rebukes his friends for speaking wickedly on God’s behalf. His friends showed “partiality” to God, or spoke “deceitfully for him” (13:7-8). Job demands their silence since they would not fare any better than he were God to examine them (13:9-12). They must be silent, but Job must speak. He cannot suppress his fears and misapprehensions. He must approach God (13:13-14, 16). This is a terrifying prospect — to stand before God and defend one’s integrity so as to accuse him of unfairness. Yet, it is understandable because prayer often becomes the medium for that very thing. Lament as prayer often becomes the means by which the faithful vent their feelings, doubts and frustrations. Lament cries out to God about the fallenness of the world, and often complains about the suffering of the righteous. But it is this prayer of lament that Job affirms his faith in the transcendent God. He confesses (13:15-16):[11]
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance,
for no godless man would dare come before him!
Faith and hope belong together. Indeed, the word hope here is sometimes translated trust. The verb simply means to wait or tarry, and here it clearly carries the sense of trust/hope/faith. Job is determined to state, even defend, his case before God. He knows that a possible outcome is death, or expulsion from the presence of God (the term “slay” is God’s act against the wicked, as in Psalm 139:19). But his faith will still rest in God. He will wait on God. He trusts God no matter what. He can find no one else to trust. Anderson comments that “this speech expresses the strongest confidence of Job in both his innocence and God’s justice.”[12] Even if God should act in what appears to be an unjust manner, that is, to slay him, Job will still put his hope in God. When all is lost, who else can he trust? Who else is there to trust? As Peter said to Jesus, “To whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
Job’s deep faith is seen again in that same speech (12-14). Job sees hope in God’s fellowship with him after death. Job is ready to go down into the grave without vindication (14:13), but he expects to receive “renewal” or “release” (14:14) when God calls him and takes care of his sins. God will seal up his transgressions in forgiveness (14:17). Then he will receive vindication. Yet, Job recognizes that he must “wait” (same word as in 13:15) for that time to come (14:14). After God’s testing is past, God will renew fellowship and restore relationship with Job. God will call and Job will answer. This is the language of personal relationship, of a “renewed communion” between God and Job.[13] It may be that Job expects some kind of eschatological vindication here. He certainly expects a day when he would, in the words of Alden, “experience ‘renewal’ (v. 14), converse with God, and have his sins forgiven and forgotten.”[14]
Job believes that justice must find expression somewhere. God will again consider him his friend. At some point God must set the world right again; he must renew it. At some point, God will vindicate Job’s innocence. There is a such a finality to death that Job does not expect to come back to his community after death (14:7-12). He does not expect his vindication to be a resuscitation that returns him to his prior blessed existence. Such a resuscitation would vindicate him before his friends who so insistently accuse him but that is not his explicit hope. Nevertheless, he does not expect his death to be the final act in God’s drama. He believes that after death, God will vindicate him. The final act in Job’s story will be vindication and restoration, even if he dies in his current condition. Job will wait on God for this renewal. He expects it because he trusts God.
Job 16-17
Chapter 16 also contains an expression of faith that transcends the despair of the moment. Job has rejected his friends as “miserable comforters” (16:2). They cannot empathize with him. Job’s pain intensifies when he reflects on how God has attacked him like a lion tearing apart its prey (16:6, 9). God has turned him over to evil people (16:11), devastated his household (16:7), and made him the bullseye of his target (16:12-13). The result is that Job is in bitter mourning (16:15), and he cries, “My spirit is broken, my days are shortened, the grave awaits me” (17:1). Job does not believe he will live to experience his own vindication before his peers (17:13-16). Nevertheless, he has not sinned in his grief — his prayer is pure (16:17). He is committed to the way of the righteous (17:6-9). In this setting Job reflects on his hope. Despite appearances to the contrary, Job believes that he has a “witness” in heaven or an “advocate” who will intercede for him (16:18-21):
O earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!
Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as a man pleads for his friend.
