Job's Way Through Pain by Jones Paul Hedley;

Author:Jones, Paul Hedley;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Authentic Media

Are Questions the Answer?

In 2009, the Coen Brothers released the dark comedy, A Serious Man, which bore numerous similarities to the book of Job. The film’s main character is Larry Gopnik, a Jewish physics professor, whose life is falling apart around him. As his problems worsen, Larry seeks advice from three rabbis. The first, a man clearly too young to have any real life experience, suggests simply that Larry change his perspective. Responding to the turmoil of Larry’s situation, the young rabbi retorts, ‘This is life. You have to see these things as expressions of God’s will. You don’t have to like it, of course.’ Larry, in turn, grins reluctantly and acknowledges, ‘The boss isn’t always right, but he’s always the boss.’

Certain passages in Scripture reflect this kind of attitude; God is the boss and what the boss says is final. For instance, in the sixth-century bc when God released the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon, he did so by raising up a foreign Messiah.1 Needless to say, this raised some Israelite eyebrows. Our Messiah is not one of us? Through the prophet Isaiah, therefore, God asserted his right to act outside of human expectations, based on the simple fact that he is the Potter, the Creator, the Boss:

Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,

those who are nothing but potsherds

among the potsherds on the ground.

Does the clay say to the potter,

‘What are you making?’ (Isa 45.9 NIV)

Israel is likened to broken pieces of pottery at their Potter’s feet who dare to rebuke their Maker and question his purposes. The absurdity of the image makes Isaiah’s point nicely. God responds to some of Job’s protests in a similar vein:

Does a prosecutor bring a case against God? (Job 40.2a)

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