|
PUTTING GOD ON TRIAL: The Biblical Book of Job.
|
Act 3 in The Book of Job
might be entitled Putting God on
Trial for, within a canonical perspective, it reworks the Revelation story. The Oath of Innocence trumpets a
Final Judgment, a judgment on God himself. God is summoned to the bar of
universal justice to give a defense for the world he has created.
God’s Appearance in a
Golden Whirlwind
To the astonishment of all, God appears before this court of
justice. God
appears in the form of a golden whirlwind. (Job 37:22; 38:1)
In part, the whirlwind is a cloak for God’s own goodness. On the terms of God’s own trial,
God cannot fully disclose his purpose in creation. In part, the whirlwind mirrors the
whirl of emotions in the three cycles of speeches that have immediately
preceded it. This is the
culmination of that discussion.
But more importantly, the golden whirlwind is a powerful
mythological symbol for the divine control of evil. The mythological background is
primarily the Babylonian myth of creation. And its use here intimates God’s
discussion of Leviathan to follow in his second speech to
Job.
In Ancient Near Eastern creation myths, goodness is
order; evil is chaos. The creation of the world and the
creation of humankind is the imposition of order on chaos. Creation is
not creation out of nothing, but rather creation out of chaos. The chaos
consists of pre-existent physical materials which are inherently difficult
to control.
Those pre-existent materials are usually described in terms of
water, probably because of its shapelessness. Those
pre-existent materials are usually pictured as a sea monster or monsters
within the water, though they represent the water itself. All the
monsters are one: chaos. Any multiplication of monsters is merely for
dramatic effect. The creation of the world is a divine
struggle to impose order on this pre-existent chaos. That struggle
is pictured through a combat motif in which the high God battles the chaos
monsters, defeating them, killing some and imprisoning others. It is the
triumph of good over evil. The world is created out of the body of
a slain chaos monster. Land emerges out of the water. Form has been
imposed on chaos. The primordial waters of chaos are then
confined to the waters above the firmament (the heavens), to the waters
below the firmament (the underworld) and to the waters surrounding the
firmament (the oceans that circle the world).
Humankind is then created out of the blood of a slain chaos
monster.
This is the poetic way of saying four things. (1) Evil is all around us. (2) Evil is deep within us. (3) Evil is part of the very fabric of creation. (4) And evil is part of God’s very purpose in
creation.
The Babylonian myth of creation typifies these
Ancient Near Eastern creation myths.
In the the Babylonian myth of creation, the whirlwind is the
identifying sign of the high God Marduk’s triumph over evil. Marduk
himself is draped in golden auras. “His body was magnificent, fiery his
glance, He was a hero at birth, he was a mighty one from the beginning! …. He wore (on his body) the aura of ten gods, had (them) wrapped around his head (?) too, Fifty glories were heaped upon him. Anu formed and produced the four winds, He put
them in his hand, “Let my son play!”[1] Marduk
holds in his hand the whirlwind and because he is golden, the whirlwind
becomes a golden whirlwind. The phrase “Let my son play!” can mean
“My son, let them whirl” referring to the winds.[2] Marduk is the
storm God.
The play in question is the imposition of order on chaos. The whirlwind
is the identifying sign of the imposition of that order. “He fashioned
dust, he made a storm bear it up, He caused a wave and it roiled Tiamat,
Tiamat was roiled, churning day and night, The gods, finding no rest, bore
the brunt of each wind.”[3] Tiamat is the
pre-existent evil that is chaos. When Marduk goes to do battle with
Tiamat, he takes a variety of weapons, the most important of which is the
whirlwind.
“He made the bow, appointed it his weapon, He mounted the arrow, set it on the string, He took up the mace, held it in his right hand, Box and quiver he slung on his arm. Thunderbolts he set before his face. With raging fire he covered his body. Then he made a net to enclose Tiamat within. He deployed the four winds that none of her might
escape: South Wind, North Wind, East Wind, West Wind, Gift of his grandfather Anu, he fastened the net at
his side. He made ill wind, whirlwind, cyclone. Four-ways wind, seven-ways wind, destructive
wind,
irresistible wind: He released the winds which he had made, the seven of
them, Mounting
in readiness behind him to roil inside Tiamat.”[4] The four winds, the seven winds circle together to
create the irresistible ill wind, the whirlwind. The whirlwind
is the vehicle by which Marduk defeats evil. “Tiamat and Marduk, sage of the gods, drew close for
battle, They locked in single combat, joining for the
fray. The Lord spread out his net, encircled her, The ill wind he had held behind him, he released in
her face. Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow, He thrust the ill wind so she could not close her
lips. The raging winds bloated her belly, Her insides were stopped up, she gaped her mouth
wide. He shot off the arrow, it broke open her belly, It cut to her innards, it pierced her heart. He subdued her and snuffed out her life. He flung
down her carcass, he stood his stand upon it.”[5] Tiamat is killed as she opens her mouth to swallow
the high God.
