"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Job 38:4a
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Sunday Old Testament readings recently have come from Job. Job went through horrible tragedy and loss through no fault of his own. The whole book of Job deals with the common quandary of bad things happening to good people. Job’s friends said it must have been something he did wrong that caused his calamities. But Job insisted on his innocence and pleaded his case before God. In the end, God doesn’t give Job an answer on Job’s terms. We don’t have an easy answer to that quandary. But God does answer Job, and that’s saying a lot.
God starts with calling Job to humility. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” he asks Job. He goes on for some length with such questions, painting a picture of God who is beyond our comprehension, but also a picture of God who does spectacular and marvelous things. Job went a little too far in challenging God, and yet, Job was right to call on God to redeem him. Job consistently trusted in God for his defense in the face of his friends’ criticism and Job cried out to God for relief. Indeed, God answered his cries. The whole book of Job is a testament to the resilience of Job’s faith in God, his perseverance in the midst of his pain.
God calls us to enough boldness to approach him, and enough humility to be open to his response. And here we find Job’s hope. Job’s hope wasn’t in himself—not in his wealth or health or family. He lost all of that. Job’s hope was in the one who laid the foundations of the earth, who knows all mysteries beyond our understanding and who is for us. The one who stretched a measuring line across the universe is also the one who humbled himself to take on our human life and human suffering and death. Jesus overcame all that pain and loss and rose again that we might have new life in him—a life greater than all our loss, a life that starts now and lives beyond death.
“I know that my redeemer lives” Job says “and in my body I shall see God, … and my eyes behold him who is my friend, and not a stranger.” Job’s hope and Job’s humility go together, for we can only hope in the one who is greater than we are. And God is not only greater, but for us. Job’s hope is our hope too. The one who restored Job’s life restores our lives as well.
God bless you with Job’s boldness, Job’s humility, and Job’s hope.
Yours in Christ,
-Tom