Sermon: “A God’s-Eye View” (Job, Part 4)
August 23, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
Scripture passage: Job 38 First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Finally!
Finally, God speaks! The moment we’ve been waiting for in this story of Job. After 35 chapters of cries for mercy, of discussions about suffering and injustice, of demands for answers, finally God shows up! Ironically, God speaks just as Elihu, one of Job’s friends, is explaining why Job has no right to question God or even to ask to speak to God. That’s the moment God breaks in.
And we wait, with baited breath for God to explain to Job what’s been going on, to tell him about the test instigated in heaven, maybe to apologize or at the very least to comfort. Job’s friends have made it clear they expect God will point out Job’s failures and give it back the way Job has been dishing it out to God. Those of us who were told of God’s admiration for Job and his integrity are expecting Job to be vindicated, to be congratulated, to have his reputation restored. God does none of that!
Many have found God’s answer, or lack of answer, bewildering. A pastor, who was not raised in the church and read the book of Job for the first time while studying Hebrew in seminary, describes his response like this. He said, “The first time I read the back-and-forth exchange between Job and his friends, I identified strongly with Job, as I think the author wanted his readers to do. The friends are plainly imposters, claiming to know all there is to know about God but in reality knowing very little… Then God speaks, and I thought that I would get an answer to Job. But as I read chapter 38, I was furious! Job wants answers about the universe’s justice, or lack of it, and God blusters on about creation.” (John C. Holbert, workingpreacher.org)
The Tour of the Universe
I’m reminded of that children’s story, Where the Wild Things Are. In that story a little boy named Max, who thinks he has been sent to bed without his supper, ends up getting into a private boat and sailing off to the land where the wild things are. As Job sits in the ashes feeling sorry for himself, God takes Job a private tour of creation by its Creator.
“Pull yourself together, Job! Brace yourself like a man,” God says. The literal Hebrew phrase is “Gird up your loins.” It’s used to express preparing oneself for a difficult task, especially for situations that require courage and hard work. I do not believe the command is punitive or that we should hear God’s questions as spoken with a condescending tone. Rather, Job is being offered the privilege of accompanying God on a tour of where the wild things are. He is being invited to do the hard work of seeing things from a new perspective.
Have you ever taken hike, or a walk in the woods, and discovered the path to be rougher than you thought it would be? The trail is strewn with stones that you could stub your toes on and traversed with tree roots you could stumble over. So as you walk along, you keep your head down and your eyes on your feet. The path consumes your full attention. But getting weary of that view, you pause for a moment and start to lift your eyes. First, you notice the wildflowers on either side of the path. You raise your eyes some more and see the trees, leaves dancing in the breeze and birds fliting about. For the first time you realize there are mountains in the distance. A couple steps off the path leads you to a wide lookout where you see fields and meadows, a town off in the far distance, a river running through it, winding off to the horizon. What a different experience, a different perspective than simply walking with your head down!
Job’s tour begins in God’s workshop where the universe was built. God speaks of the oceans like a midwife overseeing its birth. God presents powerful images of the workings of the universe; things we, as humans, don’t know, things we don’t control: the weather, the movement of the constellations with the seasons, the laws that govern the universe – laws of matter, of gravity, of cause and effect.
One of the most striking points that God makes is how resources are expended even in places where they might seem wasted. “Who sends rain to water a land where no one lives, on uninhabited deserts, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and to make it sprout with grass?” God asks. Who, indeed, is so abundantly generous, caring for spaces where there is no one to be grateful, no one to return thanks? From our small, limited, human perspective, we call those places “God-forsaken” places! Yet the Creator has not forsaken any space; God cares every space.
As the tour comes down to the earth, to a little blue and white planet, God takes Job to visit to some of the creatures that roam wild and free – the lioness mama, the hungry baby ravens, the mountain goat, the wild donkey and wild ox, the ostrich, and the eagle. Listen to God’s description of the ostrich (Job 39:13-18):
“The ostrich flaps her wings futilely—
all those beautiful feathers, but useless!
