Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 280
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IMMERSE
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POETS
all are contained within Job’s overall protest, which is really directed
toward God.
The discussion is not merely theoretical or abstract; rather, it is set
in an ongoing drama with Job’s unexplained catastrophes squarely at
the center. As readers we will see this drama worked out as the conflict
continues throughout the course of the book.
But Job wearies of listening to others speaking for God; he wants to
confront God in person. And then it happens. There is no more talking
about God; a theophany occurs—God appears! Now the questioning
is reversed. In a series of magnificent poems, God declares his creative
power and mastery over the entire creation. God questions Job on
things he knows nothing about, and Job’s protests now appear to be
small and uninformed.
The question “Am I being treated justly?” takes on new meaning in
relation to the larger context of God’s intimate knowledge and oversight of all things. The book of Job teaches us that any good understanding of the mystery of our lives begins with the knowledge that
God alone is the Creator and Sustainer of the world.
We learn much at the end of Job’s drama. Those who claimed to
speak for God, confidently attributing guilt to those who suffer, are
shown to be gravely mistaken. God is always free, unbound by any
human formulation about what he must do in a particular situation. He
is above and beyond us, doing things we know nothing about. Job’s
suffering was not because of his sin, and his honest protests about his
innocence are shown to have been legitimate. And even in his complaints to God, Job has been rooted in faith. He never lost his trust that
only God could intervene to justify him and make things right.
This profound wisdom drama concludes with God’s intervention as
he changes Job’s circumstances once again. But the lesson has been
learned. We are to find no easy comfort or blame in our formulas about
God. The Creator alone sees all things. Our lives are to be lived in faith,
trusting the God who is good to set all things right in the end.
