Job 9:11-24

Continuing on in Job 9:11-24...

Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

God is different from us. I can't claim I have "seen" God. However, I believe that God is at work in this world. One can't see the wind but one can see the effect of the wind.

But in any case, Job is feeling very abandoned at this moment.

Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?
Who will say to him, 'What are you doing?'

Would you ever have the nerve to tell God, "What *are* you doing?" This passage tells us that Job is tremendously honest. It is kind of like a private in the army asking the 5 star general, what are you doing?

Job continues ...

"God will not turn back his anger;
beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
If I summoned him and he answered me,
I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
For he crushes me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
I am blameless; I regard not myself;
I loathe my life.
It is all one; therefore I say,
He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the faces of its judges --
if it is not he, who then is it?

Pretty harsh words, eh?

Job accuses God of being indifferent to his situation, that God crushes both the blameless and the wicked and that life is not fair.

In Yancey's book, Disappointment with God he makes that point: we know life is not fair and we then equate life with God, therefore, God is not fair. We may feel this way but is life and God actually this way?

One of my Christian guy buddies way back in the high school and college days used to off-handedly say, yeah, I suppose if God was really fair to us there would be two smoking holes in the ground right now. I suppose to many people that sounds harsh. But if we think about it, if God is totally holy and we are not, how can we stand?

But of course poor Job has been trying real hard to be right before God and as far he knows, his slate is clean. And we know from Job 1-2, indeed, his accounts are regarded as clear with God!

The reality of this world is that bad things happen to good people so life is unfair but life is not equal to God. The rain falls on the good and the bad. Drought befalls the good farmer and the bad farmer. That is the way of the world right now.

As for the problem of sin, God has made provision through the Cross.

My "theology" allows for God to intervene in other ways but my understanding of the "omnipotence" of God is not that God intervenes all the time but rather God can do what God wants to do whenever God wants to. Because God wants humans to have free will means that God often opts to back-off. Yancey called this "divine shyness." God is really caught between a rock and a hard place: intervene too much people and God will seem overbearing, hold back and people wonder where is God? Thus, God is trying to draw the "inside straight flush" of accomplishing God's purposes yet respecting the free will of human creatures.

At this moment in the story, I think Job would find this explanation unsatisfying and understandably so. I suppose by the end of the story though, he would agree with Yancey.

So what do I take from this story: when people shake their fist at God, don't get too worked up. If Job, a really righteous guy, did so and it is in the Bible then God isn't stunned to hear it.

Lord, life at times can be quite difficult. In my prayer times, I can bring to you some of the tough situations in the lives of people I know. I trust in your wisdom as to when you decide to intervene and when you decide not to. I also want to take to heart that I am my brother's keeper and that on some occasions your answer to the prayer is for me to do something. Help me today to keep my eyes out for how you are at work in those subtle ways that led my friends to say, hmm, maybe that was a God thing. Amen.