“Behold I am insignificant; what can I reply to you? I lay my hand on my mouth” (Job 40:4) At the close of the narrative we find that Job’s silence can only be found again in his confrontation with God. Carson suggests that God achieves two ends in his speech. The first is to emphasize that Job cannot justify himself at the expense of condemning God.1 A reason for Job’s suffering is not forthcoming and Job has no rights to such a reason. But Job having no reason does not mean that there is no reason, only that Job is not in a position to know it. There is no satisfaction…
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Suffering & Death
“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave” (Job 10:18). If Job had access to Dignitas, would he have used it? He certainly yearns for relief in death yet knows that it is God’s prerogative to give and take life. His yearning is deeper than mere death, it is a yearning to have never been alive – to undo his own being. His desperation is, in part, the utter hopelessness of being unable to die or to undo his life: “Let the day…
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Suffering & Lament
“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 7:11). In the midst of his suffering, Job does what anyone would do. He complains. However, the grounds for the complaint are found in the same person as the one to whom the complaint is made. Job’s appeal is made to and on the basis of who God is. Consequently Job’s complaint to God is marked by a lack of idolatry. This is sacred complaint because God remains God. If I follow Job’s example in my own sufferings I can shout to the heavens,…
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Suffering & Mystery
“Good Lord, there are no words.” Aaron Brown on CNN, September 11th 2001.1 “Let me have silence and I will speak.” Job 13:13 When reading the Book of Job it is difficult not to be humbled by a man whose woes far exceed anything most of us have experienced, yet who responds with such dignity. In the case of Job it is the suffer who offers counsel not the unafflicted. In the vacuum of God’s silence Job’s voice is sucked from him. And that voice is perhaps the most used script for the suffering believer. Job renders such a song of suffering that remains unsurpassed in the history of literature. He…