Epic Faith: Standing Firm in the Silence

We are returning this week to the book of Job from the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. In Biblical literature, Job is classified as poetry and is like an epic poem. The form of an epic includes the story of a hero that helped to shape a culture. 

As we hear from Job, we see his struggles – man against nature, man against himself, man against other people, and man against God. When we look for what it is that is heroic about Job, we see that he returned over and over again to the trustworthiness of God. In spite of loss, accusation, and even silence - Job relied upon the nature and character of God to define who he was and be his continual source.

Because the context of today’s scripture offers a great wealth of wisdom and material for reflection, I am going to wait until later to share the actual scripture from this week’s lectionary selection from Job.

As the book of Job opened, we heard last week that Job lost his economic security – when he lost his flocks, he lost his wealth and his source of income. His flocks were his property and his means of employment. His status shifted from being economically secure to now being in need. Any of you who are jobless or have gone through periods of time when you did not have work, or if you do not have adequate work, you know that experience personally.

Our identity in society is wrapped up in our livelihood. When we meet people for the first time, we sometimes ask them, “What do you do?” When we go through the loss of employment or lose the skills we once had, or even lose the passion we had for our work, we might struggle with our identity and struggle in relationships.

Job experienced this, and then this was compounded with the loss of his family. When you are asked by someone to tell them about yourself, you may begin by putting yourself in context in terms of the family. You might share about your marriage and children, or if you are single you might tell something different like make a reference to your parents, siblings, and even birth order. A little bit of your life story shared with another person includes something about your family.

Job has lost his children – seven sons and three daughters have died – all in one tragic event. Job’s frame of reference for who he is in terms of relationship has been severely stripped down and shattered. Now, this father of so many children is alone with his wife – almost back at square one – at the beginning of their life together. But as young people, they had their youthfulness and their health.

The next attack against Job’s identity is the attack against his body. He acquired leprosy – one of the most socially isolating diseases in the world. His body was covered with sores and now that he had lost almost everything – it seemed the worse possible thing was happening. His wife even told him how terrible this was as she said to him, “Curse God and die!”

Like Job, we may seek to understand what is happening to us when we are experiencing difficulty in life. We call on friends, sometimes just to have them near – because their presence is a comfort to us. And most of us have experienced the awkwardness of not knowing what to say when a friend is experiencing great loss and grief.

One of our greatest temptations during times like this is to try to “fix it.” We are people who don’t easily sit by while others struggle – thank God – we do want to have mercy on other people. But sometimes our good intentions mixed with our open mouths lead us to saying hurtful or untrue things – even things that we believe are spiritual and biblical. We want to help and we may say the wrong thing. Job’s friends did this and we can benefit from being able to see what they did wrong.

From the fourth chapter of Job until the twenty-third chapter, Job’s friends persist in accusing him of doing wrong. Bad stuff keeps happening to Job. His friends decide that there must be some earthly explanation. Job must be bringing this on himself. Because of the great tragedies Job is suffering, his closest friends jump to conclusions about him.

First, in chapter 4, the first of the three of Job’s friends makes his accusation. Eliphaz applauds Job because he has shown strength and been an encouragement to others, but then he turns on Job and blames him for his own suffering. Eliphaz thought that people were being punished by God when bad things happened to them and so Job must be reaping what he has sown.

Next, in chapter 8, the second of Job’s three closest companions joins in with his accusations. Bildad says something similar to the first friend, saying that God would not reject a blameless person. Basically Bildad is saying that if Job was really holy or as righteous as everyone thought he was then these things would not be happening to him.

And finally in chapter 11, Job’s third close friend, Zophar gives his input, offering Job advice about what he should do to make these terrible things stop happening in his life. Zophar tells Job that if he is sinning, then he needs to stop. If he will stop sinning or putting up with sin in his household, then he would be safe from all these things and bad would not be happening to him.

In Romans chapter 12 verse 15, Paul tells Christians to ^“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” In the end of verse 16 he advises believers not to claim to be wiser than they are. Job’s friends, like us, wanted to provide answers for Job.

We have been around and we have seen people getting into trouble and suffering for it. We have even observed the behaviors of our friends – who may not have always done things the way we think they should have. And so, as we grasp at straws to try to make sense of suffering, we may fail to simply “weep with those who weep” because we want to be strong enough to make a difference in their lives. We want to see their suffering end and reconciliation to come.

Blame is a kind of accusation – even if it seems reasonable to us. We feel justified in blaming others by pointing out their behaviors that might have led to their demise. Accusation is not the work of God. It is actually the work of the enemy. In scripture, the devil himself is called “The Accuser.”

When we take up blaming others as our approach to difficult situations, we are joining forces with God’s enemies. Job’s friends even go so far as to make up stuff about him to explain his suffering! These things might have come in the form of gossip or in questioning.

What should we do instead? We can say, “I am sorry this is happening.” We can be present with people as they struggle. We can join them in their tears, hurt, and even in their anger. We might also share a Psalm of lament with them or share the story of Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus.

The scripture from Hebrews this morning relates to Job’s situation and the situation we may find ourselves in. We are told in the text that we are not alone in our struggles, but that God himself relates to our pain.

Hear again part of the reading from Hebrews 4…

“Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”

When Jesus was on the cross, carrying the sins of the whole word and feeling the absence of God, experiencing the silence of God, he even looked to the Psalms for a means of expressing his pain. He knew the scripture and was able to call out these words from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Job and Jesus both experienced the silence of God. Jesus felt this in his God forsaken hours on the cross. Job encountered the silence of God in the midst of his suffering. This is where we enter the scene with today’s text…

Hear this reading from Job 23:1-9 and 16-17…

Then Job answered:
"Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!
I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me.
There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.

"If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him;
on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.

God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me;
If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!

Jesus’ reference to Psalm 22 while he was on the cross was brief, maybe because his breath was limited and his pain severe. But even by speaking the introductory words to this Psalm, we gain a reference point from Jesus and can look to the Psalm to see how he might have been feeling.

Psalm 22 verses 1 through 5 expresses the pain and abandonment Jesus felt while still acknowledging the holiness and trustworthiness of God. The Psalmist recounts God’s former actions and faithfulness to the people of Israel. What God did for Israel, he will do for us. His faithfulness remains steadfast from generation to generation.

Hear the first five verses of Psalm 22…

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.”

When we are struggling, it is natural for us to seek answers, but sometimes the answers we need are in the character and nature of God. There was a Christian song that was popular when I was a teenager that said, “When you can’t see his hand, trust his heart.”

In order for us to know the nature and character of God so that we can draw on the faithfulness of God in hard times, we need to become familiar with how he interacted with people throughout history. We need to understand our own spiritual history and be able to tell our own story.

Revelation 12:11 says that those who are ultimately victorious are those who “overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” This means that we know two distinct stories and how they fit together. We must know the story of Jesus – and how that leads us into redemption, and then we also need to own and to know our own spiritual story.

This week, would you take the time to write out several spiritual milestones from your life? Would you take the time to begin to write an outline of your story? When did you begin to know the love of God? When did you intentionally begin to follow Jesus? What difficulties have you encountered?

What’s your story?