Text: Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Theme: “Out of the Whirlwind”
21st 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.
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