Control Issues

July 12 2020

Job 29:1-15, 31:13-15, 40:6-14

         Something you may not know about me is that I am a middle child which now that you know that might help explain a lot about me. I have an older brother and sister and a younger brother and sister. My older sister just turned sixty this week which was a pretty big milestone for her.  As she was on our mind this week, we were remembering stories not just about her but about her kids as well. She has two daughters, Sachie and Ren. Sachie is pretty normal but Ren has always marched to the beat of her own drummer.We still laugh about the time when my first cousin, who is a little awkward around kids anyways, picked up Ren when she was like four years old. As he held her in his arms she stared at his face, then proceeded to place her hands on both sides of my cousins head and exclaimed, “You have an oval face” which was kind of an odd statement to make about somebody. Another story we tell often about Ren is when she was in preschool and she was playing with a toy and enjoying doing so so much that no one else could play with that toy which ,of course upset another kid. So, the teacher pulled Ren aside and asked Ren if she knew that when playing with toys she had to take, and then paused, hoping Ren would say, “turns”, as in take turns. But Ren had other ideas because when the teacher said that Ren was to take something, Ren told her she was to take control. This answer fits our family because more often than not we would rather take control than take turns.Even though Ren’s in college now we knew from stories like these she was going to be a real firecracker and she is.

         Well, I think that most of us can relate to where Ren was coming from, because all of us at some point just want to take control. In this last part of Job, this issue of taking control is a major issue that Job is wrestling with. In fact, this idea of being able to control our fate just might be the central theme of the book of Job. As we remember, Job suffered the loss of all his wealth in one day and on that same day, Job also lost all ten of his children. In the midst of the terrible grief Job was experiencing, Job refused to curse God remaining faithful to God in spite of his overwhelming pain. So, because Job would not curse God, Satan asked God to afflict the physical health of Job because if Job’s body was afflicted, surely then Job would curse God to his face. So, Job experienced painful oozing boils over his entire body which caused him intense pain but in spite of this he refused to curse God. An important part of this opening scenario is the possibility of a face to face encounter with God. This theme runs the entire length of the book of Job and we read of that encounter in todays reading.

         To comfort Job in his grief and suffering, friends of Job come to visit him. They sit with him in silence for a week before Job speaks of his tragedy and then Job’s friend, Eliphaz replies to Job’s demands for answers. Eliphaz tells Job the story of God who is the Creator, who not only created the world but also cares intimately for his creation.God created this world on purpose and this means that we as his highest creation, we are created for a purpose. No one is here by accident; everyone is someone to God. This is the ground of our hope, what we hold on to in the darkest of nights. There is a grand story of God and all of us play a part in it. So, when our world seems overwhelmed by chaos we hold fast to this idea that because there is a purpose that there must also be an order to this world that God created.

         Eliphaz also encouraged Job to pray because prayer is how we enter into and become engaged with this story God is speaking into being. Prayer as we said has its roots in the grace of God who gave to us the gift of life. In response to this gift, we show God our gratitude and it is this gratitude which is the beginning of our relationship with God. This relationship is a covenant relationship, where we are there for each other much like a family is there for each other. Prayer then is the conversations we have as the family of God. Through prayer we come to agree with God, we trust in the will of God and the ways of God. Through having faith in God we can then play our part in the story of God.

         Well, knowing the story of God our creator and how we become part of that story through prayer are all well and good but what continued to nag at Job was why had all of this tragedy happened to him. To that question, Jobs friends had an answer. They had the wisdom which told them that those who feared God would live lives blessed by God and the wicked who turned their back on God these would be punished. Job’s friends believed in swift justice.So, when they saw the tragedy that had happened to Job they could only come to one conclusion and that was that Job was a wicked person. Yet, Job insisted that he had done know wrong. Job went on to point out just how stupid their so called wisdom was because as Job pointed out to them the wicked don’t always suffer. The wicked very often are prosperous living lives of ease right up to their death with no real repercussions for their actions.Job wondered if what his friends had thought was wisdom wasn’t really wisdom at all, just where could one find a place of understanding? Job found his answer from God, who told Job that he saw wisdom when he was in the process of creating the world. Wisdom is found in the creation of that which is good and creating that which is good is a wise thing because in the end, good is going to triumph over evil.

         All of this brings us to where we are today and as we have said the issue today and perhaps for the whole book of Job, is this issue of control. After Job discovers just what wisdom is in the twenty eighth chapter, he begins once again to speak concerning what has happened to him. He first recalls life in his village  and what begins to be apparent is that Job used to be a man of honor. Job says he recalls how “the friendship of God was on his tent, how the lamp of God shone upon his head..” When Job went to the gate of the city, the young men knew to make way for him and the elders rose and stood as Job passed by. What Job is referencing is this system of honor and shame that was the unwritten rules of conduct in his community. People sought to be be people who were honorable because they would receive honor from others.This system of honor and shame had a lot of power to control how people reacted because it had the whole weight of the community behind it. Everyone knew how you were to act in the presence of a person who was due respect. If you didn’t honor them as expected then you could be expected to be shamed and held in contempt by everyone in the community. So, this desire to be in good standing among your people controlled how you acted among them.