She swallows the whirlwind and is destroyed from within. Marduk shoots
an arrow through her mouth and it pierces her heart and tears open her
belly.
Her innards fall out. She is dead. And Marduk
takes his stand on her dead carcass. The author’s introduction of this
Babylonian image of a golden whirlwind intimates the introduction of the
chaos monster Leviathan in God’s second speech. Leviathan is
the Jewish reworking of the Tiamat myth.
Yet the whirlwind is a morally ambiguous image for Job. He has
previously complained to God that “you have turned cruel to me; with the
might of your hand you persecute me. You lift me up on the wind, you make me
ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. I know that
you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all the
living.” (Job 30:21-23) The whirlwind had already taken the
lives of Job’s children. (Job
To the astonishment of all, Job is not struck dead
for his claim.
It is a silent witness Job is in the right. To the
astonishment of all, God does not enter a defense to the claim made by
Job. God
is prohibited, on the terms of his own trial with Satan, from explicitly
giving Job the reason for his suffering, lest that in turn give Job and
humanity a reason to worship God and ultimately to manipulate God for
their own ends.
God is on trial for his life and his very purpose in creation and
his hands are tied. God is forced into a strategy of
indirection.
God’s First Speech
In his first speech, God reviews the created order at length,
challenging the extent of Job’s wisdom not his innocence or his
integrity.
God hints that there is a purpose in all things, his concern is
ongoing and a human being should be ever mindful of his or her created
status.
1. Physical World
Job has asked, indeed Job has demanded, that God explain his
activity in the world. Specifically, Job has asked and
demanded that God answer the question why is there evil in the world.
So God proceeds to describe his activity in the world. God first
reviews the physical world through seven things: (1) the foundations of the earth (Job 38:4-7), (2) the sea (Job 38:8-11), (3) Sheol (Job 38:12-21), (4) the storehouses of snow and hail (Job 38:22-24),
(5) the rain (Job 38:25-30), (6) the heavens (Job 38:31-33) and (7) the lightning (Job 38:34-38). Opening Question: Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: "Who is
this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your
loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
(Job 38:1-3 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.) Physical World 1. Foundations of the Earth: "Where were you when I laid the
foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its
measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the
line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its
cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly
beings shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 2. Sea: "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from
the womb? when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness
its swaddling
band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and
doors,
and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall
your proud waves be stopped'? (Job 38:8-11 Italics added for emphasis
and clarification.) 3. Sheol: "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and
caused the
dawn to know its place, so that it might take hold of the skirts of
the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed
like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment. Light is withheld
from the wicked, and their uplifted arm is broken. "Have you entered into
the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the
gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep
darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare,
if you know all this. "Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and
where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and
that you may discern the paths to its home? Surely you know, for you were born then, and the
number of your days is great! (Job 38:12-21 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 4. Storehouses of snow and hail: "Have you entered the storehouses of
the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have
reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the
way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is
scattered upon the earth? (Job 38:22-24 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 5. Rain: "Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way
for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on the
desert, which is empty of human life, to satisfy the waste and desolate
land, and to make the ground put forth grass? "Has the rain a father,
or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven? The waters become hard
like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. (Job 38:25-30 Italics
added for emphasis and clarification.) 6. Heavens: "Can you bind the chains
of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the
Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear
with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their
rule on the earth? (Job 38:31-33 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 7. Lightning: "Can you lift up your voice to the
clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth
lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'? Who has put
wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind? Who has the
wisdom to
number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the
dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together? (Job 38:34-38 Italics
added for emphasis and clarification.) 2. Animal World
God then reviews the animal world through seven things: (1) the wild lions (Job 38:38-41), (2) the wild goats (Job 39:1-4), (3) the wild ass (Job 39:5-8), (4) the wild ox (Job 39:9-12), (5) the wild ostrich (Job 39:13-18), (6) the war horse (Job 39:13-18) and (7) the birds of prey (Job 39:26-30). Animal World 1. Wild Lions: "Can you hunt the prey for the
lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when
they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their covert? Who provides
for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about
for lack of food? (Job 38:39-41 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 2. Wild Goats: "Do you know when the mountain
goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? Can you
number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give
birth, when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of
their young? Their young ones become strong, they grow up in
the open; they go forth, and do not return to them. (Job 39:1-4
Italics added for emphasis and clarification.) 3. Wild Ass: "Who has let the wild ass go
free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass, to which I
have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling
place?
