THE STRAIGHTFORWARD PULPIT

Text:  Job 38:1-7, 34-41

Theme:  "Who Let the Wild Donkey Go Free?"

21st Sunday after Pentecost

October 21, 2012

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?

“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^[f]
or gives the rooster understanding?^[g]
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?

The question of the hour is as follows:  Who let the wild donkey go free?  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is it -- the question of the moment:  Who let the wild donkey go free?

A voice from the choir loft says:  "What? What do you mean, Reverend?  Or, as they say down here in the South, "What you talkin' bout, preacher? What wild donkey?  We don't see any wild donkey.  Where is the wild donkey?"

"And, for that matter, a wild donkey cannot be set free; a wild donkey is, by its very nature, wild.  Somebody must be off their meds; somebody must be a couple of tacos shy of a combination plate; somebody's elevator doesn't go all the way up; somebody must be off their rocker to be asking a tom fool question like that!  Who asks a question like that?"

The answer is God.  And it's not the only question God asks.  Our reading includes selections from Job chapter 38.  If you read all of chapter 38, all of chapter 39, and the first two verses of chapter 40, God asks 48 questions in a row to his servant, Job.  All of the questions are different, but they do have one thing in common: the answer is obvious.  In other words, they are rhetorical questions.

For 37 chapters prior to this, we have the story of Job. He is something of a pawn in a chess game between good and evil.   He lost his family; he lost his wealth; he lost his health.  He didn't lose his wife or at least three of his friends, but when it came to the ultimate question -- Where is God amid all this random doom and gloom? -- they weren't of much help at all. 

But Job had the gift of gab!  He had some questions that needed to answered.  He had an argument to make; he had a point of view to express.  The questions, the arguments, the points of view of his wife and friends, well, that was all just so much chitter-chatter.  He was frustrated; he was angry; the words of others were falling on deaf ears.  He was shooting for the moon; he was going for the top dog, the top banana, the whole enchilada.  He wanted an audience with his maker and his judge.  Let's cut the crap and get the ultimate verdict from the only One who, ultimately, is in the ultimate position to answer the ultimate questions.  Job, despite his massive misfortune, was a pit bull; he was tenacious; he was frustrated; he was angry; he was holding on and holding out for the judgement of God. 

The movie Twelve Angry Men portrays a  jury that has to make a decision in a murder trial that was based on reasonable doubt.  In a nutshell, the movie explored all kinds of techniques to build consensus, to get everyone on the same page, and develop a process they all could live with.  Job and his wife and his three friends were like those twelve angry men. 

Only three minutes of that classic movie is spent inside the courtroom.  The other time is spent inside a private room where every juror analyzed every piece of evidence.  The more they talked and chitter-chattered, the more annoyed and the more fractured they became.  It sounds like Job and his wife and his friends!  But once they started thinking with brutal honesty, they went from two separate 8-4 votes to a unanimous decision.

Long ago, a Protestant clergyman said:  "A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good."  I think I see Job in that comment.  Job reinforced what an American diplomat once said:  "Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything.  But when they get angry, they bring about a change."

And one day, finally, God replied to Job in kind -- with just as much drama, if not more, than even Job could muster.  God spoke with an honesty both brutal and  blessed.

"Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm," it says.  With a storm, Job was at the mercy of the elements. And the questions -- all 48 of them -- were elemental. 

Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?

That's the first question -- and the answer is obvious:  Job!  Job, with all his frustrated and angry  talk (devoid of knowledge) was obscuring God's plans and making it rougher on himself.  But God, merciful God that God is, says to Job:

Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

What follows is nothing but a cosmic symphony of divine words in the form of questions.  And the answers were so obvious, so simple. 

Of all 48 questions (and you can read them, as I mentioned earlier, in chapters 38-40), I am bold to single out one of them for a bit more consideration.  Here it is again  -- from chapter 39:5-8:  

Who let the wild donkey go free?  Who untied his ropes?  I gave him the wasteland as his home, the salt flats as his habitat.  He laughs at the commotion in the town; he does not hear a driver's shout.  He ranges the hills for his pasture and searches for any green thing.

What an image!  A wild donkey "laughing" at the "commotion" in the town.  And what is the commotion in the town?  It is the coming and going of the human race,  the chitter-chatter of all the people who, every single day (on to this very day), speak their words without knowledge and thus obscure God's plans from their own eyes.

Not so the wild donkey! The wild donkey knows its place; he doesn't heed the conflicting voices of others; he is what he was made to be; he does what he was made to do.

In Jesus Christ, God is the wild donkey.  He did not heed the commotion in the town -- the voices of others telling him to do this and not do that.  He was  -- and is! -- who He was made to be.  He did what He was made to do.  Despite all worldy attempts to steer him away and to domesticate him, He was wild and free.  He held to His path to the cross and the empty tomb. 

Because of that cross and empty tomb, we too, by the grace of God, are wild and free.  We are wild enough, free enough, blessed enough to -- as it says in that old catechism --  glorify God and to enjoy God forever. 

Amen.