Faithful Lament: Job

1
Faithful LamentJobs Response to Suffering

• David Lipscomb University
• Sermon Seminar
• May 10-12, 1999

2
Job as Dramatic Lament

• The Dialogical Structure of Job

3
Jobs BookendsThe Interpretative Frame

• Prologue (1-2)
• Heavenly Staging
• The Trials
• Jobian Lament

• Epilogue (427-17)
• Divine Vindication
• Divine Grace
• Jobian Joy

4
Interpretative Keys

• Prologue
• Righteous Job
• Does he serve God for nothing?
• Maintains Integrity

• Epilogue
• Job said what was right (427-8)
• Job interceded for his friends (4210)

5
The Dramatic Flow

• Opening Lament (3) Why was I born?
• Dialogical Spiral to Despair (4-27)
• Wisdom Re-Orientation (28) Fear the Lord
• Monologue Recovery (29-426)

6
Poetic Drama

• Dialogues (4-27)
• Repent! (4-14)
• Shut up! (15-21)
• Beyond Help! (22-27)

• Monologues (29-426)
• Im Innocent! (29-31)
• God is Praised (32-37)
• God Speaks (38-426)

7
Job, Repent!

• Zophar Yet if you devote your heart to him and
  stretch out your hands to him, if you put away
  the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to
  dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your
  face without shame you will stand firm and
  without fear. You will surely forget your
  trouble
• Job 1113-16a

8
Job Responds to Zophar

• Job I am a laughingstock to my friends I, who
  called upon God and he answered me, a just and
  blameless man, I am a laughingstock.But I would
  speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my
  case with God. As for you, you whitewash with
  lies...
• Job 124 133-4a

9
Job, Shut Up!

• Eliphaz Would he argue with useless words,
  with speeches that have no value? But you even
  undermine piety fear and hinder devotion to
  God. Your sin prompts your mouth you adopt the
  tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns
  you, not mine.
• Job 153-5 cf. 1513

10
Job Responds to Eliphaz

• I also could speak like you, if you were in my
  place I could make fine speeches against you and
  shake my head at you. But my mouth would
  encourage you comfort from my lips would bring
  you relief. Yet if I speak, my pain is not
  relieved and if I refrain, it does not go away.
• Job 164a, 5-6

11
Even If You Were Righteous

• Eliphaz Can a man be of benefit to God? Can
  even a wise man benefit him? What pleasure would
  it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What
  would he gain if your ways were blameless? Is it
  for your piety fear that he rebukes you.Is not
  your wickedness great?
• Job 222-4a, 5a

12
Job Responds to Eliphaz

• I would state my case before him.I would find
  out what he would answer meWould he oppose me
  with great power? No, he would not press charges
  against me. There an upright man could present
  his case before him, and I would be delivered
  forever from my judge.
• Job 234a, 5a, 6-7

13
The Dramatic Flow

• Opening Lament (3) Why was I born?
• Dialogical Spiral to Despair (4-27)
• Wisdom Re-Orientation (28) Fear the Lord
• Monologue Recovery (29-426)

14
Wisdom

• then he looked at wisdom and appraised it he
  confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the
  man, The fear of the Lord -- that is wisdom, and
  to shun evil is understanding.
• Job 2827-28

15
Poetic Drama

• Dialogues (4-27)
• Repent! (4-14)
• Shut up! (15-21)
• Beyond Help! (22-27)

• Monologues (29-426)
• Im Innocent! (29-31)
• God is Praised (32-37)
• God Speaks (38-426)

16
Im Innocent

• Then I put on righteousness as my clothing.
  Job 2914
• Now God hasafflicted me...my life ebbs away
  days of suffering grip me. Job 3011,16
• But let God weigh me in honest scales and he
  will know that I am blameless. Job 316

17
Elihu Responds

• What he says about God is right
• God disciplines to turn man from wrongdoing and
  keep him from pride (3317)
• God is just, it is unthinkable that God would do
  wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice
  (3412).
• God is transcendent, How great is God--beyond
  understanding!Who can understand how he spreads
  out the cloud. (3626a, 29a).

