Top Ten Things to Learn from the book of Job

Readings: Job 1:1-22; Job 38:1-11; Luke 8: 22-25

10. Job contradicts Proverbs.  The writer of Proverbs offers the hope and consolation that people who live wisely and faithfully, according to the will of God, will flourish and prosper. The very first chapter of Job says: it ain’t necessarily so. You may well live righteously and with great integrity and, still, terrible things may happen. A faithful life is not an automatic buffer to calamity. Due to this contradiction between the books, both of which are categorized as wisdom literature, we are reminded of all those who have gone before us who tried to make the Bible speak with one voice. It doesn’t. The Bible has many voices, some of which are quite dissonant together, but they sing one song about the presence and providence of God. 

9. Job is an old story, but a young book, relatively speaking. Since Job doesn’t mention Abraham or Moses or the laws or the Temple, some interpreters have considered it the oldest story in the Bible. Not, of course, older than the creation story, but a story that predates the famous men of the Hebrew scripture because otherwise they would surely be mentioned. The story of human suffering is timeless, but vocabulary isn’t. We can tell from the written forms of Job- its style and word choices that it is probably from after the exile (post-exilic), between the years 540-330 BCE, in the Persian period. 

Discerning why bad things happen to good people would have been a significant item of contemplation following both Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, even though there were many prophets who explained to the people what the consequences of their choices would be. Innocent people suffered alongside those who committed wrongdoing. 

8. In Job, the Satan is not who you think it is. At the time of writing, Satan was not a proper name, it was a title- Ha Satan. The first chapter of the book tells us about the being who hold the title, ha Satan, or the Adversary. In the first chapter, the Satan functions like a prosecutor or challenger, perhaps to people and to God. Job gives us a complicated, and indigestion-inducing, picture of the Satan as a member of God’s heavenly council, with an advisory role. This does not line up with later images or understandings we have regarding the forces that oppose God. The role of the Satan here is upsetting and frustrating. Why don’t we know more about this character? The Bible gives us what we need, and it does not give what we do not need. We do not need to know more about the Satan than they are the adversary. That’s all we need to know for interpreting Job and, frankly, all we need to know for our daily lives. Where people and actions oppose the will of God, the adversary is likely at work- sometimes actively and sometimes passively. The Satan is active in causing Job’s suffering. The Satan is passive in watching humans make bad choices all by themselves, which lead to situations of grief, suffering, and destruction. 

7. We don’t have a good answer as to why bad things happen to good people. Why would God enter into a bargain with the adversary? How do you know God did? There is no heavenly court reporter who sends down transcripts of holy shorthand for people to interpret and know for certain what happens in the heavenly realms. The celestial scenes of Job come from someone’s holy imagination. The writer cannot say that God caused the suffering of God’s own accord because that violates what will be revealed in the end about the nature of God. The writer cannot imply God does not know about the suffering. The best the writer of Job can do is imply that God permits but pays close attention. This is still somewhat unsatisfactory, but the best of the available options. 

6. Don’t be a bad friend. Job has 42 chapters. Chapters 1-2 are the prologue and set up what happens to Job. God starts talk to Job in chapter 38. Chapters 3-37, so thirty-four chapters, have a very specific aim. These chapters teach how not to be a bad friend in a time of suffering. Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, start out well- sitting with him in his grief. This is the right thing to do. Then they start to talk. Eliphaz is certain that Job must have sinned, since God is always righteous. Job has brought his suffering upon himself, according to Eliphaz, and if he confesses, things will improve. 
Bildad thinks similarly but tells Job that divine justice is always clear. If one suffers, says Bildad, God’s retribution is obvious. Bildad notes that Job’s children must have sinned and so had Job. 
Zophar tells Job that his suffering is less that what he deserves since God is righteous, justice-minded, AND merciful. Zophar urges Job to repent before the suffering becomes worse because why should God hold back forever. 
When God eventually speaks, God excoriates these three friends for talking about what they do not know. So not only did they increase Job’s pain, but they also weren’t even right. In your friend’s time of suffering, show up and shut up. Do not speak about what you do not know. Do not make it worse. 

5. A lot of wise-sounding words and quoting of Bible passages can still be wrong. After the three friends, a young man, Elihu, comes. Elihu does not believe Job's suffering is necessarily punishment for sin, but rather a way for God to correct, teach, and purify the soul. He asserts that God is not obligated to explain His actions to humans and that suffering can be a means of spiritual growth. When someone is suffering, they do not want to learn about how their soul might be being corrected. They need casseroles, coffee, and company- not philosophical reflections. God says Elihu also was speaking out of his… elbow (not the place of wisdom). 

