"Bad Things, Good People"

(Job 1:1-12 and 2:1-13)

          We began our series on Biblical wisdom this summer by focusing on Proverbs, a book of practical theology, a set of concrete, down- to-earth instructions.  Elders, parents, and wisdom teachers showing young people the way to go.  Teaching them by word and example how to prosper in life, how to avoid its pitfalls and dangers.

          Among other things, I’ve emphasized that according to Proverbs, life works in fairly predictable ways.  Human actions have consequences, and we can know ahead of time what those consequences will be.  We can anticipate what will happen to us if we act in a certain way.  Life is tidy.  The created world is a neat, orderly, and well-organized system.  Perhaps that's why Proverbs is appealing to this Presbyterian pastor who does, after all, appreciate things being handled "decently and in order." The problem, of course, is that life doesn't always work according to the rules.

          Probably the most striking evidence that Proverbial advice does not apply equally well in all situations is the repeated assurance throughout the book that good behavior will be rewarded while the bad guys will get it in the end.  So, for instance, we read that "the wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand" (12:7) or again, that "no harm happens to the righteous but the wicked are filled with trouble" (12:21).  We don't need anyone to tell us that it ain't necessarily so.  It's obvious--for some of us, all too painfully obvious--that life doesn't always turn out this way. 

          Fortunately for the reputation of Wisdom Literature in particular and the integrity of the Scriptures as a whole, the Bible does offer an alternate perspective to balance the overly simplistic notion of rewards and punishments in the book of Proverbs.  For the book of Job is precisely about life not always working according to the usual rules. 

          Let's briefly review the plot of the two chapters we read from the book of Job this morning. . .

          No sooner have we been introduced to Job than we learn that he is blameless and upright, that he fears God and turns aside from evil, that he goes to great lengths to live a holy and righteous life.  We then overhear a conversation in heaven between God and "the satan", a Hebrew word which isn't quite the equivalent yet of the proper name Satan we see in the New Testament.  Here "the satan" (literally: "the adversary" or "the accuser") is a member of the heavenly court who stirs up a bit of trouble by making a bet with God about this man Job.  When God points out to the satan what a righteous man Job is, the satan answers "Well, sure, he's got everything going for him--riches, terrific real estate, a household of servants, a huge family.  But I'll bet that if you took all that away, he wouldn't remain faithful for long."  God accepts the satan's bet, (a fascinating image of God, by the way!), and allows the satan to begin to afflict Job.  And so Job loses all of his livestock, his servants, his house, and all of his children.  To emphasize how rapidly all of this happens, the narrator notes that while each messenger was still sharing his own respective piece of bad news, another messenger would arrive with more bad news, and then another, and another. (Ever had one of those days?)

          In spite of all of this, Job at the end of chapter 1 persists in worshipping God, "'the Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.'  And in all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong-doing."  So far, so good for God's side of the bet.  Even when, in chapter 2, the satan ups the ante a bit and encourages God to afflict Job's own body with terrible boils, Job still persists in his integrity.  It appears that God has won.  Job does indeed fear God without all the comforts of his former life, saying to his wife "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not the bad?"  But at whose expense has God won the bet?  God and the satan may both be impressed with Job's integrity.  But poor Job is still down there, grieving the loss of all he once held dear, scraping at his sores with a piece of broken clay pot, and having no clue that the only reason for his suffering was this strange wager in heaven.

          In any case, at the end of the chapter we meet three of Job's friends, who hear of Job's misfortune and arrive to offer him comfort.  Notice the marvelous example of friendship they offer us when they first arrive, as they too tear their robes and sit with Job in his ash heap.  Not one of them says a word for seven days and seven nights. They just sit there with their friend, silently acknowledging the depth of his grief.   Perhaps a lesson for all of us who so desperately want to DO something when we see a loved one in pain.