Earlier Job had asked for a mediator who would put one hand on God and another on him so that their relationship might be restored (9:33). Here, however, he expresses the confidence that he has an intercessor who pleads his case. He has moved from requesting an impartial arbitrator to his confidence in a legal advocate, an intercessor. Whoever this intercessor is, Job rests his hope in him. Job expects the restoration of relationship with God through this intercession. His doubts and questions do not bring him to the point of ultimate despair. He despairs but he hopes. He complains, but he is confident that God will commune with him again.
His cry in 16:18 is a cry for vengeance over spilled blood, much like the ground cried out for vengeance over the spilled blood of Abel (Gen. 4:10), or the saints under God’s altar cried out for vengeance over the spilled blood of the martyrs (Revelation 6:10). Job’s blood must not be covered up. On the contrary, this tragedy must be reversed. Justice must be done, and only the one who is “in heaven” or “on high” can carry out this vengeance. Whom does Job have in mind here? Hartley answers the question well:[15]
Considering the various passages in which Job thinks about arguing his case before God, the best candidate for the defender that can be found is God himself…Here Job appeals to God’s holy integrity in stating his earnest hope that God will testify to the truth of his claims of innocence, even though such testimony will seem to contradict God’s own actions. Such risking is the essence of faith. For a moment Job sees God as his steadfast supporter. In this plea he is expressing the trust that God had expressed in him in the prologue because he is pushing through the screen of his troubles to the real God. He is not essentially pitting God against God; rather he is affirming genuine confidence in God regardless of the way it appears that God is treating him. Since Job, in contrast to his friends, will not concede that truth is identical with appearances, he presses on for a true resolution to his complaint from God himself.
In this moment, as he pours out his tears to God, he knows God will be his friend and his intercessor. God, who knows the facts, will testify to his innocence, as, in fact, God did in the prologue (2:3). God, in the end, will show himself friendly to Job even though present appearances are to the contrary (and this is what happens in the epilogue). Though Job vents his laments with talk about God as his enemy, in the depths of his heart Job knows that God is his friend.
Job 19
In chapter 19 Job complains that his friends treat him like an enemy. They treat him like God treats him, pursuing him like a lion pursues its prey (19:21-22), and Job has “escaped only with the skin of [his] teeth” (19:20). In this context, Job offers the most laudable expression of faith in the book. Here, clearly and decisively, we see the person of faith. The Job who refuses to deny his integrity also refuses to deny his God. He is unable to integrate how the two fit together because he does not understand why God has permitted his righteous servant to suffer. That tension generates lament, but it also generates hope. Though he lives without hope of a future joy in this world, he does not live without the ultimate hope of his vindication. His confidence is rooted in God the redeemer (19:25-27):
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes — I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
This is a crucial text in book of Job. Some have seen Job’s confidence in a “Redeemer” as fulfilled in Jesus Christ who is the mediator, or legal advocate, between God and humanity (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5).[16] Others see his “Redeemer” as his own innocence and righteousness, that is, Job is his own legal advocate.[17] Such a chasm of interpretation underscores the difficulty of the text. But despite its difficulties, the expression of confidence is clear.
This text evidences three important points about Job’s faith. First, he has supreme confidence in redemption. His redeemer lives, and he will act on Job’s behalf. The redeemer, the one who stands as the deliverer of his people (cf. Exodus 6:6; 15:13; Psalms 74:2; 77:16), is the Living God.[18] Job is confident that the God who appears to be his enemy is also the God who will redeem him. Second, he believes in his ultimate vindication by the resurrection, or at least a restoration of communion with God after death.[19] Job understands that there will be some kind of encounter with God, whether resurrected or not, in which communion with God will find its fullest expression. Job expects to “see” God. He expects to experience a blissful communion with God. Indeed, at the end of the book, Job does “see” God (42:5). Third, this relationship with God is what he presently desires from the depths of his being. Whatever the difficulties of the text, this is a cry of faith. It expresses his yearning and his trusting. Even if Job’s confidence is that God will intervene to restore Job to his previous state of blessedness,[20] or whether it is simply the assertion of his innocence,[21] it is an expression of his trust in God’s redemption despite present circumstances. This cry does not deny his God. Rather, he yearns to see him. This yearning does not arise out of arrogance or self-righteousness. Job yearns to commune with God and to experience his friendship again.
