A Tidal Wave of Questions

God asks questions

God knows all, sees all, understands all. God knows each one of us better than we know ourselves, particularly the inner corners and crevices of our hearts. So when this all-knowing God asks a question, I am particularly intrigued. Clearly, he doesn’t need the answer. If God is not gathering information, then what is God up to?

In an adult Sunday School class we have been paying attention to the questions God asks in the biblical story, beginning in the Old Testament. God's questions seem to emerge from his pursuit of our hearts and desire for us to flourish in relationship with Himself, with each other, and within ourselves. His questions invite us to pay attention.

Questions like:

Where are you?

Why are you angry? 

Where have you been and where are you going?

What is your name?

What are you doing here?

A tidal wave of questions

In the center of the Scriptures there is a story that stands apart from all the other stories of God asking a question. Actually, it is not just one question but rather a tidal wave of questions, that are both disruptive, and ultimately, deeply hopeful.

Tidal Wave of Questions

In the book of Job, the reader is first offered a glimpse of a conversation behind the scenes. Satan approaches God. And God directs his attention to Job, asking a question of his enemy. "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” The God of the universe affirms Job... that seems good, right?! But affirmation declared to the enemy (I am feeling a little anxious here). And then Satan challenges God, exclaiming that Job’s allegiance is not whole-hearted but rather contractual. He suggests that Job honors God, not because of trust in God, but because God has favored Job with good gifts and protection.

Consequently, God unleashes Satan, albeit with limits. Satan causes and instigates harm and suffering: death, loss of wealth, relational conflict, loss of status, approval, reputation, and health. Job’s suffering is great, reaching every aspect of his life. In Job’s pain, grief, distress, chaos and confusion, he turns toward God—lamenting, wrestling, arguing, and accusing. God receives. God hears. God listens. God sees Job’s suffering. And God remains.

Knowing God is above and over all, Job holds God responsible. He wrestles with trust and distrust, longing for relief and longing for intimacy. And God stays. And I notice, that even in his prodigious pain, Job stays.

God holds reality. God was before time, in present time, and in every moment beyond. My mind can barely comprehend that truth... something is happening in this biblical story that is meant to shape our understanding.

Pain feels bad, signaling a collision with evil, revealing that something is not yet healed, redeemed, or made whole. Consider the birth of a child, as a result of sin and the brokenness of the world the birth experience often holds great pain despite the beauty of new life, sometimes the most intense physical pain a woman experiences in her lifetime. Sometimes pain is so great that it seems intolerable... but the experience of pain is only part of the story.

I struggle with this and maybe you do too. Suffering is hard, sometimes even brutal or cruel. Sometimes it is so great that is difficult to stay and remain present. When pain is great, can I remain present to God? Can I keep turning to God? Can I trust and look for redemption?

I am encouraged by Job's many words and God's patience... I need Job's wrestling, accusation, and lament. Because my heart longs for God to hear all my angst and resistance in those painful, dark seasons too.

Finally, after many chapters and countless words, God responds.

God responds

But God, the One without fault, doesn’t answer Job’s questions or respond to Job's accusations. (Can I just say, I really want answers.)

God asks his own questions... many questions... a divine tidal wave of questions. One question at a time, God paints a framework that is big enough to hold the story of humanity, the story of suffering and blessing, and the story of good and evil. The framework is Himself, the "I Am that I Am."

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17

Narrating the story

Job has been narrating his story of suffering in a particular and limited way. He feels accused rather than affirmed, punished rather than entrusted, like a victim rather than a warrior in the epic battle against evil. My suffering does not compare with Job's, but I feel for his struggle.

Job had been defending himself against God. As God questions Job, he leads him down a completely different path of understanding and meaning, a path that would travel beyond the pain to God's redemptive purposes. It wasn't the journey Job wanted to take, and it is rarely the journey I want to travel either. But God trusted Job.

Wrestling, lamenting, accusing...

Job had been arguing with God and accusing God from a foundation of Job’s sense of self... and his own interpretation of what is just. Shouldn't good character and good behavior ensure protection? Verse after verse, we hear Job wrestle with his desire for relief and his reverence for God. I wrestle too. One of my core hidden strategies for life, developed so long ago, was that if I seek to be good then I will be okay and perhaps receive the love, provision, and intimacy I long for. One of the enemy's lies is that suffering is punishment. But suffering feels like punishment, not trust.

The enemy will tempt us to interpret our story according to our fear or our limited knowledge, and consequently understand God in a way that is not true. Satan purposes to steal, kill, and destroy, in a futile attempt to dethrone God. Make no mistake, he has no loyalty or love for humanity. His primary target is to oppose God, dishonor God, and destroy relationship with God.

God invites Job to consider a deeper understanding of reality that is rooted in God, the person of the Triune God. Some of Job's understanding of God was true, revealed in the final words of the book. God rebukes Jobs friends for speaking wrongly of God, but affirms that Job spoke truly of God. But Job's understanding was lacking. He saw himself as a victim, rather than a warrior entrusted with a significant battle in the war against evil. In the end Job trusted God... imperfectly, but truly. And ultimately Jesus, the God-man, shows us how to trust God in suffering, abide in love, and stand firm (Hebrews 12).

Outside of time, present to all reality, God knew the whole story of Job including the final restoration, the generational influence, the cultural shift where Job's daughters would be named and given inheritance along with their brothers. And God knew how Job's story would stand throughout time as a testimony to God, and even to Job. When I read Job, I am reminded to keep wrestling with God, keep offering all my angst, and when God finally speaks to listen... to repent and to trust again.

“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 14:32-33

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4