          The problem, of course, as you'll remember if you've read the book of Job, is that the friends do open their mouths at the end of seven days, and then they can't seem to stop themselves from offering volumes of unhelpful advice.  And much of their advice sounds like that same old proverbial wisdom -- "As you yourself know, Job, since we studied under the same teachers, the righteous are rewarded by God and it is only the wicked who suffer.  Since you are suffering so greatly, you must have done something REALLY awful to bring this all on.  So examine your life carefully, won't you?  Once you determine where you've gone wrong, and repent of your sin, God will no doubt deliver you from your distress."  And so poor Job finds himself in the unenviable position of having to defend himself to his own friends even as he sits there scratching at his sores, grieving the loss of his sons and daughters.

          Now because of the way they're set up in the book, it's easy to dismiss the words of Job's friends as so much foolishness, a stubborn adherence to insupportable old rules.  But how many of us have been on the receiving end of similar advice over the course of our lifetimes?   Well-meaning words from friends and acquaintances who'd have done us far less damage if they'd just had a seat in our ash heap and kept quiet?  But instead, some of us in this room have heard in moments of crisis words like these: "It's all for the best really. . . Just think of all you're learning from this experience. . ." or my personal favorite: "If only you had more faith. . . "  Such thinking even rears its ugly head when we say to ourselves in particularly grim moments "what did I do to deserve this?"  It's important to remember as we read through the book of Job that even God insists that it was Job, and not the friends, who was in the right.  Job had not done anything to deserve his fate.  It wasn't that his faith wasn't strong enough, that he wasn't good enough, that he hadn't tried hard enough.  The tragedies Job endured had nothing to do with any of that.  He was--and remained--a righteous man.

          Now this is not to say that Job is perfect, in some existential sense of being completely without sin.  The friends have been quick to point out that all humans are sinful, and Job himself seems to allude to a few minor transgressions on his part as well.  But for Job, and even for God, this point is not ultimately relevant to the situation at hand.  The question is whether individuals are always punished for specific willful acts of disobedience, and always rewarded for righteous behavior.  Job is introduced from the start as an obedient and reverent man.  To the end, Job persists in maintaining his innocence.  Lest with the friends we assume that Job is mistaken, the narrator and God both agree that Job is blameless and upright.  This is not just a story about suffering, but a story about innocent suffering.

          Now certainly any number of the tragedies in our world can be blamed on human sin—that’s where Proverbial wisdom is right on target.  But not all of them can, and this is where the book of Job helps us.  A flash flood does not discriminate between the just and the unjust. No one contracts Alzheimer's disease because they deserve it.  A miscarriage is no indication of hidden sins.  Because the book of Job so resolutely insists that Job was a person of integrity, we must--all of us--flat out deny the claim (too often proof-texted from the Scriptures) that people only get what they deserve.  They don't.  Good people, people of profound integrity, people of incredible faith, people who appear to be doing everything right, are the victims of life's tragic unpredictability everyday.   Certainly our own congregation has seen ample evidence of this over the years. It’s all around us in the never-ending multimedia news cycle as well.

          When I began this series I noted that the three wisdom books we'd be covering--Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes--offer three unique perspectives on the world.  You can already begin to see how this is the case.  It has been said that biblical wisdom is instruction for how to live, or that it is the "art of steering" through life (Zimmerli).  But notice the situational nature of wisdom.  Proverbs may teach us a great deal about how to live under normal circumstances, when all is going well, but the book of Job offers a powerful example of how to live in times of crisis.  The largest portion of the book recounts Job's response to his suffering.  Since are told that how Job spoke and what he said was right in a way that the friends' words were not, we'll want to examine Job's words to see what we can learn from this fascinating character about how to live when tragedy strikes.  For now, suffice it to say that he wasn't as patient as many of us have been taught that he was.  He complained bitterly to God for some 30 chapters in the middle of the book and those chapters are integral to the rest of the story.  So do stay tuned for next week's sermon when we'll look at those chapters in more detail. . .

          But for today, remember that while Job's friends may have gotten it wrong, God knew all along that Job was a righteous man.  Remember that while Job never learned why he suffered, he was firmly convinced throughout that he was in God's hands.  Like Job, we too can affirm that no matter what may happen to us, we belong to God.  For reasons we do not understand, God may allow tragedy to strike us, but God will never let us go.

          In that firm conviction, I invite you now to stand with me and--in spite of all in this life that seeks to unsettle us--to affirm together God's steadfast love, using the Affirmation of Faith printed in the bulletin.