Reading: Job 24-28, Psalm 141
Where do you go when everything goes sideways? I’ve had a few events in my life when things looked pretty bad. My health particularly once caught me off guard, and I remember sitting and wondering if any of the things I thought I would do someday could ever happen now. But as bad as those moments were, I feel I have largely been very fortunate. When I read the book of Job, I am reminded of friends of mine who have lost far more than I ever have. I had a health scare. They have lifelong persistent complications. I had some of my future clipped down, but all my expectations were not disappointed, nor all the visions I had for the future boiled away. There is always someone with a worse story, and Job is not about comparison. In all our suffering, great and small, we have a choice about what we will believe about it. A choice about who we will run to when things turn bad.
Job continues his appeal to God from the previous chapter by asking why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty? Job wishes God held court the way an ancient king would. Job lists off all the evil things he has seen go unpunished, and wishes there were a time in which the afflicted could present themselves before God and beg him to exact justice. Job’s earlier desire to appeal his own suffering directly to God is expanded to all those who suffer injustice. He has already asked for a mediator, and appealed to God as witness for himself. Now he does so for all those who suffer without recourse.
There is an interesting little interlude in chapter 25. Bildad again speaks, but he is very short and it almost seems he is reciting something. His words are similar to his earlier remarks, but contain some references to Job’s arguments as well. This is the last speech by Job’s three friends, and it appears to be an admission of defeat. Bildad’s only argument is that man is a creature and God is creator, which is exactly the things that Job has embraced the entire time. He has nothing left to say about Job’s suffering, repentance, or what happens to the wicked and the righteous. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are out of arguments, and have nothing left but to turn to God as creator.
This Job heartily embraces. He sarcastically tells his friends that they have been so very useful by counseling him who has no wisdom. They are now telling Job things he has already said, so he is quite happy to agree with them now. He spends the rest of chapter 26 in a speech on God’s power and authority. God is the judge, and Job knows he can never be righteous before him. Yet, in chapter 27, Job refuses to let go of his integrity and righteous behavior. As he said all the way back in chapter 9, Job is fully aware that he has no standing to challenge God, but he will act righteously anyway. He will not abandon correct behavior because the outcomes are not what it seems they should be. Job has come to understand that even if he suffers for righteousness, and the wicked are blessed for their actions, it is better to be righteous anyway. Job is not a consequentialist. That would be foolishness, and Job desires wisdom in answer to his affliction.
In chapter 28 he turns to the search for wisdom. If the righteous are punished and the wicked blessed, but right is still right and wrong still wrong, how is one to know what is wise and what is foolish? Job concludes that humans are incapable of knowing wisdom by searching it out. Though he puts an end to darkness, and searches out the farthest limit, though he overturn mountains by the roots, and brings the things hidden out to light, he cannot find wisdom. Because it is not found in the land of the living. Job already said that it is not wise to be a consequentialist, now he says it will not do any better to be a materialist, for that will not answer his condition any better. He looks beyond himself and the created order for his answer. Wisdom is found with the creator alone. God understands the way to it because he made the world. Job speaks of God’s position as creator as the source of his authority. For humans then, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. God sets the bounds on what is right and what is wrong. No other standard of righteousness and evil will do. There is no where else to go when it all goes sideways.