Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering

David Lipscomb University Sermon Seminar May 10-12, 1999

Job as Dramatic Lament

The Dialogical Structure of Job

Job’s Bookends: The Interpretative Frame

Prologue (1-2)

• Heavenly Staging • The Trials • Jobian Lament

Epilogue (42:7-17)

• Divine Vindication • Divine Grace • Jobian Joy

Interpretative Keys

Prologue Epilogue

• Righteous Job • “Does he serve God for nothing?” • Maintains Integrity • Job said what was right (42:7-8) • Job interceded for his friends (42:10)

The Dramatic Flow

• Opening Lament (3): “Why was I born?” – Dialogical Spiral to Despair (4-27) • Wisdom Re-Orientation (28): Fear the Lord – Monologue Recovery (29-42:6)

Poetic Drama

Dialogues (4-27) Monologues (29-42:6)

• Repent! (4-14) • I’m Innocent! (29-31) • Shut up! (15-21) • God is Praised (32-37) • Beyond Help! (22-27) • God Speaks (38-42:6)

“Job, Repent!”

Zophar: “Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble…” Job 11:13-16a

Job Responds to Zophar

Job: “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….But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. As for you, you whitewash with lies...” Job 12:4; 13:3-4a

“Job, Shut Up!”

Eliphaz: “Would he argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value? But you even undermine piety [fear] and hinder devotion to God. Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not mine.” Job 15:3-5; cf. 15:13

Job Responds to Eliphaz

“I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.” Job 16:4a, 5-6

“Even If You Were Righteous”

Eliphaz: “Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless? Is it for your piety [fear] that he rebukes you….Is not your wickedness great?” Job 22:2-4a, 5a

Job Responds to Eliphaz

“I would state my case before him….I would find out what he would answer me…Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge.” Job 23:4a, 5a, 6-7

The Dramatic Flow

• Opening Lament (3): “Why was I born?” – Dialogical Spiral to Despair (4-27) • Wisdom Re-Orientation (28): Fear the Lord – Monologue Recovery (29-42:6)

Wisdom

“…then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the man, ‘The fear of the Lord -- that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” Job 28:27-28

Poetic Drama

Dialogues (4-27) Monologues (29-42:6)

• Repent! (4-14) • I’m Innocent! (29-31) • Shut up! (15-21) • God is Praised (32-37) • Beyond Help! (22-27) • God Speaks (38-42:6)

“I’m Innocent”

• Then: “I put on righteousness as my clothing.” Job 29:14 • Now: “God has…afflicted me...my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.” Job 30:11,16 • But: “let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless.” Job 31:6

Elihu Responds

• What he says about God is right – God disciplines “to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride” (33:17) – God is just, “it is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice” (34:12).

– God is transcendent, “How great is God- beyond understanding!…Who can understand how he spreads out the cloud.” (36:26a, 29a).

Elihu Responds

• What he says about Job is wrong – God “repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves” (34:11).

– “Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost for answering like a wicked man!” (34:36) – God “is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction” (36:16).

Elihu Misquotes Job

Elihu Job

• “no iniquity” (33:9) • “profits a man nothing to please God” (34:9) • “What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning” (35:2) • “iniquities of youth” (13:26) • the wicked say “profits….” (21:15) • the wicked say “profit…” (21:15)

God Speaks

• “Do you know….” (37:15, 16; 38:33; 39:1) • “Can you… (13 times; 38:31-35) • “Have you… (7 times; 38:12, 16) • “Everything under heaven belongs to me” (41:11b)

Jobian Lament: “Why”

• Why is life given to those in misery (3:20)?

• Why has God made Job his target (7:20)?

• Why does God hide his face (13:24)?

• Why do the wicked prosper (21:7)?

• Why does not God judge the world (24:1)?