It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of
the driver. It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after
every green thing. (Job 39:5-8 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 4. Wild Ox: "Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your crib? Can you tie it in the furrow with
ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you? Will you
depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your
labor to it? Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your
grain to your threshing floor? (Job 39:9-12 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) 5. Wild Ostrich: "The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its
pinions lack plumage. For it leaves its eggs to the earth,
and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting
that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them. It deals cruelly
with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should
be in vain, yet it has no fear; because God has made it forget wisdom, and
given it no share in understanding. When it spreads its plumes aloft, it
laughs at the horse and its rider. (Job 39:13-18 Italics added
for emphasis and clarification.) 6. War Horse: "Do you give the horse its might? Do you
clothe its neck with mane? Do you make it leap like the locust?
Its majestic
snorting is terrible. It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to
meet the weapons. It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn
back from the sword. Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing
spear, and the javelin. With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground;
it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet
sounds, it says 'Aha!' From a distance it smells the battle, the
thunder of the captains, and the shouting. (Job 39:13-18 Italics added for
emphasis and clarification.) 7. Birds of Prey: "Is it by your wisdom that
the hawk
soars, and spreads its wings toward the south? Is it at your
command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high? It lives on
the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag. From there it
spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away. Its young
ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is." (Job
39:26-30 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.) Concluding Question: And the LORD said to Job: "Shall a faultfinder
contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues with God must
respond." (Job 40:1-2 Italics added for emphasis and
clarification.) Seven is a symbolic number and this is a symbolic
review of all in the physical and animal worlds that God intends to
reveal.
Significantly, God deliberately chooses not to review the human
world.
While his descriptions are extensive and often beautiful, they are
entirely irrelevant to question at hand- God’s moral activity in the
creation of evil in the human world. At first glance, the whirlwind appears
to be nothing more than a windbag. God goes round and round the world
missing the moral point at every turn.
God seems to be making only one point. Job is
ignorant and should be every mindful of his created status in challenging
God. God
hammers home that point time and time again- thirty five times in
all.
“Who is this that darkens counsel by word without knowledge?” (Job
38:1)
“Declare to me” (Job 38:3) “Where were you?” (Job 38:4) “Who
determined” (Job 38:5) “Have you” (Job 38:12) “Have you”
(Job 38:16)
“Have you” (Job 38:17) “Have you” (Job 38:18) “Declare, if
you know all this” (Job 38:18) “Where is the way” (Job 38:19) “Surely you
know” (Job 38:21) “Have you” (Job 38:22) “What is the
way” (Job 38:24) “Who has” (Job 38:25) “Can you”
(Job 38:21) “Can you” (Job 38:32) “Do you know” (Job 38:33) “Can you”
(Job 38:33)
“Can you” (Job 38:34) “Can you” (Job 38:35) “’Who has”
(Job 38:36)
“Can you” (Job 38:39) “Do you know” (Job 39:1) “Do you
observe”
(Job 39:1) “Can you” (Job 39:2) “Who has”
(Job 39:1)
“Who has” (Job 39:1) “Can you” (Job 39:10) “Will you”
(Job 39:11)
“Do you” (Job 39:12) “Do you” (Job 39:19) “Do you” (Job
39:19)
“Do you” (Job 39:20) “Is it” (Job 39:26) “Is it” (Job
27) Yet
God’s point is of limited worth. Job has never claimed omniscience. And Job has never questioned God’s sovereignty.
In his Oath of Innocence, Job has testified that God
is the author of undeserved evil in the world and that human beings have a
right to know the reason why. Those are the issues. God’s defence
might legitimately include a cross-examination of the plaintiff Job. But God is
brow-beating the witness Job on a point that is irrelevant to the question
at hand.
In the entire Bible, this first speech is the longest speech
God ever gives.
It leaves Job and many a reader wondering what is God up to here
and in the world.
On the terms of his own trial with Satan, God cannot give direct
answers.
Somehow whatever answer God does give is tied to the created status
of men and women. Job certainly does not know what has
happened in heaven. And God cannot tell him without
defeating the very purpose of creation. God has to be harsh and evasive with
Job. God
cannot appear loving, lest Job find in kind words a reason to love
God. If
this is love, then it is the toughest love possible.
It should be noted that God’s description of the physical animal
worlds is a creation account. It begins with the statement “where
were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4) What follows
is a description of the physical and animal worlds as they were from their
foundation.