         Well, what happened to Job is that because of the tragedy that had befallen him he found himself no longer as a person of honor but rather  as a person shamed by his community. They laughed at him, spit on him and basically wanted nothing to do with him because they believed Job had been humbled by God. Since God in some measure had shamed Job then they too would follow suit and shame him as well. While Job no longer demanded anything of God what he is doing is making his case that it is God rather than himself who should be the object of shame. In the twenty fourth verse of the thirtieth chapter, Job states, “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster, cry for help? Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? Job is saying this is the kind of guy I was, taking the hand of those who found themselves on the dump heap of life, I cried for those who were hurting and hungry, for those who couldn’t find a job. This is the kind of guy I was and still am; I am an honorable guy. But as Job also stated in the nineteenth verse, “God cast me into the mire, I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to God for help and God does not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.God has turned cruel to me with the might of his hand God persecuted me.” To Job, it is easy to see that God isn’t much better than those who held Job in contempt, people whom Job felt were pretty contemptible. Job’s position is that when it comes to justice he is doing a better job then God is. Job is able to imagine approaching God proudly with confidence ready to give an account for his life.Its not hard for Job to imagine this because Job expects that God could call him to account at any moment. In the thirty first chapter Job is swearing oaths that he is indeed an honorable man despite all appearances to the contrary. And he states, “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When God makes inquiry, what then shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?” Here Job shows that he understands the good life that God created not all of us to live, a life caring for others. First, Job lives knowing that he is always accountable to God. We all have to live able to give answer for the way we live our life. God has given us the gift of life and God wants to know just what are we doing with this gift that he has given us. Secondly, we see that Job honors the order of God instead of the order of society. Job listens to the complaint of those which society would have held to be the lowest of the low positions but instead of letting that cloud his judgment Job instead remembers that God is the creator who created Job and everybody else. Job’s answer echos the daily Jewish prayer, “‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God and we shall love him with all of our heart, all of our soul and all of our strength. The Lord our God is one and he is the one who fashioned all of us in the womb. Thus the oneness of God our creator has made us all one and this affects how we reply when anyone brings a cry of justice against us. This is the same as what Jesus taught when in the seventh chapter of Matthew he tells us “So, whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them for this is the Law and the Prophets.” 

         Well,  just as Job wondered just what he would do when God would come calling we get to have a front row seat to see exactly that. In the thirty eighth chapter we read, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind…” Now when I read whirlwind, I’m thinking tornado and the the point of saying this is that there is to be expected a lot of terror and dread anytime God speaks just like when a tornado touches down. God speaks but as Job found out it wasn’t to give answers to him but rather it was to ask Job some serious questions. God asks Job, “Were you there…” Were you there when God gave birth to the sea, or when he commanded the morning to arise, or were you there when God entered the storehouses of snow, or when God made it rain in the desert? God goes on to speak of various animals, how God is the one who feeds the lions and how God hears the cries of the young ravens and feeds them. God goes on to tell Job of the mountain goats, and the wild donkeys who ranges the mountains for his pasture. God speaks of the ostrich who lacks all wisdom and understanding yet lives a life of laughter. God goes on and on about the great war horse and his lust for battle and of the soaring hawk and the eagle whose nest is on high. Then the Lord says to Job, “Shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. To this Job wisely knew not to answer. God goes on to ask Job, “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Then God speaks to the heart of Job when he tells him “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity, clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowing of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and bring them low.Tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together bind their faces in the land of the dead. Then I will also acknowledge to you that your right hand can save you.” Now, I have to admit it’s a little hard to figure out just what all this means what I do know is that it has to do with control. I say this because the last two animals God speaks of are the most terrifying creatures God created. God’s question to Job is the same; can you grab a hold of them and lead them around by the nose? Can you put a fishhook in this terrible beast of the deep and draw him out of the water? You can imagine as you sit and watch ‘Jaws” that you are hardly, as God suggests, going to take that great white and play with him as a bird or put him on a leash for your kids to play with. As you step back and look at all that God has laid out before Job the central theme is that most of what God has created cannot be controlled by people.All of the aspects of nature are all parts of our world we have absolutely no control over. This is driven home by the last and most terrifying beast who represents the most uncontrollable being in all of creation. God says of this beast that “on earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high, he is king over all the sons of pride.” This then tells us the source of humanities pride, this belief that they are in some measure able to be in control. The reason for this belief as seen in the life of Job is that if life is able to be controlled then tragedy can be avoided.  Job as you may recall we are told offered burnt sacrifices for all of his children just in case they had sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Job offered these up so that he might have some control over the life of his children to keep them safe but in spite of his efforts they still tragically perished. The bottom line is that creation cannot be controlled because we as people must be free to live as God intended. To make love possible meant that tragedy must also be possible. To be open to receive love meant that God must also be open to receive rejection. This is the tragedy of Jesus who came to his own but his own people did not received him.The prideful people who thought they could control their world nailed Jesus to a cross certain they had silenced his message of a love that was possible in spite of tragedy and suffering. These were the ones God spoke to Job about, the proud who were brought low, humbled when Jesus stepped out of the grave on Easter morning. The resurrection proved that God cannot be controlled, our world cannot be controlled and the only thing that can be controlled is our response to life. This is the control Job should have focused in on and been satisfied with. When one from the lowliest stations of life had a complaint against him Job had control as to how he would answer. He would answer with compassion because he knew that he lived his life before the face of God. He would answer with equity and justice because the one God made us all. His response, our response is the most important aspect of what we can control. It is this control of how we live that ultimately overcomes life’s tragedy. Jesus at the end of the seventh chapter of Matthew teaches us, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon a rock. The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house but it did not fall because it had been founded on that rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand, The rain fell the floods came  and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was that fall.” This is the one tragedy all of us have control over whether it happens to us. I pray that we listen to Jesus then do what he commands each and every day. Amen.