Out of the Whirlwind (Job Series: Part III)

Text:  Job 38:1-7 (34-41)

Theme:  “Out of the Whirlwind”

21^st Sunday after Pentecost

October 18, 2015

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

2

“Who is this that obscures my plans?

with words without knowledge?

3

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

4

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

5

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6

On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone—

7

while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?

34

“Can you raise your voice to the clouds

and cover yourself with a flood of water?

35

Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

36

Who gives the ibis wisdom[a]

or gives the rooster understanding?[b]

37

Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

38

when the dust becomes hard

and the clods of earth stick together?

39

“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness

and satisfy the hunger of the lions

40

when they crouch in their dens

or lie in wait in a thicket?

41

Who provides food for the raven

when its young cry out to God

and wander about for lack of food?

How does God speak to people?  Well, variety appears to be the spice of life, or, in this case, the spice of conversation with the divine.  Here’s a short list of ways God spoke:  God spoke through a “still small voice”; think of Elijah.  God spoke through a donkey; think of Balaam.  God spoke through a dream; think of Peter.  “In many and various ways,” writes the author of Hebrews in the New Testament, “God spoke to His people of old through the prophets.  But now, in these last days, he has spoken to us through His Son.”

Now we come to the character that has been center-stage from this pulpit for the last three Sundays:  Job.  How did God speak to him?  “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm,” declares our text.  “Storm” can also be translated “whirlwind” – which can also mean tornado or hurricane.   Would the National Hurricane Center dub it a category 5?   Let’s just say God spoke to Job out of a pretty awesome meteorological event.

You will recall that Job sort of went from hero to zero.  He had it all:  massive wealth and a great and loving family.  But that stock crashed; that portfolio got soaked; the 401K vanished.  He experienced the loss of life on a personal, familial, and broad scale.  His roaring 20s gave way to the dustbowl, depression-era 30s.  He lost it all. 

It has been said “When you win in life, you hear from everybody; when you lose, you hear from your friends.” For most of the book, Job wasn’t on a winning streak.  Contrarily Job pretty much lost it all.  He had his faith in God, which is, of course, great. He had his wife.  And he did have at least three friends. 

When we get to this morning’s segment, both wife and three buddies have all weighed in on Job’s plight.  Have you ever noticed that when a little bit of upheaval hits your life that everyone seems to have an opinion?  You might even have solicited some of those opinions!  I think most people mean well when they put forth advice; they want to be helpful.   But it’s harder, much harder, when those who are supposedly there to help are engaged in hindering.  Job experienced a little bit of that; you’re not alone!

Job could be your inspiration.  He shoots  or the moon; he’s going straight to the top.  The opinions, counsel, and advice he is looking for needs to be divine, period.  Job might be the first rigid fundamentalist – as the saying goes, “If God said it, I believe it.  And that settles it.”  Job’s got questions; God’s got answers.  Once those answers are put forth, that will be that.   Whatever the answer or answers will be, it will be fair.  And isn’t that what we all want – a little fairness, a little justice in the world?  Better yet if it comes from the mouth of God – and that we are SURE it comes from the mouth of God, whether it be through a “still small voice”, a “whirlwind”, or whatever.

As an aside, I’m persuaded that lots of voices can emerge from out of a whirlwind.  Hurricane Katrina certainly qualifies.  A reporter walked up to a woman, probably 30something or so, displaced and huddled outside the Superdome in New Orleans.  “What do you need?” he asked.  She looked up.  Her eyes met his gaze.  Gasping for breath, she whispered:  “Methadone.”  Do we hear the voice of God in the displaced, the addicted, the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry, those whose voices have been muted and whose basic rights have been trampled on? 

Back to Job!  The thing that throws me into a tizzy about this text is not that God speaks.  It’s not that God speaks out of a whirlwind either.  It’s just that when God speaks He makes no statements of the kind of which Job yearns for.   All God does is ask questions. 

For over two full, large chapters, there are forty-five questions that God asks of Job.  Job, meanwhile, is tongue-tied.  This is a “Q&A” with God moderating, but it’s all “Q” and no “A”—all questions and no answers.  Our text gave us examples. 

If I may, let me now try to sum up what God was getting at in asking these questions of the beaten down, bedraggled person of Job, and I offer this illustration to set it forth:  many people here at FPC, of a certain age, remember the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon presidency in the early 1970s.

There was as reporter for the Washington Post by the name of Bob Woodward who had a source that gave him information on deep background.  The man wouldn’t reveal his name and, therefore, could not be quoted.  He would only lead the reporters on their search for information.   They met late at night in darkened, Washington D.C. parking garages. 

On one of the occasions, Woodward mentions a young attorney by the name of Daniel Segretti who worked for the Committee to Re-elect the President.  Segretti was involved with some of the less than ethical tactics, bordering on the illegal, that sometimes are involved in the cut and thrust of American politics.  Woodward’s source, known as Deep Throat (played by actor Hal Holbrook, was hearing none of it.  “Quit focusing on little Daniel Segretti; you’re missing the overall.”

By the way, I almost forgot:  the questions God asks – all 45 of them – are rhetorical.  In other words, the answer is obvious to each question.  In these questions, God is saying – ‘ala Woodward’s source:  “Job, you’re focused on your individual problems to such a degree that you’re missing the overall.”

This was not to belittle Job or make matters worse for him.  God wasn’t being mean or rude.  God was opening Job’s eyes, heart, and soul to a much broader perspective.  God is in charge.

Better yet, God respected Job’s humanity and understood why Job posed his case the way He did. 

More than understand humanity, the Christian gospel tells us that God actually entered in to our humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.  Sadly, this was not well received.  We read in the prologue of John’s account of Jesus:  “He came to His own and His own received Him not.  But those who received Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” 

When life does a Job number on you; when God, the devil, the faculty, the staff, the situation on the ground, and the circumstances, the whatever seem to conspire against you; when your ill health and impending death pummel you; when you’re faced with your own, approaching-category-5 storm in whatever form it may take, sit down with the 45 questions.  Read John’s prologue.    Or see Jesus in the form of a woman who can only whisper “methadone”.  And do not miss the overall.

God is in charge.  You are one of God’s kids – born from above. 

Amen.