Of particular interest is God’s comment “can you hunt the prey for
the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions…?” (Job 38:39) God has built
into the very structure of things an almost Darwinian struggle for
existence and the chaos that entails. This is a profound rewriting of the 1 Isaiah’s
understanding of The Book of Genesis where the lion originally lay
down with lamb in a time of primal innocence. (Isaiah 11:6-7) In The Book of
Job, the lion has always eaten the lamb since the “foundation of the
earth”. (Job 38:4) Death in the natural world is not a
result of Adam and Eve’s sin.
God’s description of the physical and animal worlds finds some
interesting parallels in Psalms 104 and 89. Both psalms
link the natural world with the mythological world. And God’s use
of similar language in his first speech should prompt the discerning
reader to expect the appearance of Leviathan in God’s second speech.
(1) Psalm 104 is a myth of creation modeled on an
earlier Egyptian myth of creation involving the high God Ra. However, the
psalmist seems to have had before him a Canaanite copy of that myth, as
evidenced by the use of a number of Canaanite words and images within this
psalm.[6]
“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are
very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as
with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, you set the
beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot,
you ride on the wings of the wind, you make the winds your messengers,
fire and flame your ministers. You set the earth on its foundations, so that it
shall never be shaken. You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the
waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they flee; at the sound
of your thunder they take to flight. They rose up to the mountains, ran down
to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them. You set a
boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover
the earth.
You make spring gush forth in the valley; they flow between the
hills, giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses
quench their thirst…From your lofty abode you water the
mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the
grass to
grow for the cattle…The high mountains are for the wild
goats…You have make the moon mark the seasons; the sun knows its time
for setting…The young lions creep roar for their prey, seeking their
food from God. When the sun rises, they withdraw and
lie down in their dens...Yonder is the sea, great
and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living
things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan
that you formed to sport in it. These all look to you to give them
their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when
you open your hand, they are filled with good things.” (Psalm
104:1-11,13-14,18-19,21-22, 25-28 Italics added for emphasis.) Echoes of the Babylonian myth of creation can be
heard in the emergence of the land out of the waters that “covered the
earth.”
The cosmic battle has been demythologized to a very great
degree.
It is by God’s “rebuke” not his weaponry that the waters of the
deep flee.
The imposition of order is by fiat command. Chaos is
given a role to play in the world, but that role is dramatically
circumscribed.
“They…ran to the place that you appointed for them. Yet set a
boundary that they may not pass.” (Psalm 104:8-9) This language
of boundaries, limits and appointed places will reoccur in God’s first
speech to Job. “Who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst out from the
womb?- when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its
swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and
said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud
waves be stopped?” (Job 8-10)
The author of The Book of Job may have known this psalm. The order of
creation in this hymn: stretching out the heavens, covering them with
clouds, fixing the foundations of the earth and rebuking the raging sea is
repeated in Job’s first words in the third speech in the third cycle. They precede
his Oath of Innocence. “With whose help have you uttered words, and whose
spirit has come forth from you? The shades below tremble, the waters
and their inhabitants. Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon
has no covering. He stretches out Zaphon over the void, and hangs
the earth upon nothing. He binds up the water in his thick clouds, and
the cloud is not torn open by them. He covers the face of the full moon,
and spreads over it his cloud. He has described a circle on the face of the waters,
at the boundary between light and darkness. The pillars
of heaven tremble, and are astounded at his rebuke. By his power
he stilled the Sea; by his understanding he struck down Rahab. By his wind
the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. These are
indeed but the outskirts of his ways; and how small a whisper do we hear
of him!” (Job 26:4-14 Italics added for emphasis) In many
ways, God’s first and second speech to Job play off this introduction to
Job’s Oath of Innocence. Much of the language and many of the
images will be repeated. The idea of a providential control of
chaos is deepened with the repeated image of a covering garment. (Psalm
104:6; Job 38:9) God treats the chaos as his child,
presumably rearing it for a special purpose. That purpose
involves the effortless control that is play. God brings up
this child through play. God is said to “sport” with Leviathan,
that chaos monster of the deep. (Psalm 104:26) The Hebrew
here “lesaheq bo” is admittedly ambivalent and can be read either as
“sport in it” meaning the sea or “sport with it” meaning the dragon. The NRSV opts
for the former, but the latter seems preferable. A similar
expression, “hatesheq bo” occurs in God’s second speech to Job where it is
clear the meaning is “sport with it”. “Will you play with it
as a bird, or will you put it on lease for your girls.” (Job 41:5) This latter
usage should dictate in our understanding of the passage at hand.[8] God’s final
purpose for this child, Chaos, is never stated, but presumably it involves
the giving of something good in due season. (Psalm 104:27-28) At least,
there is a “whisper” that that might be the case.
