The word, "why," in our text is used at least 21 times in the Book of Job. Most have heard over our life time someone ask the question, "Why did God allow this to happen to me?" The assumption seems to be that the questioner is so righteous and good and deserving that he/she finds God guilty of gross unfairness and injustice. I see no justification in such a question. If I pray with any sense that I "deserve" an answer, I am praying wrongly. "Answers" to our prayers come only from Father's Grace in Jesus Christ and Christ's Atoning Blood, not my worthiness. If we want to discuss what I "deserve," well, you just do not want to "go there." I highly suggest that if "deserve" is found somewhere in your theology, you remove it immediately. Nothing good will come of it.
Winds of War and War and Remembrance are two historical novels by Herman Wouk. In the latter work there is a monologue of one of the leading characters who is interred in a concentration camp where German authorities require Jews to refer to themselves as, "the stinking Jew." Orders have been given for transport to the East, and the night before one of the trains is to leave the camp, Aaron Jastrow, writer and professor, is scheduled to give a lecture. I have never read any work on the subject of human suffering that is any better:
"My Thereseinstadt friends, I have no heart tonight for a lecture. I will put aside my professorial notes. They are neat, bloodless, and irrelevant. My topic was to be the book of Job. That's what I'll talk about, but not as a professor, as one of you: the Theresienstadt Jew. Satan said to God--do you remember?--"Naturally Job is upright, seven sons, three daughters, the wealthiest man in the land of Uz. Why not be upright? See how it pays. Job is not upright. He's just a smart Jew," sneers Satan. "But take away his rewards, and see how upright he will remain." So God allows Satan to put Job through every trail but death. All his children die. All his wealth is wiped out. A horrible sickness strikes him. And so, reduced by a whim of God, to a broken, loathsome, plundered skeleton, covered with sores, Job sits on the ash heap. "Naked I came from the womb," he says. "Naked will I return. God has given. God has taken away. Blessed be God's name." Job has stood up to Satan's test. The oldest problem in human existence: senseless evil. But now comes a worse trial, a worse test. Job's comforters come. Passionately, they urge him to admit that since God is just, Job must have committed some terrible sin. "Search your deeds. Repent. Confess." But Job fights back. "I have not sinned. I will submit to the divine will, but not to pious platitudes." And so, in the depths of his most terrible hour, Job rises to stand toe-to-toe with God, and demand an answer to the great ultimate human mystery of senseless evil. "Why do you do this to me?" Well, Job gets his answer. An answer that answers nothing. God himself speaks to Job at last out of a roaring storm. "Who are you to call me to account? Can you hope to understand how or why I do anything? My universe is vast beyond human conception. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of heaven shouted for joy? Can you comprehend the infinite mysteries of existence? You, a poor worm who lives for a few moments and dies?" An answer that answers nothing---------------- and everything. The roaring storm has declared only that God's reason is hidden, beyond Job, beyond the comforters. The universe doesn't always make sense. There is no guarantee of good fortune for good behavior. Crazy injustice is part of the enigma of the world and of our brief lives. Job humbles himself, is more than satisfied, and falls upon his face. My Thereisenstadt friends, this is the thought I would leave you with tonight. Who is it in history, who suffers ordeal after ordeal, plundering after plundering, massacre after massacre, century after century, yes looks up at the sky, sometimes with dying eyes, and cries, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one?" Who until then will leave the fearful mystery of undeserved suffering to God, and praise his name, saying, "The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord?" Nobody, my friends, but that loathsome, bereaved skeleton on the ash heap. Nobody but Job. He is the only answer, if there is one. The satanic challenge to an Almighty God, Job, 'The stinking Jew.'"
Father, in Jesus' Name, where was I, indeed, when You "laid the foundations of the world?" For me I have not greater prayer than, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven." Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
