Full understanding is beyond us, but we can fear Yahweh
(Job 28:1-28)
Two people in bed asleep. There’s a landslide. The wife is killed, the husband survives. That was the Thredbo disaster. Three men stuck underground in a gold mine. An accident, and two are pulled out alive, one dead. That’s the Beaconsfield mining disaster Two people in the front seats of a car. There’s a car accident. One is killed, one is left. That happens again and again. There’s a tsunami, earthquake, or cyclone somewhere. This one survives, but that one is swept away. There’s a massacre, a road-side bombing, or terrorist attack. This one is killed, but his companion survives. As Mad Max discovered, “Two man enter, one man leaves”.
This is what happens in our world all the time. As Jesus said, Two men working in the field. One taken, one is left. Two women making bread. One taken, one left. (Matthew 2:39-41)
And it leads to such things as survivor guilt. I’ve heard from Returned Veterans that many of the men who came back from World War II died a few years afterwards. Surviving it when so many died was too much.
Why does disaster discriminate? Why does tragedy choose one, and not the other? The catastrophe comes, and treats people differently. It doesn’t take the bad and leave the good. Nor does it only take the good and leave the bad. The song ‘only the good die young’ is only sometimes right. Sometimes the good die young. Sometimes they grow old and see their children’s children. Sometimes the wicked die in their wickedness. And sometimes they grow old and wealthy and live to see their children’s children. It all seems random, arbitrary.
This is the observation of the Teacher of Israel in Ecclesiastes.
14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 8:14 NIV)
2 All share a common destiny-- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. 3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. … (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 NIV)
These observations are important for understanding the book of Job. You will remember that Job is a righteous man. There’s no-one else like him on earth that fears Yahweh and shuns evil. And Job was also rich and prosperous. These were signs of God’s blessing.
And yet Job suffers horrifically. In one day, he loses everything he owns, his 10 children, his wife’s respect, and his health.
We readers know why Job suffers. It’s not because Job has sinned. It’s because in heaven, Satan slandered Job, and God as well. Satan said Job only serves God for what God gives him. And God wants to prove Satan wrong. So God allows Satan twice to test Job, God setting the limits each time. Job knows that God is in control. Job knows that Yahweh has allowed this disaster to come to him. But Job doesn’t know why. Job only knows the disaster hasn’t come upon him because of his sin.
Last week we heard what Job’s friends think. They believe Job is suffering because he has sinned. God sent the suffering as punishment. The suffering is for specific sins Job had committed. We know they are horribly wrong, terribly mistaken. And Job also knows enough to know they are wrong.
But Job’s biggest problem is not his three friends. It is with his God. Job, like Jacob before him, and Israel after him, wrestles and struggles with his God. For a believing wrestling with God in a fallen world is the mark of God’s people. Why is suffering so arbitrary? Why is there this seeming randomness? There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to the distribution of the suffering. At least, it is not obvious to us from our earth-bound perspective. Sometimes the wicked get what they deserve. Sometimes the righteous receive the same judgment.
So in the midst of Job’s final reply to his friends, we get Job 28. It doesn’t seem to fit with what Job has been saying until now. It doesn’t seem to have all the angst, all the wrestling, all the pain. In it, Job seems to have a new insight. He has emerged from all his wrestling with a new perspective.
I think of it as a bit of a ‘runner’s high’. Have you ever had that? I’ve you heard of it. I had it once when I was in the playground when I was in second class. And since then I’ve only had ‘runner’s pain’. Long distance runners get it. There comes a point after they’ve been panting and straining and struggling that everything becomes easier. Apparently the endorphins are produced that attach themselves to the parts of the brain that produce emotions. And they can run, and run, with a new vigor and strength.
Well, Job has been struggling and panting and straining, with both God and man. But in chapter 28, he has moved onto a different plane completely. No more of this struggling for insight. There is just insight into the problem, acceptance of the situation, and a clear statement of how to live wisely. Job is ‘in the zone’, ‘in the moment’. His performance is elevated. He is on the performance enhancing endorphins. The natural ‘runner’s high’. And now Job speaks with great wisdom.
Job starts by drawing an analogy. The analogy is between Job’s struggle for understanding – Why has God sent this suffering? – and human’s desperate endeavours to mine precious minerals from the earth.
We Aussies love to dig up stuff and sell it. Australia is the worlds largest exporter of coal, lead, diamonds and zinc. The second largest exporter of gold and uranium. The third largest exporter of aluminium[1].
We sit on lots of goodies. Stuff that people in China and Japan and India want. They’re prepared to pay for it to keep the wheels of industry turning. So we dig it up, and sell it to them. In fact, the Mining Council of Australia think we will need 87,000 more skilled workers to deal with the mineral boom[2].
And of course, with mining comes risks. Remember Beaconsfield, Tasmania? 3 gold miners trapped underground. Two brought up alive, one dead, as the nation watched.
