The Answer to Job

In the last chapter we left Job saddled with a problem. What kind of answer does he get? It is not an "intellectually satisfying" answer; if we want a rational explanation which wraps up the whole problem of evil in a nice tidy package, we had better look elsewhere. Nevertheless, the answer ( Job, chs. 38 to 41), together with Job's reply ( Job 40: 3-5; 42: 1-6), constitutes an important part of a true answer. God begins by questioning Job. (Question after question.) He confronts him with the mystery of creation: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" ( Job 38: 4). He goes on to describe the wonder of creation, and asks Job questions about it. (Question after question.) And the force of the questions is to remind Job that he is only a small part of creation, and yet he is presuming to pass judgment on the Creator. How can the creature expect to know all that is known to the Creator? (Question after question.)

In reply to this devastating onslaught (the full force of which can be gained only by reading chs. 38 to 41 at one sitting), Job tries once to interrupt, remarking,

Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth.

( Job 40: 3, 4)

But the main burden of his response comes later:

I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted. . . . Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

( Job 42: 2-6, italics added)

On the face of it this seems like a disappointing "answer." There is no clever twist of logic that solves the problem once and for all. But there is something infinitely more important than a clever twist of logic. For Job has had a firsthand experience of the presence of God. Before this, Job had heard of God; he had secondhand evidence. But now he himself knows God-he has firsthand evidence. He has come into a personal relationship with the living God. Beside that fact, everything else is insignificant. What makes the difference to Job is not that God has won an argument, but that God has become real for him. For the first time in his life Job can say, "Now my eye sees thee." And the upshot of the matter is that he can now trust God for everything. There is no need for an "answer" to his problem. The problem has been resolved by the fact that the all-powerful God who can "do all things" is in intimate fellowship with Job, who is "of small account."

And so Job repents. He realizes that in the final analysis it is presumptuous to make God "defend" himself. And Job, rather than being a bitter critic, is now at peace -- a man of faith who is no longer crying at God to "justify himself," but worshiping the living Lord of his life. His problem has led him to the very heart of a living religious experience of God. And to one for whom that is real no "problem" remains.