Biblical Interpretation and My Inability to Shut My Mouth

Does Job Answer the Question of Evil?
Dr. Arnold led the discussion on Job two days ago. I found myself on a bit of an island in the conversation because I just don't think that Job gives a satisfying answer to the question of why God allows evil to hammer good people. Dr. Arnold made the excellent point that Job was a giant leap forward for the Hebrew faith, and that Job's discussion of evil was the unique in that it didn't allow for competing gods (all of the nations and the peoples around Israel were polytheists).

Dr. Arnold showed us a good sermon on Job, but at the end the preacher sort of tacked on a "and Job shows us, like the cross of Jesus shows us, that God is with us in our suffering."

I just don't see that Job shows us that. In fact, it seems to me that Job doesn't come close to saying that God suffers with us. In Job God is remote until he appears, painlessly, in the whirlwind and overwhelms Job by Job's smallness. "Where were you when I made the universe?" God blusters. That answer is so unsatisfying. What is Job supposed to say? "You're right God. I did all the right stuff and it's okay that my family got whacked by the Satan. The fact that I am a created being means that I shouldn't have a say in any of this. Thanks for setting me straight."

I talked too much in class. I came across as not liking Job. I regret that. I think Job a great book and that without Job the Old Testament would be lacking the depth that it has . . . but at best Job only points toward the overwhelming inadequacy of human answers when it comes to the problem of how an all-powerful God could allow such suffering. Even in Luke 13, when Jesus is asked a question about the problem of evil, he doesn't really answer it. He just sort of says, "The issue is, will you repent of your sins. (Luke 13:5)" If Job and Luke 13 were the end of the matter, forgive me, but I would be exasperated with God.

That's the beauty of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is why I worship God. In Jesus God didn't answer the problem of how a good and all-powerful God could allow evil to continue to overwhelm the helpless and the powerful alike. God didn't give us a nice mathematical equation or flow chart to put on a PowerPoint presentation. Instead, in Christ, God showed us that he doesn't ask us the suffer the consequences of evil alone, on our ash heap, scratching on our sores. In Christ, God points us to the cross and says, "I suffer like you, with you, for you . . . and, by the way, all of this suffering is not the last word. The last word is 'Life," "Resurrection."

Job doesn't say that. When I read Job I become all the more impressed with the people of Israel. They kept the conversation with God going long enough to bring it to its fullest flowering in the Cross and Resurrection. I'm ashamed to say it, but I wonder if I would have kept that conversation going.

That's just one of the issues I wouldn't shut up about. The other was the unholy division between sacred and secular. But that's a different blog for a different day . . . one that I will probably fail to write.