Gold mining is risky. In fact, all mining is risky. With all that explosive, big machinery, billions of tonnes of rock hanging over you. Sometimes, there are mistakes[3].
This is not a new phenomenon. Job 28:1-11 reminds us this has been happening for thousands of years. Silver, gold, iron, copper, precious stones. Dig it up, because people want it, and will pay for it.
The ancients engaged in both open cut and deep shaft mining. Sure, not as wide or deep as modern mining. But still, substantial, dangerous and impressive. Then as now, they went far and wide into the desert ‘prospecting’. And when they found a rich deposit, they showed no fear. Not scared of dark or dangers. Torch in one hand, flint knife in the other, they dug and cut, as they swayed from side to side, dangling from their ropes. They used first hot fire on the rock. Then splash cold water on it. The rapid temperature change cracked the rock and freed the precious ore. Ancient miners, just like their modern descendents, showed courage and resourcefulness. As indeed all treasure hunters.
That’s what people do for gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, coal and oil. So what is the point of the analogy. Verses 12 and 13 tell us.
12 "But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? 13 Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living. (Job 28:12-13 NIV)
Job raises two points. First, people endanger themselves to find gems and precious metals. But they don’t even look for wisdom. Men don’t see the value of understanding God, and his ways. The Newspapers aren’t saying, ‘Australia need 87,000 more gospel workers to save people from an eternal hell, to understand and teach the bible to the nation’. No – we need 87,000 more miners. That’s the job of the Ministry Training Scheme, and the Spur conference! Because people want gold and silver, not God’s wisdom, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And second, no matter how far you dig, you won’t find wisdom. Digging for wisdom, Job says, is fruitless. Job should know. He’s been driven to digging for wisdom quite a bit.
And his conclusion is, you won’t find it. You don’t know why God distributes suffering the way he does. It cannot be found. It cannot be bought.
Where can wisdom be found? How can I understand what is happening to me?
In short, Job has no answer? Why does God distribute suffering the way he does? Sometimes the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Sometimes the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. Sometimes righteous and wicked prosper side by side. And sometimes they suffer together, and are lain side by side in the grave.
Why? There’s no answer to be found on earth. God’s wisdom is known only to him, but fear of the Lord is Adam’s wisdom (verses 20-28) So Job throws his hands in the air and gives up! Job sees the randomness and chaos and says, ‘there is no God’. Nothing is controlling the world. There’s no one behind the wheel. Everything is all chance and fate and accident and luck. Meaning and purpose in life are a joke. Come, let’s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. The only thing that matters is maximizing pleasure and minimizing plain. Because that’s the only thing we know.
No. Job does not go there. Though many have and will. That is the way of atheistic hedonism and ruin and dissipation.
Sometimes older people are amazed at the self-centred immorality and debauchery of modern Western materialist society. Live for now, be true to yourself, Look after yourself, the me-generation says. Such thinking could never have fought two world wars.
But why be amazed? If there is no God, or if you are god, why not get away with what you can? Why not live for now, for pleasure, for the moment! And if you do happen to do some ‘good things’ (whatever good means) you do them for yourself. I’ll do that, then I can feel good about myself. I’ll work for a good society, a better world, because then life will be better for me. Enlightened self-interest, the atheists call it.
I’m amazed modern Australian society is holding up as well as it is, given how overtly materialist and atheistic our media and intelligentsia are. Yet another kindness of God to us in our selfish sinfulness.
Job says no to a hedonistic binge and plunging into dissipation. In the midst of his pain he lifts his eyes from earth to heaven. He trusts God. He knows God has the answer. Job has been given no answer. But that doesn’t mean there is no answer.
God knows. It is hidden from Job, but not from God. And God has chosen not to reveal it to humans.
When he’s in the zone, Job can live with not being told. Job can live without knowing the answer. Because he knows God. Knowing God means you don’t have to know what God knows. The fact that God knows is enough, because God is good.
God knows everything, and he is good. Then if God has not told me something, he has good reasons for it.
There are some things I don’t tell my little boys. There are some things that they don’t need to know. Sometimes knowledge makes life harder, not easier. Is it because I don’t care about them that I don’t tell them? No, it’s because they are not ready for the information. But one day they will know, when they’ve grown into maturity. And they will know probably more than I will ever know.
I don’t know why God has given uneven distribution of suffering…. Yet. But God does. Now is not the time to know. It is the time to trust God in the midst of a sinful world.
But there is a wisdom God has given me. Right now, God has told us on ‘a need to know’ basis. What has God told us.
This. That there is a derivative wisdom for humans. And this wisdom will do us for now. I will trust in the Lord with all my heart, and not lean on my own understanding. I will fear Yahweh, and that will be wisdom for me. I will shun evil, and that will be understanding enough for the time being.