(2) Psalm 89 presents that myth of creation once
again.
The heavenly council has its Babylonian and Canaanite counterparts,
but God’s kingship is never in question. God is the creator of all things, not
the fashioner of pre-existent things. “For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD?
Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD, a God feared in the council of the
holy ones, great and awesome above all that are around him? O LORD God of hosts, who is as mighty as
you, O LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule the raging of the
sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab
like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. The heavens
are yours, the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it—you
have founded them.” (Psalm 89:6-11 Italics added for
emphasis.)
The
chaos monster is retained, under one of its Hebrew names Rahab. “Rahab” means
“boisterous one”.[9] But there is
no suggestion of a violent battle. Whenever the waves of chaos rise, God
effortlessly stills them.
The author of The Book of Job may have known this psalm. The reference
to God stilling the waves of the Sea, Rahab, reoccurs in Job’s third
speech in the first cycle, the one where he contemplates a mediator. “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength- who has
resisted him and succeeded? he…who alone stretched out the
heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea, who made
the Bear and
Orion, the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; who does great
things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number. Look, he
passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive
him. He
snatches away; who can stop him? Who will say to him, ‘What are you
doing?’
God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed
beneath him. How then can I answer him?” (Job 9:4-14) In many ways, God’s first and second speech to Job
play off this introduction to Job’s hope for a mediator. Much of
the language and many of the images will be repeated. 3. Purpose and
A deeper reading of God’s first speech reveals two
important points.
(1) First, God’s language in his review of the physical world
suggests purpose. It is the language of order, purpose,
constancy and control. The foundations of the world were laid
as an architect would. “Measurements” were taken (Job 38:5),
survey “lines” “stretched out” (Job 38:5), a “cornerstone” laid (Job
38:6).
The sea was subjected to “prescribed bounds” (Job 38:10), shut in
with “bars and doors” (Job 38:10). “Thus far shall you come, and no
farther.” (Job 38:11) The morning light was “commanded” to
reappear every morning. (Job 38:12) “Reserves” were placed in the
storehouses of the snow and hail. (38:23) “Channels” “were cut” for the rain.
(Job 38:25)
Order was imposed in the heavens. Some things were “bound in chains”.
(Job 38:31)
Some had their “cords” “loosed”. (Job 38:31) Some things
were “led forth”. (Job 38:32) “Ordinances” were made (Job 38:38:33)
and “rule” was “established”. (Job 38:33) There is a certain “wisdom” or
“understanding” (Job 38:36) in the nature of the physical order.
(2) Second, God’s language in his review of the animal world
suggests providence. God “satisfies the appetites” of the
young lions. (Job 38:39) God hears the young ravens and
answers their “cry”. (Job 38:41) God gives “freedom” to the wild ass.
(Job 39:5)
God frees the ostrich from “fear”. (Job 39:16) God gives
“might” and “majesty” to the war horse. (Job 39:19-20) God enables
the birds of prey to “soar” to the heights they do. (Job 39:26) God’s concern
is purposeful and on-going.
Yet these suggestions are veiled and can be read otherwise. The language
of providential purpose here is tinged with a lack of concern for the
human world and with a certain hostility towards it. The rain that
falls is not described as falling on the agricultural fields where it is
needed by human beings. The rain falls “on a land where no one
lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life, to satisfy the waste
and desolate land.” (Job 38:26) There is an inherent “cruelty”, even
stupidity, in how the ostrich deals with its young. (Job 39:16) The “terrible
snorting” of the war horse foreshadows the wars that bring death to men,
women and children. (Job 39:20,25) The birds of prey are there to “suck
up” their blood. (Job 39:30)
At best, these are all suggestions of possible purpose and
providence. God may be suggesting that Job
should not only see purpose and providence in the natural and animal
worlds, but that he should infer a similar purpose and providence exists
in the human world. They are insights and inferences that
Job might reasonably draw, but they are insights and inferences that he
need not draw.
Job’s First Response
In God’s first speech, God has focused on the vast grandeur of
creation.
But Job has asked a question concerning justice, not power. And God had
seemingly dodged the question, belittling Job’s intelligence but not his
integrity.
Job’s response is worth noting. “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but will proceed no further." (Job 40:3-5 Italics added for
emphasis.) With some irony, Job accepts the irrelevance of it all and throws it back at God as a defense. “See” God, in comparison to the vast grandeur of creation, “I am of small account”. Why would you God ever expect one of such “small account” as I to declare to you the things you ask? “I lay my hand on my mouth,” perhaps to conceal my laughter, certainly because there is nothing more to say. The issue is not power, but justice. O |