18
Elihu Responds

• What he says about Job is wrong
• God repays a man for what he has done he brings
  upon him what his conduct deserves (3411).
• Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost for
  answering like a wicked man! (3436)
• God is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a
  spacious place free from restriction (3616).

19
Elihu Misquotes Job

• Elihu
• no iniquity (339)
• profits a man nothing to please God (349)
• What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by
  not sinning (352)

• Job
• iniquities of youth (1326)
• the wicked say profits. (2115)
• the wicked say profit (2115)

20
God Speaks

• Do you know. (3715, 16 3833 391)
• Can you (13 times 3831-35)
• Have you (7 times 3812, 16)
• Everything under heaven belongs to me (4111b)

21
Jobian Lament Why

• Why is life given to those in misery (320)?
• Why has God made Job his target (720)?
• Why does God hide his face (1324)?
• Why do the wicked prosper (217)?
• Why does not God judge the world (241)?

22
Second Person Laments

• Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a
  guard over me? Job 712
• Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the
  work of your hands, while you smile on the
  schemes of the wicked? Job 103
• I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer.
  Job 3020

23
Third Person Laments

• Surely now God has worn me out. 167a
• God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net
  around me. 196a
• He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to
  dust and ashes. 3019

24
Job 20-21 A Homily

• Context Job 20
• The wicked will be consumed!
• Complaint Job 211-15
• Look at me! I am bitter.
• Look at the wicked! They prosper.
• Commitment Job 2116
• Job will not follow the counsel of the wicked

25
The Death of Jobs Children

• Job habitually prayed for them (15).
• A mighty wind killed his children (119).
• The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away may
  the name of the Lord be praised (121).

26
Friends on Children

• Concerning the Righteous
• your children will be many (525)
• Concerning the Wicked
• His children are far from safety (54)
• When your children sinned against him, he gave
  them over to the penalty of their sin (84)
• He has no offspring or descendents (1819)

27
Job on the Wickeds Children

• They see their children established around them,
  their offspring before their eyes. Their homes
  are safe and free from fear the rod of God is
  not upon themthey send forth their children as a
  flock their little ones dance about.
• Job 218,9,11

28
Job Remembered a Time...

• Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when
  Gods intimate friendship blessed my house, when
  the Almighty was still with me and my children
  were around me, when my path was drenched with
  cream and the rock poured out for me streams of
  olive oil.
• Job 294-6

29
Jobs Commitment

• Yet they say to GodWho is the Almighty, that
  we should serve him? What would we gain by
  praying to him? But their prosperity is not in
  their own hands, so I stand aloof from the
  counsel of the wicked.
• Job 2114a,15-16

30
Christological Application

• During the days of Jesus life on earth, he
  offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries
  and tears to the one who could save him from
  death, and he was heard because of his reverent
  submission.
• Hebrews 57

31
Faithful LamentJobs Response to Suffering

• David Lipscomb University
• Sermon Seminar
• May 10-12, 1999

32
A Jobian Theology of Lament

• A Questioning, but Trusting Faith

33
Divine Responsibility

• Prologue
• Jobs Confessions (121 210).
• God is responsible for what happened to Job
• The Hand of God (111-12 25-6).
• God hands Job over to Satan

34
Divine Responsibility

• The Dialogue
• Gods terrors are marshaled against me. (64)
• If it is not he God, then who is it? (924)
• You God have devastated my entire household.
  (167b)

35
Divine Responsibility

• Epilogue
• All his brothers and sisters and everyone who
  had known him before came and ate with him in his
  house. They comforted and consoled him over all
  the trouble the Lord had brought upon him.
• Job 4211

36
Hand of God Motif

• Prologue
• stretch out your hand and strike... (111)
• stretch out your hand and strike (25)
• And he still maintains his integrity, though you
  incited me against him to ruin him without any
  reason. (23b)

37
Hand of God Motif

• Dialogue I
• that God would be willing to crush me, to let
  loose his hand and cut me off. (69)
• ...no one can rescue me from your hand. Your
  hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn
  and destroy me? (107b-8).

