Listen!
Gentle Reader,
When God speaks, we ought to listen! When we read the book of Job, one is struck almost immediately that God doesn’t take sides- He takes over. Some may be disappointed that at the conclusion of this book and our wrapping up of this mini study that we don’t have clear explanation for the reason that bad things happen to good people! But we need to note that God does not give Job a Divine solution to Job’s problem. Nor do we have a clear cut solution to what is happening to you dear friend. If this were simply a human book with a human author than we would have some answers!
Note that God makes not the slightest move to explain Job’s suffering or for that matter devolve the problem of providence.
Another thing that disappoints us is that instead of argument God gives us a series of interrogations.
"Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Verses 6-7 Chapter 38 of Job
The divine purpose is to humble Job, but not to mock or to humiliate him ( and there is a wide difference between being humbled and being humiliated).
One cannot but note that references are made in the speech to living creatures. [Chapter 39 ff] Their peculiar features or habits. These are conferred by the wisdom of and power of God.. By asking these questions God shows the profound ignorance of God’s NATURAL government it shows his utter incapacity to pass judgement on that which is far more incomprehensible and mysterious, God’s MORAL government.
What then Gentle Reader, is the significance if there is no explanation of your affliction, nor an answer to your question, nor even a solution to your suffering- not even a promise that you or Job will end in renewed prosperity? An unreflective reading of it may easily miss the significance and cause disappointment.
Well, the first significance is that Job was not meant to know the explanation of his sufferings (we were privileged as it were, to look behind the curtains). Had Job been told the real explanation (the slander of Satan and the challenge of Jehovah) . His eyes would have been open wide with astonishment, yet at the same time the whole purpose of the trial would have been nullified. Job’s fortitude would have been artificial. The would have been no real test of Job’s character (not for God’s benefit, for God knows all, but for Job’s). Nor would there have been any place for the genuine exercise and education of faith.
We are meant to learn the lesson that there are some things about human suffering which God cannot possibly explain to us without destroying the very purpose which they are designed to fulfill.
That Gentle Reader is the 1st significance of this speech from the whirlwind. Selah [ Heb. a technical musical term probably showing accentuation, pause, interruption meaning Think about that till next time] when we will consider the second and another significance the Divine concern in Job’s affairs.
I am after all Gentle Reader, just one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread!
Denis
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