July 28, 2003

LIFE AFTER "THE STORM"

Suppose you had a face-to-face meeting with God. How do you think you would describe it afterwards?

Job, whom we read about in the Old Testament, attempted to put his repeated encounters with God into words. We might expect him to try to “picture” God in a visual way. But actually, Job appeals to other senses, especially using language about touch and sound. He seems to be pointing out that meeting God is a whole-person experience, involving all the senses. It’s not something you could adequately capture on a video camera.

More than anything else in his previous experience, powerful, overwhelming, storms came to Job’s mind as he tried to recreate his impressions of God:

“At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place.
Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
Under the whole heaven he lets loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.”
(Job 37:1-5)

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind . . . .” (Job 38:1, 40:6)

Elsewhere in the Bible storms, thunder and lightning, floods, and earthquakes usually refer to negative, destructive forces. But power is power, whether it is used for good or for harm. And the expression of God’s power reminds humans of the uncontrolable forces of nature unleashed.

This, of course, makes sense for a person who sees God as the Creator of all things and the Generator of all forces. Job believed in the One and Only God of the Israelites. There was no force beyond the control of this God.

As science has exposed us to the existence of even greater forces—nuclear, solar, and whatever Cal Tech is looking at today—the God of the Bible has become even mightier and grander and scarier. A believing astronomer today may replace the “whirlwind” imagery with something like
“Then the Lord spoke out of the supernova . . . .”

The Book of Job is usually interpreted as a tract about the meaning of human suffering. Job himself has become legendary for his patience in the face of unbelievable suffering.

But the Book of Job has a more profound purpose. It is to introduce God’s people to the true meaning of monotheism, Israel’s revolutionary belief that there is One Creator/Sustainer/Judge/Savior God. Becoming acquainted with him is not a casual matter. Job illustrates one human’s attempt to come up with a more manageable way of seeing God and relating to him. For some time he resists the full truth about God, using all sorts of intellectual dodges.

But finally his defenses crumble, as the truth about God rolls over him like a hurricane, tossing his most precious values and possessions aside, even his health and his loved ones. God’s thunder and lightning force him to surrender unconditionally:
“I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me . . . .Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
(Job 42:3, 6)

Many times, we read in the Old Testament that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This moment of Job’s total submission before the Storm was his beginning of wisdom, of salvation, of eternal life.

–Pastor George Van Alstine