4. God cares about the fullness of creation. When God finally addresses Job, God points to the wide spectrum of all that is and tells Job that everything that exists is part of the Divine awareness. There are not small things happening in the depths of the sea or in the crevices of mountains about which God does not know. Not only is God aware of all these things, but God also cares about them. Job has not languished outside of God’s compassion. God provides for all of creation, including the long-suffering Job. God does not delight in pain, but in the ordered functioning of everything the Holy has put into place. God’s on-going work within all of creation is to restore order where disorder has occurred because of the adversary, because of sin, because of the forces of this world that oppose God’s designs and will. 

3. God does not create drama in order to be a hero. Even with Job in hand, as disciples of Christ, our clearest revelation of God’s way of being in the world is through Jesus. If we are unsure about how God operates, we look to the life of Christ for clarity. If we believe that God creates suffering in order to heal it, then we would say that Jesus made the storm in order to calm it. Remember Jesus is God. Would you ever say that Jesus made people hungry in order to feed them? Let their bodies be broken in order to heal them? Let demons run rampant just to exorcise them? Regardless of human interpretation through the ages, it does not make sense for God to create pain in order to reveal holiness like a superhero. Jesus shows forth God’s power and compassion, mercy and inclusion, justice and peace. If Jesus wouldn’t, God doesn’t. If Jesus did, God does.

2. Lament and honest prayer help. Job grieves. Job gets angry with God. Job is frustrated. Job prays everything he feels. He is not punished for his honesty. The most obvious tools can be the most helpful. Do not neglect them. 

1.  If you don’t know, admit it, but when you do know, speak up. Many times, people have told me, “I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.” It is indeed better to remain silent than to turn out to be one of Job’s friends and to speak wrongly about God. There are many things, however, that can be said that we trust are true about God- what has been shown forth in creation, through the healing words of the prophets, through Jesus, through the Spirit’s sustaining of the community of Christ, through faithful people today. You will not be a bad friend to someone or to Jesus when you speak of God’s love (1 John 4:8), God’s mercy (Psalm 103:8), God’s inclusion (Galatians 3:28), God’s provision (Matthew 6:26), God’s power (all the resurrection stories), and God’s abiding presence (Romans 8:38-39). God’s words to Job remind us that God’s knowledge and ways are not our knowledge and ways, which is a blessing for everyone. 
Job is a wisdom book, not necessarily giving us tidbits for how to live or how to be smarter, but granting us a bigger picture of a God who knows more than we can imagine and is present in height and depth and breadth greater than our comprehension. This was the good news for Job, even before the restoration of his life, and it is the good news for us and all people. May our words and our lives reflect our faith in this truth. Amen. 

While to That Rock I'm Clinging (Epiphany 2025)

I recently read a book that contained this line, “God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. I can see that now, from a distance.” God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. The author was discussing the griefs and losses of her life, but also her awareness of the larger scope of the movement and power that carries us all, even in the difficult seasons. You do not survive these seasons by thinking there is no God unless the idea of a God who cares, who is slow to anger, who is abounding in steadfast love has been drilled out of you. 

How does the idea of God get “drilled out of a person”? In today’s scripture passages, we have an example of people who have held on to the majesty and mystery of God, even in times of trouble. Then we also have a person whose awareness of the Divine has been drilled out by a desire to retain power and worldly influence. 

The magi or wise men were probably Persian astrologers or maybe Zoroastrian priests from the same region, modern-day Iran. They watched the stars and other natural phenomena for signs of what was happening in the world. When we say, “they followed a star”, what we typically mean is that they observed an unusual astronomical event and connected it to the constellation in which it was formed. The “star” gave them the understanding of where to start looking for a new king in the world. 

While we do not know how many magi there actually were, we can assume that these are people who had full lives. They had family members die. They made prophecies or predictions that didn’t pan out. They were affected by the decisions of their governments and the rulers of city-states around them.  They had been through droughts, floods, crop failures, animal losses, and financial difficulties. Yet they were still open to seeing the Divine in the world around them. Despite hardships, their awareness of the power of holiness was not drilled out of them. Instead, their understanding of might and majesty carried them through the difficulties, such that they were still able to trust in signs and wonders. The appearing of the sign that led them to Jesus was not the first epiphany of their life, it was in a long line of ways that the power of God had been demonstrated to them. 