38
Hand of God Motif

• Dialogue II
• Which of all these does not know that the hand
  of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the
  life of every creature and the breath of every
  human being. (129-10)
• Withdraw your hand from me, and stop frightening
  me with your terrors. (1321)

39
Hand of God Motif

• Dialogue III
• Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the
  hand of God has struck me. (1921)
• Even today my complaint is bitter his hand is
  heavy in spite of my groaning. (232)

40
Hand of God Motif

• Monologue
• You turn on me ruthlessly with the might of
  your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and
  drive me before the wind you toss me about in
  the storm.
• Job 3021-22

41
Lament Silence Rejected

• I loathe my very life therefore I will give
  free rein to my complaint and speak out in the
  bitterness of my soul. (101)
• God has made my heart faint the Almighty has
  terrified me. Yet I am not silenced by the
  darkness. (2316a, 17a)
• Keep silent and let me speak then let come to
  me what may. (1312).

42
Can Job Just Forget?

• If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will
  change my expression, and smile, I still dread
  all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold
  me innocent. Since I am already found guilty,
  why should I struggle in vain.
• Job 927-29

43
Lament Job and Psalms
44
Complaint

• Psalms
• Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
  (101b)

• Job
• Why do you hide your face and count me as an
  enemy? (1324)

45
Innocence and Self-Imprecation

• Psalms
• O Lord my God, if I have done this and there is
  guilt on my handsthen let my enemy pursue and
  overtake me.
• (73, 5a)

• Job
• If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has
  hurried to deceit then let me sow, and not eat
  and let what grows for me be rooted out. (315,
  7)

46
Legal

• Psalms
• Hear, O Lord, my righteous plea listen to my
  cry...May my vindication come from youThough you
  probe my heart and examine me at night, and test
  me, you will find nothing. (171a, 2a, 3a)

• Job
• Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will
  be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against
  me? If so, I will be silent and die.
  (1318-19).

47
Petitions

• Psalms
• Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous
  God. Give me relief from my distress be
  merciful to me and hear my prayer. (41)

• Job
• Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop
  frightening me with your terrors. Then summons
  me and I will answer, or let me speak and you
  reply. (1321-22).

48
Trust

• Psalms
• But I will trust in your unfailing love my
  heart rejoices in your salvation. (135)
• But I trust in you, O Lord I say, You are my
  God. (3114)

• Job
• Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
  (1315a)
• I know that my Redeemer livesyet in my flesh I
  will see God. (1925a, 26b)

49
Praise

• Psalms
• I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to
  me. (136)
• I will declare you name to my brothers in the
  congregation I will praise you. (2221)

• Job
• To God belong wisdom and power counsel and
  understanding are his. (1213)
• Who then can understand the thunder of his
  power? (2614)

50
Jobian Lament Why

• Why is life given to those in misery (320)?
• Why has God made Job his target (720)?
• Why does God hide his face (1324)?
• Why do the wicked prosper (217)?
• Why does not God judge the world (241)?

51
Cosmic Integrity Check

• Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied.

52
Friends on Testing Motif

• Eliphaz Blessed is the man whom God corrects
  so do not despise the discipline of the
  Almighty. (517)
• Elihu Oh, that Job might be tested to the
  utmost for answering like a wicked man! (3436)

53
Job Challenges his Friends

• Relent, do not be unjust reconsider, for my
  integrity is at stake. (629)
• Would it turn out well if he examined you?
  Could you deceive him as you might deceive men?
  (139)

54
Job on the Testing Motif

• What is man that you make so much of him, that
  you give him so much attention, that you examine
  him every morning and test every moment.
  (717-18)
• Are your days like those of a mortal or your
  years like those of a man, that you must search
  out my faults and probe after my sin -- though
  you know that I am not guilty and that no one can
  rescue me from your hand? (105-7).

