More Than an Umpire

Lessons from Job  (cont.)

Do you ever find yourself talking to yourself?  For me, it goes something like this.  "That was dumb, Dan" or "You idiot".  It is the conversation you have with yourself because at the time there is no one to defend you.  I know if I were driving in my car with my wife and I did something stupid on the road, she would say (after gasping for air), "that's ok, it could have happened to anyone".  Someone to defend us is somehow wired in to us.  When no one is around to comment on us, we comment on ourselves.

Can you imagine being Job?  You have just been blitzed with every kind of worst situation imaginable.  You have lost your family (except for the nagging wife), friends, your possessions, and know your physical being.  There is no one to defend you.  Your friends have now turned on you.  You are out of confidants.  God?  He in Job's eyes is the unapproachable God.  Listen to his words"

For He (God) is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together.  There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both.  Let Him remove His rod from me, and let not dread of Him terrify me.  Then I would speak and not fear Him; But I am not like that in myself.
Job 9:32-35

God is distant.  God is not in relationship with Job, at least not to Job.  This passage foreshadows the necessity of God seeking relationship with man to do two things:

1. Experience what we experience.
2. Pay what we could not pay.

You realize both those things had to occur for God to have a relationship with us, His people.  He had to experience what we have and pay what we could not.  God did precisely that in the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the umpire in that verse - Job is a foreshadowing of what would happen in Christ.  As an avid baseball player, that terminology strikes a mental picture.  It is a close play at the plate and the umpire decides right and wrong.  But an umpire (despite instant replay) does not have perfect knowledge so he makes the call based on his best judgment.  That is what Job's friends are doing.  They were making some pretty bad calls.  But Jesus knows you better than you know yourself and He has perfect knowledge.  And He has perfect intimacy with you and perfect intimacy with God.  He is more than a baby - He is fully God and fully man.  Jesus created His own mother!  Let that sink in.  He knows you and He knows God - He is God.   God feels compelled to judge your sin.  Christ stands there and takes your punishment.  You want to understand God - look to Jesus. 

Job lacked the umpire - the game was being played by an unknown set of rules.  A seeming pawn at the face of distant, unknowable forces.  As is said in the movie Hunger Games, "may the odds be ever in your favor".  We laugh at that but I don't think any of us likes the sound of it.  A random set of rules, an unknowable God.  Are they that different?  God is knowable and may you know Him this Christmas season.

Love Your Enemies

I am just so taken aback by the life of Nelson Mandela.  Nelson Mandela was not a perfect person and he was a sinful man like each of us.  But he demonstrated the biblical concept of not only forgiving your enemies, but embracing them.  Jesus said to go above and beyond with your enemies and Mandela did just that.  And South Africa not only was spared a potentially nasty civil war, but it experienced reconciliation.

Just pause and think what might have happened if he came out of 27 years of incarceration and easily rallied the black population in war.  But he not only didn't do that, he embraced his enemy.  This is vividly portrayed in the movie Invictus.  Mandela embraced the mostly white rugby team that symbolized oppression and made it the national team.  He got South Africa on the national stage and made it the rallying cry.

I just saw the 60 minutes interview with family, friends, workers about Nelson Mandela.  One interviewee said he was a normal man to which Anderson Cooper said, "it is not normal to forgive after 27 years in prison".  He was right.  It is supernatural to forgive that way, but he did.  And it sets an example for each of us.

Right Empathy, Wrong Words

The doorbell rang and I opened it to see a man collecting signatures for some worthy cause.  He asked if Don Amsler was home (whom he knew somewhat apparently) and we informed him that Don had passed away the previous day.  This was a scene which would be repeated countless times in the past week as Papa had gone so suddenly.  The man said he was sorry, then hemmed and hawed.  He felt compelled to say he had recently undergone a similar experience which I could not even recall.  In grief, we are not listening to others.  We are in a fog as it still has not completely set in.

The Right Way to Empathy
Job's friends originally got it right.  As Job sat hurting, they sat beside him for seven days and nights without saying a word (Job 2:13) as they saw the extent of his suffering.  The right way to empathy is to say your sorry and then say nothing.  We were so blessed that so many friends and family members did exactly that.  However, the minute that Job opened his mouth, his friends felt compelled to go into "explanation mode" and defend God.  Which leads us to the next lesson from Job. 

The Wrong Words Are Often Used to Explain Suffering
For chapter after chapter, Job's friends feel they have to defend God and explain Job's suffering.  Sorry, but God does not need our defense of him.  Nor are there always explanations.  Suffering occurs because we are in a sin fallen world and we don't understand all of the repercussions of that.  What we can do is trust a sovereign God who is not unaware of our suffering.  A friend of mine lost a wife to brain cancer - his words ring out in my ear "do the next thing", he said.   In other words, take it a day at a time.

I find it interesting that God does not whitewash the foolish explanations of these men in Job.  Nor does God feel obligated to refute them at the end of the book.  All he says is "I am God and you are not".  God does not have to answer to us and nor does God have to explain everything to us.  We live with a very incomplete view and when we get to eternity, we will more fully appreciate how God uses human suffering to accomplish His purposes.  Fortunately, we do see Jesus and He identified 100% with our humanity and our suffering.   You want to see an example of suffering?  Look to Jesus.  You want to see suffering for good?  Look to Jesus.

The gospels record several incidences of Jesus weeping.  The first is when he observed the reaction to the death of Lazarus in John 11:35.  Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:4).  But yet He wept anyway.  The sting of death is still painful.  In His humanity, Jesus identified with the pain of death.  He didn't try to rationalize it or explain it and we shouldn't.

Human relationships are treasured by God and when they are cut short, it is painful.  The shortest verse in the Bible is all about the pain Jesus identified with the physical death of man and the temporary separation of human relationship.  John 11:38 says He was deeply moved again right before He raised Lazarus.  So God in human flesh still felt the pain of death even when He knew Lazarus would be healed. God still felt our pain even though He knew Lazarus would die again and he would be in fellowship with Jesus very shortly for all eternity.

When relationships are broken through death on this earth, it grieves God just like it grieves us.  We were born for relationships and when they are broken, it is painful.  No amount of logic can explain it or justify it.  It is what it is.  The good news is we know relationships with God in the center last forever and the reuniting with loved ones on the other side of eternity will be even more joyful.  Glory to God!