God's Whim
Job learns who his true friends are when bad things happen.
Then Job answered: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock. Those at ease have contempt for misfortune, but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable. The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hands. "With God are wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, no one can rebuild; if he shuts someone in, no one can open up. If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leads counselors away stripped, and makes fools of judges. He looses the sash of kings, and binds a waistcloth on their loins. He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on princes, and looses the belt of the strong. He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light. He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away. He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste. They grope in the dark without light; he makes them stagger like a drunkard. - Job 12:1-6,13-25
In today's reading, Job responds to his friend, Zophar, who tried to get Job to see that Job must have done something wrong.
Job's response is that God does these things to people regardless of how good or how bad they are.
He points out that rivers overflow and dry up at the whim of God, just as kings rise and fall and people are plunged into darkness or exposed to the light.
God does these things to man, and man can do nothing about it.
How often do we feel this way?
If all is going well with us, we may not think to give thanks to God, but the moment things go wrong we cry out to Him for help.
We may even blame Him for putting us through these things.
Which view is correct? Is God pulling the strings, making the good and bad rise and fall for His own amusement? That is the story of Job, after all, isn't it?
The entire story is an exercise in challenging our faith assumptions. Do we believe God created man for His own amusement, the way the ancient gods did?
That is one view, while the other is that God controls everything and sits in judgment of us waiting for us to screw up so He can punish us.
I don't buy either view.
It may seem like God is not involved in our lives, since He gives us free will to screw up on our own, without His assistance or desire, but that doesn't mean He doesn't care.
He is there for us, to help us out of our own messes and to suffer with us when we are in pain, celebrate our successes with us, and lift us out of the darkness.
But we can convince ourselves that He is not on our side, as Job says.
Even Job, though, doesn't mean it. He is just snapping at his friend whose vision of God is so narrow.
How many ties have we responded in kind, with sarcasm and wit, saying what shocks rather than what we truly believe.
Job will come around and God will put him in his place.
Then we will be reminded that God is truly great and we are loved.
More to come...