55
The Victory of Job

• He maintained his integrity before God he did
  not admit to a false self-incrimination.
• Job 275-6
• He maintained his faith in God he did not curse
  God.
• Job 1925-27

56
The Integrity of Job

• as long as I have life within me, the breath of
  God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak
  wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit.
  I will never admit you friends are in the
  right till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
  I will maintain my righteousness and never let go
  of it my conscience will not reproach me as long
  as I live.
• Job 275-6

57
The Faith of Job

• I knowthat my Redeemer lives and that in the end
  he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin
  has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see
  God I myself will see him with my own eyes--I,
  and not another. How my heart yearns within me.
• Job 1925-27

58
Jobs Expected Vindication

• But he knows the way that I take
• when he has tested me, I will come forth as
  gold.
• My feet have closely followed his steps
• I have kept to his way without turning aside.
• I have not departed from the command of his lips
• I have treasured the words of his mouth more
  than
• my daily bread.
• Job 2310-12

59
Christological Application

• Questioning My God, My God, why have you
  forsaken me?
• Trusting Father, into your hands I commit my
  spirit.

60
Homily Job 16

• Confesses Gods Responsibility (166-14)
• Job offers his lament in purity (1615-17)
• Job appeals for vindication (1618-21)

61
Word Play Response (22-24)
62
Homily Job 22-23

• Eliphaz has a quid pro quo understanding of our
  relationship with God (223-5,21-23).
• Job wants to seek out Gods presence and offer
  his lament (232-9 13-17).
• But God knows Jobs integrity (2310-12), and Job
  is confident about the trial.

63
Homily Job 24

• A Lament Against Evil!
• Lament over the Poor (241-12)
• Imprecation Against the Wicked (2413-21)
• Confidence in Gods Judgment (2422-25)
• But the question is Why not judge them now?

64
Faithful LamentJobs Response to Suffering

• David Lipscomb University
• Sermon Seminar
• May 10-12, 1999

65
Guidelines for Helping Sufferers

• Be There and Be Silent.
• Listen and Give Permission to Lament.
• Do Something! Love them in deed.
• Dont Interpret.

66
Providential Principles in Job 1

• The principle of divine permission is
  important, but it must be understood
  appropriately.
• Divine permission does not mean passivity.
• God actively permits he is involved.
• The concept of divine permission retains an
  asymmetrical relationship between Gods role to
  moral good and moral evil in the world.

67
Providential Principles in Job 2

• Gods active engagement with the world means that
  he is constantly deciding whether to do or not do
  this or that.
• God is responsive to prayer, and we co-create the
  future with God through prayer.
• But God decides whether to heal or not heal based
  upon his purposes and goal.
• God has his hands in the world shaping a people
  for himself.

68
Providential Principles in Job 3

• God is sovereign over evil (both moral and
  natural) and is at work even in evil to
  accomplish his purposes.
• Gods goal is fellowship with us, not our
  pleasure.
• God works in a fallen world through its
  fallenness.
• God brings trouble to test and shape the
  character of his people.

69
Psalm 119 A Refined Faith

• This psalm is the prayer of a comforted sufferer
  who reflects on the meaning of his past
  affliction.

70
God Afflicted the Psalmist

• I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous,
  and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
  11975

71
The Psalmist Laments

• My eyes fail, looking for your promise I say,
  When will you comfort me?. . . How long must
  your servant wait. 11982, 84

72
The Psalmist Trusts

• I trust in your word.If your law had not been
  my delight, I would have perished in my
  affliction. 11942, 92

73
The Psalmist Reflects

• Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I
  obey your word . . . It was good for me to be
  afflicted so that I might learn
• your decrees.
• 11967, 71

74
Biblical Story as Lens

• It was good for me to be afflicted because
  through that suffering God revealed his glory to
  me.

75
The Sanctuary Experience

• The Move from Lament to Praise through Divine
  Encounter

76
The Sanctuary Experience

• Habakkuk
• Lament One (12-4)
• Answer (15-11)
• Lament Two (112-21)
• Answer (22-5)
• Woe Oracle (26-20)
• Praise Theophanic Presence (31-19)

77
The Sanctuary Experience

• Psalm 73
• Envy of the Wicked (732-12)
• Doubts Righteousness Profit (7313-15)
• Sanctuary Experience (7316-17)
• When I tried to understand this, it was
  oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary
  of God.
• Resultant Praise (7318-28)

78
Elihu Prepares Us

• Elihus last monologue is similar to Gods first
  monologue (36-37).
• Who can understand how he spreads out the
  clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?
  (3629)
• Do you know how God controls the clouds and
  makes his lightning flash? (3715)