Similarly, the author of Isaiah 60 trusts in God’s power and providence, even in a time of pain. This author is writing to the community of Judah, returning from the Babylonian exile to a destroyed Jerusalem. He is not giving false cheer to those who will receive his words. Instead, he is crafting a narrative of inspiration and guidance rooted in the hope of God’s full restoration. Such a restoration will begin with a rejuvenation of the people’s joy and then a restored Jerusalem that will draw people from other nations to the glory of the Lord. The pain of exile has not drilled faith in God’s presence out of this prophet. Rather, a deep awareness of that presence has sustained him through the trials. 

Neither the writer of Isaiah 60 nor the Persian magi many generations later expect lives without suffering. They have accepted that this world is not what it should be or what it will be, but even in the middle of all that is not right, God is still good. God is still providing. God is sustaining. God is revealing compassion, mercy, and justice- even if it takes a while from the human perspective. 

On the other hand, Herod the Great seems to have had trust in God drilled out of him. Even though he rebuilt parts of and greatly expanded the Temple in Jerusalem and he identified himself religiously as a Jew, he did many things that show how he valued his own understanding of the world over the mystery of God. In order to gain and retain his power, he made alliances with Roman leaders, often against his closer neighbors. He had members of his family killed when they threatened his power and operations. He was unfamiliar with scripture and reacted strongly to information he perceived to be detrimental to his reign, namely the slaughter of children he thought might be this “new king” whom the magi sought. 

Herod had a vision of success for himself and for Judea. As far as we can tell, he did not pause to think or meditate on whether his image aligned with God’s will for him or for the region. Herod wanted the power that the world offered and made his choices accordingly. In order to achieve and retain that type of power, God’s truth had to be edged out- further and further from the center of Herod’s mind and heart. If any awareness of the Divine remained, it was a tiny flame in the corner of his mind, occasionally demanding that scribes or priests affirm his decisions, rather than help him seek the correct ones. 

God is often drilled out of lives in our own time in the same way. People seek confirmation of what they want to do, rather than spend time discerning the will of God. If the will of God puts us out of step with what we consider the right thing according to our traditions, habits, beliefs, or understanding, we manipulate what we need to in order to assure ourselves of correct understanding and action. 

Worse, God is often drilled out of us in our times of trouble. Having come to expect God to function as a holy vending machine, (we put in prayers and get out the requested item), we flounder when things are painful or difficult or beyond the worst thing we could have imagined. We blame God and we slowly drift away from a Creator who, in our minds, failed to stop these horrors from happening. 

The author of Isaiah 60 and the magi saw the Holy as the power that sustained them in times of trouble. Their visions of hope and a future were not toxic positivity- “Everything will turn out fine”. Those visions were, instead, the rock to which they clung when everything else was sinking sand. They did not console themselves with the idea that “everything happens for a reason”. Instead, they refused to let the events of the world drill out of them the faith that God is bigger, more gracious, more generous, and more merciful than anything that could occur to them or around them. 

Herod believed everything happened for a reason. And he was the reason. When there was a threat to his power or his influence or his belongings, Herod happened. There was no room for Divine mystery or holy awe in the world that he was trying to tightly control. His self-understanding left no room for the expansion of the gift of faith in God. Herod, like so many others, didn’t seek to stop believing in God. He just didn’t have room for him in the midst of everything he believed was more important. 

The start of a new calendar year often invites us into deep reflection. We think about how we want the next season of our life to look, what do we want it to contain, how do we want it to play out. In this contemplation, the Holy Spirit reminds us to make and hold space for how God will be revealed to us, in us, and through us in this season. How is the love of Christ compelling us to show up for others? What are we being urged to learn, to let go, or to let come? Are we part of how God’s presence is being revealed in the world, or do we have a hand in how God’s truth is being drilled out? 

It is important to remember that Herod was constantly engaged in rebuilding the Temple, an action that outwardly appeared devotional, but was actually about power. Drilling God out of minds and hearts correlates with a desire and effort to be powerful and influential in the eyes of the world, whether in your family, among your friends, toward your neighbors, or throughout the community. Actions that claim to be religious are not necessarily of God unless they clearly and thoughtfully align with God’s revealed actions through history and especially through Jesus. 

In this Epiphany season, which will last to the end of February, pay quiet attention to God’s work all around you. Pray that you may be aligned with it and that we may be aligned together. Let us say yes to the Spirit’s invitation to be a significant part of how the light of the world is revealed to all nations and right here in our own homes. Let us be aware of God’s presence and a sign of that presence to others- part of how the love of the Divine is anchored in this world, a love that cannot drift away.