By Bob Branch
NOTE: This entry is more journal-musing than well-argued article, so enter at your own risk!
After reading Sandra Richter’s Epic of Eden, I felt compelled to go back to the Old Testament for my morning Lectio Divina practice, which has been phenomenally rich. I started in 1 Samuel and went a chapter-a-day until I came to Job. I thought, “Dang! I don’t want all the pissing and moaning and religious posturing and bad theology that radiate from its pages like a former nuclear blast site!” So, I went in kicking and screaming—and what do you know? It has been incredibly rich!
The literary device is a beautiful one—especially considering this is one of the most ancient books in the Bible. A gathering/tribunal/forum in heaven. A challenge from “the satan”— “Job’s working the system!” Let’s see? A series of unfortunate events. Three friends sit with him in silence for a week. Then, the games are afoot! Up to Chapter 38, and then God steps in and does not answer the questions.
Early on, I realized that this is a very helpful set of perspectives on counseling, helping people (or not), and what not to do and say. It’s really very interesting—something has happened in the material realm that has its origins in the spiritual realm. Now people are scrambling to explain it, without any real touch with what has actually transpired.
The “friends” KNOW what is happening with so much certainty it’s ridiculous. They remind me of so many religious folks who pontificate-with-certainty exactly how and why things are—yet have no clue! Peter Enns’ “The Sin of Certainty” zeroes in on this theme, and how relevant Job is to this discussion. Many of my conservative Christian brothers and sisters—with all their concrete certainty about pretty much everything—seem to be magnets in our “culture of answers” these days. Very frustrating.
I also admit that I have sat with hurting people—torpedoed by tragic circumstances—and glibly offered diagnoses and remedies as stupid and out-of-touch as Job’s counselors.
Because the author has set the whole scenario up so well (and front-loaded it), we know that the “friends” analysis, advice and arguments are all completely out of touch with what has actually happened and happening. Yikes! How much of our religious posturing is still in this vein? They take the “Law of Tribulation” as concrete as gravity. “Everyone knows this! Do good, receive good. Do bad (or fail to do good), receive bad.” And, Job buys it as well. Yet, he is still honest and just doesn’t quite see how he has done evil. And, from the start, God has stated plainly, that he has not done evil, but good! (This really rankles the Reformed mentality—“we’re all just bad, worms even!”—but God affirms that Job is righteous; who can argue with that?!)
I love how honest Job is. He is authentic humanity. He wants God to interact. He has done his due-diligence to walk uprightly, and with the law of retribution as standard, he just does not get why this has happened. In effect, he says, “I’ve changed nothing in how I do life, and now I’m getting slammed!?! I don’t get it.” I also love how David carries the torch of this expression of humanity—being completely and totally honest to God. Venting all. Holding nothing back.
The “counselors” only make things worse. Their pontificating only increases his misery, not lessen it! Still, I cannot help but want to be Job’s lawyer in all this.
Elihu has been particularly instructive—classic young-guy stuff with not a lot of life experience. “Let me straighten all of you out!” He is upset and speaks out of his upset-ness. He reminds me of some of high-minded Calvinists who seem to have-the-mic these days. They talk well of the grandeur and majesty of God, of how he is in control—to the molecular level—of everything, and how pathetic and worthless people are to God. “He has no need of us!” He is so high and exalted that he does not concern himself with the affairs of people.
I encountered this in seminary with an arrogant (IMHO) Reformed theologian I took a Person of Christ class from. His Christology was so high I wonder if Jesus’ feet ever really touched terra firma. I challenged him with kenosis (Phil. 2:7, emptied himself) in a way he thought was wrong, and he pretty much belittled me in class for it. I think most people—because they want to default to a high view of God—ascribe high-minded thoughts toward him that are not true of him. They are just high-minded—and false. I hear well-meaning believers say things like, “Well, God is in control” to cover a vast array of crappy happenings. This infers that He is powerful and involved—definitely true. But, it does not embrace the complexity and nuance of this universe. True—God is sovereign. False—he in controlling everything. What I normally say to the “God is in control” predeterminism is “God is in control as much as he wants to be—but that is different than saying he is controlling everything. God controlling everything is Islam, not Christianity.”
Back to Elihu: The certainty with which he speaks is telling. AND, it is the nature of much religion through history. Funny—the older I get the less certain I am about so many non-essentials. I am more open-handed and humble about easy answers to complicated things and how much more nuanced everything is at the end of the day, and the age.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really am enjoying Job! Doh! Because we can learn much from thinking-wrongly—if we ask the right questions—there is much to learn in the 42 chapters of this beautifully-wise book!
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