Second Person Laments

• “Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me?” Job 7:12 • “Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?” Job 10:3 • “I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer.” Job 30:20

Third Person Laments

• “Surely now God has worn me out.” 16:7a • “God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me.” 19:6a • “He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.” 30:19

Job 20-21: A Homily

• Context: Job 20 – The wicked will be consumed!

• Complaint: Job 21:1-15 – Look at me! I am bitter.

– Look at the wicked! They prosper.

• Commitment: Job 21:16 – Job will not follow the counsel of the wicked

The Death of Job’s Children

• Job habitually prayed for them (1:5).

• A mighty wind killed his children (1:19).

• “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (1:21).

Friends on Children

• Concerning the Righteous: – “your children will be many” (5:25) • Concerning the Wicked: – “His children are far from safety” (5:4) – “When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin” (8:4) – “He has no offspring or descendents” (18:19)

Job on the Wicked’s Children

“They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them…they send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about.” Job 21:8,9,11

Job Remembered a Time...

“Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.” Job 29:4-6

Job’s Commitment

“Yet they say to God…’Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?’ But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.” Job 21:14a,15-16

Christological Application

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Hebrews 5:7

Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering

David Lipscomb University Sermon Seminar May 10-12, 1999

A Jobian Theology of Lament

A Questioning, but Trusting Faith

Divine Responsibility

Prologue

• Job’s Confessions (1:21; 2:10).

– God is responsible for what happened to Job • The Hand of God (1:11-12; 2:5-6).

– God hands Job over to Satan

Divine Responsibility

The Dialogue

• “God’s terrors are marshaled against me.” (6:4) • “If it is not he [God], then who is it?” (9:24) • “You [God] have devastated my entire household.” (16:7b)

Divine Responsibility

Epilogue

“All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him.” Job 42:11

“Hand of God” Motif

Prologue

• “stretch out your hand and strike...” (1:11) • “stretch out your hand and strike…” (2:5) “And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” (2:3b)

“Hand of God” Motif

Dialogue I

• “that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off.” (6:9) • “...no one can rescue me from your hand. Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?” (10:7b-8).

“Hand of God” Motif

Dialogue II

• “Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of every human being.” (12:9-10) • “Withdraw your hand from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors.” (13:21)

“Hand of God” Motif

Dialogue III

• “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.” (19:21) • “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.” (23:2)

“Hand of God” Motif

Monologue

“You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.” Job 30:21-22

Lament: Silence Rejected

• “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.” (10:1) • “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. Yet I am not silenced by the darkness.” (23:16a, 17a) • “Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may.” (13:12).

Can Job Just Forget?

“If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’ I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent. Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain.” Job 9:27-29

Lament: Job and Psalms

Genre

Complaint Innocence Legal Petitions Trust Praise

Job

7:11; 10:1 9:15-21; 16:7 6:9; 31:6 7:16; 10:20

Psalms

64:1; 142:2 22:8-11; 7:3-5 17:1-3; 43:1-3 4:1-2; 6:1-4 13:15; 19:25 13:5; 31:6,14 9:5-13; 12:7-9 13:6; 71:22-24

Complaint

Psalms

“Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (10:1b)

Job

“Why do you hide your face and count me as an enemy?” (13:24)

Innocence and Self-Imprecation

Psalms Job

“O Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands…then let my enemy pursue and overtake me.” (7:3, 5a) “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit… then let me sow, and not eat; and let what grows for me be rooted out.” (31:5, 7)

Legal

Psalms Job

“Hear, O Lord, my righteous plea; listen to my cry...May my vindication come from you…Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, and test me, you will find nothing.” (17:1a, 2a, 3a) “Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.” (13:18-19).

Petitions

Psalms Job

“Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.” (4:1) “Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summons me and I will answer, or let me speak and you reply.” (13:21-22).

Trust

Psalms Job

“But I will trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” (13:5) “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’.” (31:14) “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (13:15a) “I know that my Redeemer lives…yet in my flesh I will see God.” (19:25a, 26b)

Praise

Psalms Job

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.” (13:6) “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” (12:13) “I will declare you name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.” (22:21) “Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (26:14)

Jobian Lament: “Why”

• Why is life given to those in misery (3:20)?

