Trusting God in the Darkness by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL006740/REL050000/REL074000
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2021-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

1 George Frideric Handel, “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” Messiah, 1741.

7

Why Will God Not Answer My Question?

Job 28

Job has screamed out an urgent existential question: Why? (3:20, 23). This is not the question of the armchair religious or philosophical dilettante, enjoying a titillating debate. This is the agonized question of the “wheelchair” sufferer who feels he or she needs desperately to know the answer. In Job 28 we stand back from the pain and the debates to ask why God will not answer the question, Why?

For despite the wonderful glimpse of faith in chapter 19, with which we closed the last chapter, the debates of Job with his friends have continued to flow to and fro. And by the start of Job 28 we may be forgiven for wondering if these hot debates are getting anywhere at all. For the best part of three cycles of speeches Job’s friends have disputed with Job. In this short introduction we have had to confine ourselves to seeking the big themes and motifs, both in the theology of Job’s comforters (Job 4) and the struggles of Job (Job 5–6). But round and round they have all gone, with a great deal of repetition in argument and an increasing heatedness of tone. The third cycle begins (as do the other two cycles) with Eliphaz (Job 22), answered by Job in Job 23 and 24. Then, with uncharacteristic brevity, Bildad splutters and shuts up in Job 25 (just six verses), and Job replies. But Zophar never gets a third speech. The cycles do not end tidily, but seem to peter out as the barrage of words dies away into an embarrassed silence.

So before Job 28 we have this ragged end to the cycles of speeches. In Job 27 and 28, Job begins his final speeches; then in chapters 29–31 he offers his final defense (which we consider in the next chapter). After Job 27, chapter 28 feels rather different. It has no smooth connection with the immediate contexts before or after; it is not addressed to any of the participants; it contains no accusations, no complaints, and no responses to anything said previously. And it has a reflective tone that contrasts with the passionate arguments on either side. Here Job gives us a tranquil, contemplative pause for thought. If the whole book were read aloud, this chapter would be read in a quieter tone of voice. In a Greek tragedy it might be read by a chorus standing at the back of the stage. So in this section we consider this wonderful poem and how it contributes to our understanding of the person of Job, the book of Job, the world of Job and, above all, the God of Job.

A Costly Search for a Valuable Object (28:1–11)

The poem begins, with no explanation, by inviting us to tour around and marvel at the wonders of human mining exploration. Two motifs interweave: on the one hand an object of great value; on the other a search of great difficulty and cost.

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