Job has no illusions about his present state. He believes that God is angry with him, has made him his enemy and will never restore to him the peace and restfulness of this life. He calls and cries, even demands, a hearing. Yet, his only real confidence is that in death God will redeem him and restore this relationship. God, as his Redeemer, will encounter him after death, and there Job will see God.
Of course, Job wants that to happen now. But his suffering has clouded his perception of his relationship with God — he perceives God as his enemy when God is really his friend. Suffering has colored Job’s outlook. It colors everyone’s. Suffering does not permit us to see things clearly. While Job doubts and despairs about his present life, he has no doubt or despair about his ultimate life with God. He knows that his Redeemer lives; he knows that he has a witness and advocate in heaven. Even if God slays him now, Job trusts God. Job may have been knocked off balance by his suffering, but he was not toppled.
Job’s faith endured. He did not curse God. He maintained his integrity. He retained his hope. However, his enduring faith was mixed with doubt, despair, disappointment and sharp accusations. Yet, it was still faith. It was a struggle of faith, but it was a victorious faith. It was a faith that answered Satan’s accusation: Does Job serve God for profit? The answer is “No”. Indeed, when Job puts that question in the mouths of the scoffers he rejects it as the “counsel of the wicked” (21:16). Job does not serve God for profit. Rather, he trusts his God even when there appears to be no reason to trust him. That is the endurance of faith. Job teaches us the lesson of faithful endurance. Genuine faith is a faith that ultimately trusts and hopes in God even though it struggles through the mountains and valleys of doubt and despair. Job teaches us that genuine faith is not perfect faith. Rather, genuine faith is a faith that retains its integrity through the struggle. Genuine faith continues to trust. That is its integrity. That is the “patience” and the endurance of Job (James 5:11).
God Encounters Job
Throughout the discussion with his friends, Job first addressed his friends and then turned to address God. Both aspects of his speeches were full of complaint and accusation. The three friends answered Job until they concluded that Job was too full of arrogance to be won by argument (32:1). For the space of some 24 chapters the friends attempted to answer Job’s questions. They were answering, but God was not. God’s silence disconcerted and disillusioned Job. Did not God see his anguish? Did not God hear his pure prayers? Would not God answer?
Job had no illusions that if God spoke that he somehow would be able to escape the misery of his present life. He had no hope of happiness in this life (7:7). But he wanted a word from God even if it were a word of condemnation. Job simply wants to know something even if it is not what he wants to hear. He wants to know the charges against him (10:2; 13:23). He wants to understand the seeming moral chaos of the universe where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer (21:7-26; 24:1-12). If God judges the wicked and charges them with evil, “why must those who know him look in vain for such days?” (24:1). Job challenges God, “Let the Almighty answer me” (31:35). Will God speak? Will he explain? If he does not, how can the righteous make sense of the prosperity of the wicked, the suffering of the righteous, and the chaotic state of the moral universe?
No doubt, to the shock and surprise of all the participants, God does speak. He comes to Job out of the whirlwind, out of the storm (38:1; 40:6). God is no longer silent, but does he answer? He speaks, but does he explain? That God spoke is one surprise, and what he said is yet another.
The text records two separate speeches by God (38:2-40:2 and 40:7-41:34), and gives two corresponding responses by Job (40:4-5; 42:1-6). Each of God’s speeches has the same pattern. First, God approaches Job with a challenge (38:2-3; 40:7-14). Second, God poses a series of questions to Job about the natural order and design of the world (38:4-39:30; 40:15-41:34). Third, God closes with a summary challenge (40:1-2). It is the first and third parts which reflect the approach that God takes to Job. How does God view Job? Does he regard him as a boisterous, self-righteous sinner who must be crushed by God’s power or does he regard him as an ignorant sufferer whose misery has pushed him to the brink of rivalry with God? I think he sees Job in the latter perspective. God confronts Job, but in mercy and grace not in wrath or anger. He confronts him with tough questions out of tough love, but Job is also God’s servant and God graciously appears to him.