She lays her eggs on the hard ground,
leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather,
Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked
or trampled by some wild animal.
She’s negligent with her young, as if they weren’t even hers.
She cares nothing about anything.
She wasn’t created very smart, that’s for sure,
wasn’t given her share of good sense.
But when she runs, oh, how she runs,
laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.
God has given each creature the freedom to be what God created it to be: unique and beautiful in its own right. The ostrich may or may not serve a great purpose in the greater ecosystem, it certainly doesn’t serve a great purpose for human inhabitants of the earth, but it brings God delight by simply being itself.
Job’s tour ends with the Behemoth and the Leviathan. It’s hard to know what to make of those creatures. They could be some variety of hippopotamus and crocodile, or perhaps they’re dinosaurs and dragons. But whatever they are, humans can’t capture them or tame them. You cannot domesticate it or housebreak it or lead it around on a leash, God says. “It’s snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over a campfire… Nothing on earth is its equal.”(41:18-20,33)
A God’s-Eye View
Job has accused God both of being a tyrant and of allowing the world to fall into chaos, of losing control. Job assumed that disorder in his life meant disorder in God’s life, creation running amuck and God abandoning His rule over the world. Yet as we tour creation from a God’s-eye view, the world is an ordered place, boundaries have been established, things are working as God designed them to. Chaos is not unchecked, rather creation is in God’s loving, caring hands. Creation may be more than we can understand, but it is not more than God. And the more we learn about it, the more we reorient our view to God’s view.
Job has had his head down, eyes trained on the difficult path he has been walking. The characters in this story, with heads down and eyes on themselves, can only see God as a heavenly judge who blesses the good and punishes the wicked as if we are caught up in a purely transactional relationship with God. But as we do the hard work of lifting our heads, we see that God is so much bigger! As our eyes shift to a new perspective, it doesn’t look like humans occupy the center of the universe at all. It’s not all about us. In fact, this world doesn’t seem to be a completely safe place for us!
Within our human limitations we tend to think that like us, God either has the big-picture view, standing at a distance overseeing the general functions of the universe, OR, God is in the details, overseeing the moment-by-moment events of our lives. Yet as we take this tour with Job, we see that a God’s-eye view is not one-or-the-other, it’s both/and. God allows creation to be wild and free and function under the laws of the universe. AND, God sees the baby ravens fluttering and crying when they get hungry, and opens His hands to provide.
God has not abandoned Job; God loves Job. God notices and cares about the details of his life and his character. Yet God also has a larger, God’s-eye perspective. And here is the amazing Good News, that God gives Job personal attention to draw him into a growing and truer relationship. God doesn’t lecture, God asks Job questions. And questions invite response, and dialog. Jesus did the same thing. When confronted with accusations or ignorance or distain, Jesus asked questions. Questions designed to lead people into the hard work of expanding their view to a God’s-eye view.
The world seems to have fallen into chaos in 2020, yet that does not mean God has abandoned us. Rather, God invites us to do the courageous and hard work to lift our eyes and ask God to share a God’s-eye view. Can we step outside ourselves, and admire the grandeur and the intricacy of creation? Do you marvel at the diversity and uniqueness of plants, animals, insects, and each individual you encounter? Or wonder how does God feels about the loss of life as at least 25 species of those plants and animals going extinct each day, species he formed and delighted in? What does God want us to teach us about a virus we are struggling to tame? Is God grieving the hundreds of thousands of His children’s lives cut short? What is the wisdom and goodness in the variety of skin colors God created as we are invited to love one another as God in Christ loves us? How does God feel when humans fail to be the loving, caring reflection of the Creator in His creation?
God is asking questions; the conversation is continuing. You are invited to grow and learn and take a tour with the God of wonders who so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son so that you would not perish but have everlasting life.
Closing Song: “God of Wonders”
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