Friends, God is there, and he is not silent. But he has not told us everything we want to know. He has spoken, but God tells us what is good and necessary for us to know. God has always operated like this.
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV)
It’s the same with Jesus. We don’t know everything about Jesus. So John says, if everything Jesus did was written, the whole world would not have room for the books (John 21:25)
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31 NIV)
Some people love to say, ‘God’s ways are mysterious’. Certain forms of Christianity love this. With bells, and smells, and high ritual. Special men, priests, doing special things. You do it in a special part of the building, using a different language no one understands, and magic words, and special clothes. All of it meant to increase the … mystery.
No. That’s not Protestant Christianity. That’s not the Gospel. That was not the principle of the Anglican Reformation, which was to make things clear and understandable. This is the danger of keeping some of our traditions when they no longer communicate the truths they did when they were brought in. Communion rails blocking off part of the building. A table that look like an altar. A surplice that no one else wears. They might be matters indifferent, but people also might misunderstand them. It might bring the mystery back into Christianity. The principle of the reformation, as is the bible, is to take the mystery out of Christianity.
Often, when people call things about God a mystery, it’s a cop-out. It’s a cop out because they’re not thinking hard. It’s easier to say, ‘it’s a mystery’ than think about it. It’s a cop out because God has told us so much about himself. So much of the mystery about God has been revealed.
I looked up the word ‘mystery’ in the NIV bible. Of the 30 times it comes up, 27 are about a mystery God has revealed. 90% of the time, the bible talks about a mystery God has made known (eg Luke 10:21-25; Romans 11:32[4]). God is pictured as the revealer of mysteries. Mostly the mystery is ‘Christ’. Christ has been revealed. And Jew and Gentile now can be one people through faith in Christ. God is in the business of revealing and showing, not concealing and hiding. He uncovers rather than covers.
Things God reveals aren’t mysteries anymore. God’s revelation makes things clear, not mysterious.
The trinity is not a mystery. The Trinity shows us how God can be love in himself, as opposed to the muslim God or the Jehovah’s witness’ God. The Trinity shows how God doesn’t need anything else to be complete. The Trinity tells us that God didn’t create because he was bored or lonely. The Trinity reveals, not conceals. The Trinity is as mysterious as how a husband and wife can be one flesh. It’s as mysterious as marriage. It’s as mysterious as having children who share the flesh of you and your wife. A family is three and one; Dad, mum, child. And God is three and one; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Predestination isn’t a mystery. It explains how come you believe, but someone else doesn’t. You being a Christian ultimately has got nothing to do with your decisions, and everything to do with God’s decision. Sure, we don’t know why God choose you and not someone else. But that doesn’t stop predestination explaining, rather than making things more murky.
But there are some things we don’t know. We’ve never seen God, nor can we … yet (eg 1 Tim 6:15-16). We will one day, but not now. Here’s something we don’t know. And that’s because God has decided not to reveal it to us … yet
And anyway, the things the very precious things that Christ has revealed are foolishness to the perishing world. You don’t get God’s wisdom unless you have his Spirit (1 Cor 2:4). No matter how hard you dig, God’s wisdom has to be a gift. God has to reveal it to you.
And what is the wisdom of God for us. We know more than just to fear God and shun evil. We know that, and it remains true for us, but we know more. For we know the message of the cross.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18-24 NIV)
What is the wisdom of God in the face of human suffering? The Suffering Servant. The Messiah who suffers for the sins of the world. For God in Christ takes suffering into himself, and brings good out of it, the salvation of many souls. And so we who suffer in this world of suffering, but have the Spirit, look to our fellow sufferer, the suffering servant Christ, and see that he suffered for us. And that is enough for us. Let’s pray.
[1] http://www.businessmonitor.com/mining/australia.html
[2] http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24086209-643,00.html
[3] Up to half a kilometre below the Illawarra, the black seams are being tunneled. Coal used to be called ‘black diamond’.They use millions of dollars of equipment to dig it up. The carve out huge tunnels as they follow the seam. Conveyer belts bringing all that coal to the surface to be processed. Most of it exported, some of it for power at home. See http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/ourBusinesses/metallurgicalCoal/illawarraCoal/aboutillawarracoal.jsp. Most of us have heard of ‘Broken Hill’. But the actual ‘broken hill’ was mined away long ago. The hill was dug up to get all the silver, lead and zinc. They’ve been digging into it for 120 years and still going. Men moving mountains. Then dig it up and sell it. Mount Isa has been mined for over 80 years and still going. They extract lead, zinc, silver and copper. As you can see from the diagram, they dig down to around 2km below the surface. See http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/mount_isa_copper/mount_isa_copper3.html
[4] Even in Romans 11:32, the mystery is revealed. It is that God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he can have mercy on them all. Who would have thought that God would have done that. But God’s ways are not our ways.