But God’s answer is no answer. It does not answer Job’s questions. Why is life given to those in misery (3:20)? God does not answer. Why has God made Job his target (7:20)? God does not answer. Why did God hide his face from Job and count him as an enemy (13:24)? God does not answer. Why do the wicked prosper (21:7)? God does not answer. Why does not God set a time for judgment (24:1)? God does not answer. God does not provide an explanation for his moral government of the world and neither does he explain to Job why these tragedies have befallen him. God does not answer Job’s questions.
Instead, God engages Job in a personal dialogue that focuses on two primary points which parallel the two divine speeches. The first speech concerns God’s transcendent wisdom and care, and the second concerns God’s sovereignty over his creation, particularly over evil.
The first speech (38:1-40:2) is a series of questions about God’s role as transcendent creator in contrast to Job’s finitude and ignorance. Job had spoken about things he did not know, so God questions him about his role in the universe. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation” (38:4). God poses question after question, all reflecting his role as the creator and sovereign Lord of the cosmos. And with question after he question he prods Job to reflect on his own limitations. “Tell me, if you know all this” (38:18). The questions force Job to admit his own ignorance and remember his finite role in the cosmos.
But these questions also point to God’s wisdom and care. These are not simply questions about power. Their function is not simply to remind Job of God’s power, but also to remind him of God’s care and wisdom. The questions are not arbitrary; they move from God’s creative work when he laid the foundations of the world (38:4-7) and controlled the chaotic waters (38:8-11) to his transcendence over the chaos of the wicked and death (38:12-21), control over the waters (snow, rain, rivers) of the earth (38:22-30, 34-38), and his regulation of the stars and seasons (38:31-33). The questions then move to the animal kingdom and God’s management of his living creation. The questions are not just about knowledge but about care. God asks if Job “knows” (e.g., 39:1), but he also asks whether Job can manage this creation and care for it the way God does. Does Job hunt for the lion (38:39), feed the young ravens (38:41), give the wild donkey his home (39:6), use the wild ox in his service (39:9-12), care for the ostrich even though she has no sense (39:12-18), and give the horse his strength (39:19). God asks, “Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom” (39:26) or “does the eagle soar at your command?” (39:27). Through his power God manages his creation with wisdom and care. God’s creation is not the playground of his power but the nursery of his care. The world is not out of control, God is managing it quite nicely.
The second speech (40:6-41:34) is a series of questions about God’s control over chaotic forces. God challenges Job to manage this chaos and evil better than he does. “Do you have an arm like God?” (40:9). If so, they “unleash the fury of your wrath, look at every proud man and bring him low” (40:11) and “crush the wicked where they stand” (40:12). If you can manage evil in the world better than me, then “I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you” (40:14).
The animals “behemoth” (40:15) and “leviathan” (41:1) represent the evil and the chaos in the world. The former is a large land animal, but the later is some kind of sea creature. The language here is highly poetic and serves the point about God’s management of chaos and evil. Job cannot “crush the wicked” or bring the proud low, but God can. God controls even the behemoth which no one else can capture (40:19,24). God controls the leviathan which no else can handle (41:1-10). No other creatures are like these. No other creatures can control these animals. The behemoth is the “first” among God’s works (40:19), and the leviathan has no equal and “is king over all that are proud” (40:33-34). Evil reigns in the world. Chaos fills the earth. But God is still in control and everything belongs to him (41:11).
