Most of us are familiar with the Old Testament story of Job. Job is “blameless and upright”, feared God and, shunned evil. In the eyes of God. Job was the perfect example of faith. As proof of that faithfulness were the many blessings in Job’s life . . . thousands of livestock, seven sons and three daughters, many servants, and much wealth. He was one of the greatest among all the people of the East. Job was God’s poster boy of faithfulness.
As the story goes, Satan shows up at one of God’s meetings with the heavenly angels. Asked why he is there, Satan replies that he has just been roaming around the earth. God asks if he had come upon Job and boasts how good Job is . . . he is a person who fears God. To which Satan tells God that Job is nothing special because the Holy is looking after him . . . take away your protection and Job will curse the Holy to God’s face.
Of course, God is up to the challenge. In the story we know that Job loses everything seen as blessings . . . his livestock, his children, his servants, and his wealth is removed through a series of events. Yet, Job does not curse God. Satan points out that those were just “things”, allow calamity to come upon Job directly and he will curse God.
Again, God takes the challenge. Physical ailments befall Job. He moves himself to the town dump where he laments and mourns his situation. His wife tries to console him and get him to just get angry with God and curse the Lord. Job refuses. His friends come by, sit with him, and attempt to console him. Again, it is to no avail. Job continues to sit and suffer.
Throughout all of this Job has no idea what is going on. He has no clue of the contest between Satan and God . . . no clue that he has been set up as the “fall guy” in something he has no control over. Because of this it should come as no surprise that as the story and contest play out Job gets frustrated and whiny. He complains. He complains at God. He questions God. But mostly he complains.
Who among us wouldn’t if our whole world and life was turned upside down?
Job was in a crisis of faith. Everything he knew and understood about God was being challenged by the mess he was in. In good theological understanding for the times he was living, he could not understand how his life had gotten so messed up . . . after all, he was a “blameless and upright” person who feared God and shunned evil. For this he had received what he believed were God’s blessings . . . lots of wealth and a big family with lots of boys. In the midst of his situation he could not figure out what he had done to receive the beating he was getting. He did not understand. In his understanding of things this should not be happening to him . . . so, why? The God he believed in and the God who was allowing such things to happen . . . how could they be the same God? It was a crisis of faith and Job was struggling.
And, I imagine God was too.
It had to be tough on God to watch Job suffer . . . to watch Job wallow in the crisis . . . to listen to the moaning, groaning, and complaints . . . to endure a barrage of questions that change to accusations? I am amazed at the patience of God. Despite the mythic understanding of Job being a patient person, it is God who shows the patience in the story.
Well, at least for a while.
After a while, God had had enough. God responds to Job’s badgering and lamenting. What we heard in our reading this morning is a part of that response. Out of the whirlwind of the storm God speaks to Job and basically tells him to brace himself for what is to come: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Then God lowers the hammer.
It seems that in those moments of crisis . . . those whirlwinds of life . . . when our lives seem out of our control, that we have a predicament of faith. What we were expecting and what we are experiencing are at odds with what we thought we believed. We catch ourselves hanging on for dear life as the winds of conflict swirl around us throwing our faith into chaos . . . as we are attempting to fit a square peg into a round hole. It don’t work. We experience all the emotions . . . frustration, anxiety, and even anger. We are a lot like Job in attempting to understand . . . where is the God we believe in when all this whirlwind is whipping us about?
I think that most crisis of faith happen when any of us is confronted with a version of God that goes against what we believe God to be. Such was the case for Job and it very may well be the case for us. We all have an image of God, but the question becomes what do we do when that image of God does not fit into what we are experiencing in our lives? For example, in a time of crisis like Job was experiencing.
We have to be careful in how we see God. We do not want to make God into something that God is not, especially in creating God into our own image. Author Anne Lamott states: “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” As God demonstrates in the story of Job . . . God isn’t always who we think God is. And, it seems, we often discover a new side of God as we come out of the whirlwind of life.
Isn’t that the way that it seems to go? From out of the whirlwinds of life
we gain new perspectives . . . about ourselves, the world, and God? Job did. Job learned that his understanding of God was not so cut and dry . . . not so black and white, that there was more to God than he could ever understand. It has been said that if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. Job came out of his crisis with a stronger faith than he entered it. We see at the end of the story that he is blessed once again with that which he had lost. And, in ways that we don’t always expect, we all are when we come out of the whirlwind.
I think it is tough accepting God for who God is . . . a grand mystery that showers us with grace and love whether we deserve it or not . . . a steady presence that stands beside us through thick and thin, good and bad—who never abandons us . . . a patient mentor who allows us our moments of confusion, doubt, and even anger as we attempt to understand—to understand about the world, ourselves, and even God. It is tough to be caught in the whirlwind of life, grasping for anything to hold onto, and discovering that maybe the God we had been worshipping is not the God who is standing with us in the storm. Tough to experience God differently than we expect.
Yet, out of the whirlwind we discover . . . a new understanding of faith . . . of our relationship with God . . . and, strength that we never knew we had. We discover that God is with us and speaks to us out of the whirlwind. That God never abandons us. And, we discover that if we survive the whirlwind our faith grows even stronger despite the fact that we feel as if are learning that God is so much more than we could ever imagine.
The story of Job teaches us much, but the greatest lesson of all is the understanding that we will never fully know the magnitude of who God is . . . while at the same time we come to realize that God is with us despite us or the circumstances life throws our way. We are blessed people for God is with us . . . and, that alone is blessing enough. God is with us through the grace and love we all need. In the end that was all that Job needed—everything else was icing on the cake . . . and, that is all that we need. Amen.
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