79
But Job Already Knows...

• He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed
  (910a)
• To God belong wisdom and power counsel and
  understanding are his. (1213)
• By his power he churned up the sea by his
  wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. (2612)

80
If God Speaks.

• Zophar But oh, that God would speak, and open
  his lips to you, and that he would tell you the
  secrets of wisdom! For wisdom is many-sided.
  Know then that God exacts of you less than your
  guilt deserves.
• Job 115-6

81
But God Wont Speak

• Elihu He does not answer when men cry out
  because of the arrogance of the wicked. Indeed,
  God does not listen to their empty plea the
  Almighty pays no attention to it. How much less,
  then, will he listen when you say that you do not
  see him, that your case is before him and you
  must wait for him Job 3512-14

82
Jobs Expectations

• Job Though I were innocent, I could not answer
  him I could only plead with my Judge for mercy.
  Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not
  believe he would give me a hearing. He would
  crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for
  no reason. He would not let me regain my breath
  but would overwhelm me with misery. Job
  915-18

83
Surprise! Yahweh Speaks!

• But his speeches are more notorious for what they
  dont say.
• They dont answer Jobs why questions.
• They dont offer a list of indictments.
• So, are they a genuine response to lament?

84
Which God Shows Up?

• The Cosmic Bully?
• who humiliates Job with incessant questions
• Or
• The Gentle Father?
• who reminds Job of what he already knows

85
The Coming of Yahweh

• Gracious Presence Yahweh is not required to
  come.
• Gracious Speech Yahweh is not required to
  speak.
• Gracious Encounter Yahweh engages Job.

86
The Yahweh Speeches

• The most significant thing is that Yahweh speaks
  at all, not necessarily what he says.
• But what he says does speak to Jobs lament. But
  how?
• Yahweh gives Job what he needs Comfort.

87
The First Speech (382-402)

• Jobs Problem Ignorance (382)
• Yahwehs Answer From Creation to Providence
• Power (divine ability 3835)
• Wisdom (divine management 3926)
• Care (divine love 3841)
• Grace is the hinge of the world, not gain.

88
Jobs First Response (404-5)

• See, I am of small account
• what shall I answer you?
• I lay my hand on my mouth.
• I have spoken once,
• and I will not answer twice,
• but will proceed no further.

89
Second Speech (407-4134)

• Jobs Problem Is God fair?
• Yahwehs Answer
• Can you run the world better than I (4011-12)?
• Yahweh is sovereign over evil
• the Behemoth (4015-24)
• the Leviathan (411-34)
• Yahweh is Sovereign (4111) Who makes a claim
  against me that I must repay? Everything under
  heaven belongs to me.

90
Jobs Second Response (422-6)

• First Part (422-3)
• Job confesses
• Gods sovereignty (no purpose unfulfilled)
• Gods incomprehensibility

91
Jobs Second Response (422-6)

• Second Part (424-6)
• Existential Encounter (425)
• Jobs Response to Encounter (426)

92
Does Job Repent?

• Options
• Job repudiates Yahweh
• Job recants his lawsuit
• Job repents of his lament
• Job is comforted over his lament

93
The Divine-Human Encounter

• Human Ignorance and Finitude
• generates
• nagging questions
• ENCOUNTER
• comforting peace
• generates
• Divine Presence

94
Homily on Job 422-6

• Why has God not spoken?
• But Job knows he will be vindicated.
• God encounters Job, and Job is comforted by Gods
  presence.

95
Divine Comfort and Hope

• May the God of hope fill you with all joy and
  peace as you trust in him, so that you may
  overflow with hope by the power of the Holy
  Spirit. Romans 1513

96
The Experience of Hope

• the presence of the Holy Spirit who gives joy in
  the midst of suffering
• the yearning for the destruction of fallenness
  and renewal of creation
• the anticipation of the victorious return of
  Jesus Christ confirmed in the resurrection of
  Jesus.

97
Biblical Story as Lens

• The models of lament in Scripture are
  paradigmatic for our own experience of suffering
  and subsequent comfort.