But how do these speeches answer Job’s questions? In one sense they are not answers. They do not specifically address the particulars of Job’s situation. God does not tell Job about the heavenly wager described in the prologue. The speeches do not address the issue of distributive justice and moral balance. God does not explain why the wicked prosper while Job suffers. The speeches do not address Job’s specific questions about suffering and justice. Rather, they address something more fundamental. They address the critical issue that was raised in the prologue and assumed throughout the dialogues: trust in God’s management of the world. Do we believe God is wisely managing his creation? This is what Job doubted, and this is what gave rise to the questions and accusations of his laments.
When evil surrounds us and chaos fills our life, then we begin to doubt God’s sovereignty (is God really in control?) or we doubt his goodness (does God really care?). We wonder whether God knows what he is doing or whether he can do anything at all. This occasions lament. We believe in God, just like Job, but the chaos of our lives creates doubt, despair and disappointment. So, we, like Job, complain, question, and accuse.
God’s answer is: I am in control, I care and I know what I am doing. Can you trust me? If I controlled the chaotic waters in creation, can I not manage the chaos of your life? If my care feeds the lions and the ravens, will I not care for you? If I can tame the leviathan who crushes the proud, can I not crush the chaos and evil in your life? God’s answer is his transcendence, but it is not a naked transcendence. It is not a sheer assertion of power. Rather, it a loving, caring transcendence which manages the chaos of the world for benevolent purposes. The question is whether Job can trust God’s management of his creation.
Job saw an answer in God’s answer. It was not the answer he sought, but it was sufficient for his needs. He confesses God’s transcendence and his own ignorance. Indeed, he offers God his praise. He confesses that there are things too “wonderful” for him to know or understand. The world is incomprehensible to him, but it is not to God. While God’s providence is unknown to him, he knows that no divine plan “can be thwarted” (42:2). Job responds to God’s dialogue with praise. It confesses the wonder of God’s providence and the inscrutability of his designs. Job’s lament turns to praise. He no longer questions or doubts, but he praises God. Through his encounter with God, he moves from complaint to praise.
Does Job “repent” and thus repudiate all that he has said in his laments? Does Job now retract all his questions? I do not think so. While the standard translation of Job 42:6 is something like the NIV, “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes,” this is not the best rendering. The term translated “despise” may also mean “melt.” It may refer to Job’s humility before God. The verb has no object in Hebrew so that it probably means something like “I humble myself before you.” The term translated “repent” means to “change one’s mind” or “reverse a decision about something” (Exodus 32:12,14; Jeremiah 18:8,10; Amos 7:3,6).[22] It does not necessarily mean to feel remorse about sin, or to confess guilt. Indeed, Job does not confess sin or regret. In fact, God judged that what Job had said was correct and that what the friends has said was erroneous (42:7). Instead of repenting of some sin, he changes his mind — he changes from lament to praise. He changes his approach to God. He gives up his lament. Job is saying, “I am comforted” or “I will no longer lament.” He will give up his “dust and ashes” — the “dust” of mourning (2:12) and the “ashes” of his tragic lament (2:8).
Job is comforted by his encounter with God.[23] The Hebrew term translated “repent” occurs seven times in Job (2:11; 7:13; 16:2; 21:34; 29:25; 42:6, 42:11). In every instance, unless 42:6 is the exception, it refers to comfort or consolation. In fact, Job’s three friends visit him for the purpose of offering comfort (2:11), but they are miserable comforters (16:2; 21:34). After God revealed himself, his friends and family again sought to comfort him (42:11). But in the midst of his tragedy Job could find no comfort, even in his nightly sleep (7:13). Job found no comfort until he encountered God. Job 42:6b perhaps should read something like “I am comforted by your presence in my dust and ashes.”
This parallels what happens in the lament Psalms. In response to a divine encounter, or a salvation oracle, the lamenter confesses “now I know. . .” (cf. Psalm 20:6; 59:9; 140:12; 41:11; 135:5). If Job is a “dramatic lament,” as Westermann argues, then the divine speeches are the “salvation oracle” and God encounters Job so that “now” Job sees God and submits to his presence. Job turns from lament to praise:[24]
42:5 contains the “solution” to the “problem” of Job. There is no other. God has answered Job. God has met Job. Insofar as Job attests to this, he attests to the reality of God in its wholeness. Now he knows God, and no longer just one aspect of God’s activity.