• Why has God made Job his target (7:20)?

• Why does God hide his face (13:24)?

• Why do the wicked prosper (21:7)?

• Why does not God judge the world (24:1)?

Cosmic “Integrity Check”

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.

Friends on “Testing Motif”

• Eliphaz: “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” (5:17) • Elihu: “Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost for answering like a wicked man!” (34:36)

Job Challenges his Friends

• “Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.” (6:29) • “Would it turn out well if he examined you? Could you deceive him as you might deceive men?” (13:9)

Job on the “Testing” Motif

“What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test every moment.” (7:17-18) “Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin -- though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?” (10:5-7).

The Victory of Job

• He maintained his integrity before God; he did not admit to a false self-incrimination.

Job 27:5-6 • He maintained his faith in God; he did not curse God.

Job 19:25-27

The Integrity of Job

“…as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit. I will never admit you [friends] are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.” Job 27:5-6

The Faith of Job

“I knowthat my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me.” Job 19:25-27

Job’s Expected Vindication

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.

I have not departed from the command of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” Job 23:10-12

Christological Application

• Questioning: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” • Trusting: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Homily: Job 16

• Confesses God’s Responsibility (16:6-14) • Job offers his lament in purity (16:15-17) • Job appeals for vindication (16:18-21)

Word Play Response (22-24)

Topic

Uprightness Poor Darkness Wicked Gold Pray

Eliphaz

22:3-4 22:5-11 22:11 22:12-20 22:24-25 22:27-30

Job

23:7 24:1-12 23:17 24:13-21 23:10 23:2-6

Homily: Job 22-23

• Eliphaz has a “

quid pro quo

” understanding of our relationship with God (22:3-5,21-23).

• Job wants to seek out God’s presence and offer his lament (23:2-9; 13-17).

• But God knows Job’s integrity (23:10-12), and Job is confident about the trial.

Homily: Job 24

A Lament Against Evil!

• Lament over the Poor (24:1-12) • Imprecation Against the Wicked (24:13-21) • Confidence in God’s Judgment (24:22-25)

But the question is: Why not judge them now?

Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering

David Lipscomb University Sermon Seminar May 10-12, 1999

Guidelines for Helping Sufferers

• Be There and Be Silent.

• Listen and Give Permission to Lament.

• Do Something! Love them in deed.

• Don’t Interpret.

Providential Principles in Job #1

• The principle of “divine permission” is important, but it must be understood appropriately.

– Divine permission does not mean passivity.

– God actively permits; he is involved.

– The concept of divine permission retains an asymmetrical relationship between God’s role to moral good and moral evil in the world.

Providential Principles in Job #2

• God’s active engagement with the world means that he is constantly deciding whether to do or not do “this” or “that”.

– God is responsive to prayer, and we co-create the future with God through prayer.

– But God decides whether to heal or not heal based upon his purposes and goal.

– God has his hands in the world shaping a people for himself.

Providential Principles in Job #3

• God is sovereign over evil (both moral and natural) and is at work even in evil to accomplish his purposes.

– God’s goal is fellowship with us, not our pleasure.

– God works in a fallen world through its fallenness.

– God brings “trouble” to test and shape the character of his people.

Psalm 119: A Refined Faith

This psalm is the prayer of a comforted sufferer who reflects on the meaning of his past affliction.

God Afflicted the Psalmist

“I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.” 119:75

The Psalmist Laments

“My eyes fail, looking for your promise; I say, ‘When will you comfort me?’. . . How long must your servant wait.” 119:82, 84

The Psalmist Trusts

“I trust in your word….If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” 119:42, 92

The Psalmist Reflects

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word . . . It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” 119:67, 71

Biblical Story as Lens

It was good for me to be afflicted because through that suffering God revealed his glory to me.

