Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:45:16 -0600 (EST)
To: Ross Hennesy
Subject: RE: To Ryan

> Hello-
> 
> I understand most of the part about the suffering and stuff, and I agree
> with you about the book being confusing (even my dad, a pastor, still has
> trouble with it) what I don't underrstand is why God just trashes Job. I
> mean, you would think God would congratulate Job for his faithfulness, but
> he doesn't. God even starts being sarcastic and that's pretty rough. Thank
> You for the information you already sent me but you didn't really cover what
> I was looking for. Thank you again for your help.
> 
> Ryan
> 

Ryan,
 Some answers take much longer than the question. Like asking your parents 
where babies come from. Your question is good, and I wish there were a 
shorter way to answer it. I've written already 100 pages trying to answer
it, and its hard to summarize into shorter space. But since its on your
mind, I'll give it a try.

First, it really does seem that God is being sarcastic. I firmly believe
that Job is a better man than that, after all, its God who says Job is the
best guy on earth. So I see in God's answer, a reply to the 3 friends.
Yes, God is speaking in the second person singular, and yes, the text does
have a verse that says "God answered Job..." Nevertheless, I believe the
sarcasm is directed to the friends. Remember all the other prophets who
were given messages for the people, Moses & Elijah come to mind, and in
those messages God uses the 2nd person singular too. Later, God commands
Job to pray for his friends, showing that Job has many of the
characteristics of a prophet (and priest) including intercession.

Why do the friends deserve the sarcasm? Because they have put God in a box
and are so smug about it. They have religion all figured out, and will
sell you the booklet (think of it as the Cliff Notes version of the Bible)
that explains in 3 easy steps how to make God happy, get rich and avoid
trouble the rest of your life. Job objects--if only it were that easy!
So God's answer is full of sarcasm for that sort of smugness. 

Second, there is a "subtext" between the lines in what God says. Its a
subtext that talks about man's abilities and God's abilities. Our age is
smug about what it knows. We have put people on the moon, eradicated
smallpox, bred new crops that feed more people than ever before. But such
smugness is not new to our age. Every age has to battle this pride thing.
Before WWI and WWII, Germany was awfully proud of how far it had come. You
can't read Hegel without sensing his pride. Then came two world wars and a
total, utter disillusionment about culture. Existentialism was the
outcome. That's why I have a chapter on existentialism in Job. It is an
attempt to see in Job the response to overweaning pride, to cultural
hubris. So many of God's statements should be taken very seriously as
limitations not just of man's abilities, but limitations in his knowlege. 
Can we bind the Pleiades? Can astronomers explain a star cluster that is
not gravitationally bound? Can they take it back in time in their star
models and explain how it came into being? I don't think so. Does this
bother them? No, like so many other things scientists are ignorant of,
they pretend the problem is insignificant. You know the story of the man
searching for his housekey under the streetlight. A policeman asked him
where he had lost his keys, and he said "On my front step." The policeman
replied, "then why are you looking for them over here under the
streetlight?". To which the man answered, "because I can see better over
here." Thats EXACTLY how scientists behave.

Third, there's an unwritten aspect to God's message. You know what I mean.
When I catch my kids fighting and make them apologize to each other,
there's a world of meaning in HOW they say "I'm sorry". We don't get that
in print. So its very subtle. All we are told is that "God answered Job
out of the whirlwind". But Job got it. That's why he says "Before I had
only heard of you, now I have SEEN you, and I repent in dust and ashes."
Something happened there that we only get a glimpse of. But it was pretty
dramatic. It totally changes Job's attitude. No, I don't think Job's words
are words of fear and grovelling. Job already said that God isn't going to
scare him into anything. Rather Job changes from disillusionment to
reverence. Wow. Wish that would happen to me. 

Pax,
 Rob Sheldon