When God came near, when he engaged Job by his presence and by his revelation of himself, then Job was comforted. Then Job ceased his lament. Then Job learned to praise God again. The difference is the experience of God himself. While previously Job had only “heard” of God, now he had seen him (42:5). Job was comforted by the presence of God and he — if we retain the traditional translation though with a more appropriae meaning — “repented of his dust and ashes,” that is, he ceased his mourning and his heart turned to praise. Job had a “sanctuary experience,” and just as in the laments of Psalms, Job was moved by God’s presence to turn from lament to praise.
What is missing from the divine speeches is exactly what Job demanded. There is no list of charges. There is no indictment. There is no explanation of the suffering. There is no reasoned explanation of the seeming chaotic state of moral justice in the world. There is no defense of God’s justice. What answer can Job find in these speeches? How can we find in God’s speeches our answer?
If the speeches do not answer our questions, perhaps the problem is not the divine answer but the human questions. Or, more precisely, perhaps the divine answer is intended to underline the finite and limited character of the human questions. Perhaps God displays his knowledge in order that we might sense our ignorance and our finitude. Perhaps the answer is: “You’re not able to understand at this level, but you are capable of understanding my goodness and my sovereignty — so trust me!” Perhaps the answer is: “You cannot understand the answer I am capable of giving — so trust me!”
In fact, herein lies the answer. Human misery will always raise questions. It cannot help but do so. The emotional and spiritual lows of suffering will ask the questions. The intensity of suffering will bear the fruit of prolonged agony. It will ask, “Why?” It will wonder, “Where is God?” It will doubt, “Does he really care?” God does not condemn the questions. He does not even condemn the answers we often vent in the midst of suffering. God is patient with His people. But the answer lies in recognizing the distinction between God and humanity — between our questions and his character. The answer of God to Job is: “I understand your questions, but recognize your finitude; I understand your frustration, but recognize my faithfulness and care.” God’s answer to Job is his overwhelming, but comforting presence. Now Job “sees” God, and this is enough.
Throughout our questions, throughout our doubts and our pointed accusations, we must recognize that we speak from our finitude. We speak from the bottom of the bowl. We cannot see the full range of life and meaning. We do not have the perspective from which to judge all events. Our finitude is limiting. Our ignorance is debilitating. What must shine through, as it does in the words of Job, is an underlying trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God despite the outer circumstances. This is where we must bow before the transcendence of God.
In recognizing our limitations we understand that our perceptions of God are conditioned by our finitude and limited by our ignorance. The same can be said for the world around us, and especially God’s relationship to it. Thus, God did not humiliate Job or “blow him away” with his wrath which is what the friends expected. In this sense, Job himself was vindicated because the God who appeared to him was not the God his friends had imagined. On the contrary, God revealed himself as the transcendent God who wisely cares for his creation. Job encountered the transcendent God and bowed in humble submission before him as he confessed his own limitations. He encountered the living God and worshipped him.
We must learn to live by revelation rather than reasoned judgments about the relationship between God and humanity. We must learn to live by faith and not by sight. For in revelation God is not silent. He speaks, and he reveals himself in ways that assure us of his faithfulness and love. There we find the God who cares, loves and reigns. There we find God’s comforting presence. Only in the knowledge, contemplation and experience of that God can we come to endure misery with faith, integrity and hope.
Conclusion
For what hope has the godless when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?
Does God listen to his cry
when distress comes upon him?
Will he find delight in the Almighty?
Will he call upon God at all times?
Job 27:8-10.