The Sanctuary Experience

The Move from Lament to Praise through Divine Encounter

The Sanctuary Experience

Habakkuk Lament One (1:2-4) Answer (1:5-11) Lament Two (1:12-2:1) Answer (2:2-5) Woe Oracle (2:6-20) Praise: Theophanic Presence (3:1-19)

The Sanctuary Experience

Psalm 73 Envy of the Wicked (73:2-12) Doubts Righteousness’ Profit (73:13-15) Sanctuary Experience (73:16-17): “When I tried to understand this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God.” Resultant Praise (73:18-28)

Elihu Prepares Us

• Elihu’s last monologue is similar to God’s first monologue (36-37).

– “Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?” (36:29) – “Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?” (37:15)

But Job Already Knows...

• “He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed” (9:10a) • “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” (12:13) • “By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.” (26:12)

If God Speaks….

Zophar: “But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips to you, and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For wisdom is many-sided. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” Job 11:5-6

But God Won’t Speak

Elihu: “He does not answer when men cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked. Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; the Almighty pays no attention to it. How much less, then, will he listen when you say that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you must wait for him…” Job 35:12-14

Job’s Expectations

Job: “Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy. Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing. He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason. He would not let me regain my breath but would overwhelm me with misery.” Job 9:15-18

Surprise! Yahweh Speaks!

• But his speeches are more notorious for what they don’t say. – They don’t answer Job’s “why” questions. – They don’t offer a list of indictments.

• So, are they a genuine response to lament?

Which God Shows Up?

The Cosmic Bully?

[who humiliates Job with incessant questions]

Or

The Gentle Father?

[who reminds Job of what he already knows]

The Coming of Yahweh

• Gracious Presence: Yahweh is not required to come.

• Gracious Speech: Yahweh is not required to speak.

• Gracious Encounter: Yahweh engages Job.

The Yahweh Speeches

• The most significant thing is that Yahweh speaks at all, not necessarily what he says.

• But what he says does speak to Job’s lament. But how?

• Yahweh gives Job what he needs: Comfort.

The First Speech (38:2-40:2)

• Job’s Problem: Ignorance (38:2) • Yahweh’s Answer: From Creation to Providence – Power (divine ability; 38:35) – Wisdom (divine management; 39:26) – Care (divine love; 38:41) • Grace is the hinge of the world, not gain.

Job’s First Response (40:4-5)

“See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no further.”

Second Speech (40:7-41:34)

• Job’s Problem: Is God fair?

• Yahweh’s Answer – Can you run the world better than I (40:11-12)?

– Yahweh is sovereign over evil • the Behemoth (40:15-24) • the Leviathan (41:1-34) • Yahweh is Sovereign (41:11): “Who makes a claim against me that I must repay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.”

Job’s Second Response (42:2-6)

First Part (42:2-3)

Job confesses – God’s sovereignty (no purpose unfulfilled) – God’s incomprehensibility

Job’s Second Response (42:2-6)

Second Part (42:4-6)

• Existential Encounter (42:5) • Job’s Response to Encounter (42:6)

Does Job Repent?

Options

• Job repudiates Yahweh • Job recants his lawsuit • Job repents of his lament • Job is comforted over his lament

The Divine-Human Encounter

• Human Ignorance and Finitude generates nagging questions

ENCOUNTER

comforting peace • Divine Presence generates

Homily on Job 42:2-6

• Why has God not spoken?

• But Job knows he will be vindicated.

• God encounters Job, and Job is comforted by God’s presence.

Divine Comfort and Hope

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

The Experience of Hope

• the presence of the Holy Spirit who gives joy in the midst of suffering • the yearning for the destruction of fallenness and renewal of creation • the anticipation of the victorious return of Jesus Christ confirmed in the resurrection of Jesus.

Biblical Story as Lens

The models of lament in Scripture are paradigmatic for our own experience of suffering and subsequent comfort.