Will believers continue to call upon God even when there is distress in their lives? Job believes the ungodly will cease their approach to God when distress comes. They will stop calling upon God in their despair. They have no other option than to sit in silence and face the nothingness. However, when believers are distressed, they cry to God. They call upon the name of God. Indeed, this is one reason why believers are sometimes caused distress or trouble by God. He intends to turn them to himself and prompt their return to him. God wants them to call on his name. The ungodly will reject God’s discipline and refuse to call on his name. But believers, like Job, will continue to call upon God and offer their prayers, though their prayers may be filled with questions, bitterness and doubt. Nevertheless, God’s faithful people cry out to him day and night (1 Kings 8:59: 2 Chronicles 6:20; Lamentations 2:18; Nehemiah 1:6; Jeremiah 9:1; Psalm 32:4; 42:3; Revelation 4:8; 7:15).
After the exile Zechariah interpreted the meaning of the wars that engulfed Judah before and during their exile. God declared that two-thirds of the land would be struck down and perish, and that the remaining third would be left in the land. God declared his intention for this third (Zechariah 13:8-9):
This third I will bring into the fire,
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, “They are my people,”
and they will say, “The Lord is our God.”
God tested his people and refined their faith through the exile. Those who were left in the land were put to the test through the distress of a devastated land. The people would then cry out and the Lord would answer them by renewing his covenant of love. God would fulfill his creative intent by again dwelling among his people as their God and they as his people. God would respond to the call of his people; he would answer their prayers. God tests his people to see if they will cry out to him in faith or whether they will rebel against his intentions and curse him. God tests his people to see what is in their hearts.
The biblical concept of “calling” upon God or “calling on the name of the Lord” provides the backdrop of God’s testing. It is the beginning of our salvation (“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” Romans 10:13; cf. Acts 22:16) and it characterizes the whole of our life before God (2 Timothy 2:22; 1 Corinthians 1:2). It is the persistent prayer of the believer who calls upon God in every circumstance of life. The psalms mirror the pervasive character of this life of prayer. The term “call” or “cry out” is used fifty-nine times in Psalms. It is used in penitential hymns (Psalm 102:2; 130:1; cf. Joel 1:14, 19), in laments or complaints (Psalms 3:4; 4:1,3; cf. Lamentations 3:55, 57), in petitions or intercessions (Psalm 30:8; 34:6; cf. 1 Chronicles 4:10; 2 Chronicles 14:11) and in praises or thanksgivings (Psalm 105:1; 138:3; cf. 1 Chronicles 16:8). The people of God call on the name of the Lord. They offer him their thanksgivings, praises, petitions, confessions, laments and complaints. They are people who bow before God’s throne and seek his face. They are people who pour out their hearts before him and submit to his will. God’s people are a people of prayer. As God’s people, they expect that when they call God, in his faithfulness, will answer according to his mercy (Psalm 3:4; 4:1; 17:6; 20:9; 22:2; 27:7; 81:7; 86:7; 91:15; 99:6; 102:2; 118:5; 119:145; 120:1; 138:3; 1 Chronicles 21:26; Isaiah 58:9; 65:24; Jeremiah 33:3; Jonah 2:2; Zechariah 13:9).
What God expects of his people is that they constantly and consistently engage him in prayer. He expects his people to persistently call on his name, and God’s loving faithfulness means that he will respond in a manner consistent with his eschatological goal. God intends to have a people for himself and he himself is faithful to his goals, but the question is whether we will persist in prayer. When God’s eschatological goal is accomplished, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth” (Luke 18:8)? Will the people of God continue to engage God in persistent prayer with the confidence that God will act on behalf of his people who “cry out to him day and night” (Luke 18:7)?
Believers, when they are burdened with the fallenness of this world, turn to God and make their burdens known. They petition, they cry for help and they ask questions. Believers turn to God in faith while the ungodly curse God and seek their own way. But when God’s people cry for help, rescue and deliverance they experience the anguish of faith. It is a faith that trusts even when it seems as though God has become their enemy (Psalms 6, 44, 74, 88, 90).[25] The people of God call upon their God “day and night” (Nehemiah 1:6).
[1]Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1985), pp. 76-84, provides an excellent literary discussion of Job 3 to which I am indebted.
[2]The Hebrew word for “why” only occurs in 3:11, 20, but the word is implied by the construction and context in 3:12,16,23.
[3]Job 1:10 and 3:23 use different Hebrew terms but the concept is the same.
[4]The same word as used in Proverbs 19:23. While the term literally means “evil,” it is often used of calamities and unfortunate disasters–even punishments (cf. Proverbs 5:19; 21:30; 31:29).
[5]The same word as used in Proverbs 28:14.
[6]The subtitle of Yancey’s book, Disappointment with God , is “Three Questions No One Asks Aloud.”
[7]Michael Brennan Dick, “The Legal Metaphor in Job 31,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 41 (1979), 37-50; “Job 31, the Oath of Innocence, and the Sage,” Zeitschrift für Altestamentliche Wissenschaft 95 (1983), 31-53; Sylvia Hubermann Scholnick, “The Meaning of Mispat (Justice) in the Book of Job,” Journal of Biblical Literature 101 (1982), 521-29; “Poetry in the Courtroom: Job 38-41,” in Directions in Hebrew Poetry, ed. Elaine Follis (Sheffield: JSOT, 1987), 185-204; J.J. Roberts, “Job’s Summons to Yahweh: The Exploration of a Legal Metaphor,” Restoration Quarterly 16 (1973), 159-165; and Norman Habel, The Book of Job: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985), 54-57.
[8]Ludwig Köhler, Hebrew Man, trans. P. R.. Ackroyd (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957), 134-39.
[9]Gerald Janzen, Job, Interpretation (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1985), pp. 168-9.
[10]John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), pp. 352-3. See also Anderson, Job, p. 214.
[11]This is a notoriously difficult verse to translate. The NIV footnote gives the alternative “He will surely slay me; I have no hope–yet I will…” The difficulty lies in the Hebrew construction. Does it mean “I have no hope” or “I will hope in him”? I have opted for the NIV text which Anderson, Job, p. 166, and David McKenna, Job, The Communicator’s Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1986), p. ???, defend. In either event, Job is confident about his vindication when he comes before God. The NIV footnote would mean something like: Whether God kills him or not, whether he has hope for future prosperity or not, he is certain that his innocence will be confirmed (cf. 13:18).
[12]Anderson, Job, p. 166.
[13]David J.A. Clines, Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word Books, Publisher, 1989), p. 333.
[14]Alden, Robert R. Job, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993), p. 168.
[15]Hartley, Job, p. 264.
[16]Roy B. Zuk, Job, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1978), 92, p. and Alden, p. 207.
[17]Clines, Job, pp. 459-60.
[18]Hartley, Job, pp. 293-5.
[19]That Job speaks of a resurrection is controversial in contemporary scholarship. I will not take the time to defend this understanding except to point the reader to the fine explanations of Janzen, Job, pp. 142-45.
[20]Hartley, Job, p. 296.
[21]Clines, Job, p. 461.
[22]Dale Patrick, “Job’s Address of God,” Zeitschrift für die Altestamentliche Wissenschaft 91 (1979), 279-81. See his earlier article “The Translation of Job XLII 6,” Vetus Testamentum 26 (1976), 369-71, Habel, Job, p. 583, and Gustavo Gutiérrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, tran. by Matthew J. O’Connell (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987), pp. 82-7.
[23]David Wolfers, Deep Things Out of Darkness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), p. 461, translates 42:6 as “I am comforted.” See also D.J. O’Conner, “Job’s Final Word — ‘I Am Consoled. . .” (42:6b), Irish Theological Quarterly 50 (1983/84), 181-97.
[24]Westermann, The Structure of the Book of Job, p. 128.
[25]Ingvar Fløsvik, When God Becomes My Enemy: The Theology of the Complaint Psalms (Saint Louis: Concordia Academic Press, 1997).
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Biblical Texts | Tagged: Encounter, Endurance, Faith, God, Job, Lament, Prayer, Struggle, Suffering, Theodicy | 
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