Even in the Silence

5 days ago

4 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

EPISODE ONE OF FIVE

If they gave such awards, Job would win Best Supporting Character in the Book of Job. The award for Best Leading Character would go to God.

The book opens with five verses providing context and introducing Job’s magnificent life, then the scene switches to the throne room of heaven. God and Satan engage in a challenging and caustic conversation that leads to Job’s excruciating downward spiral. That celestial discussion ends midway through chapter 2, and we do not hear again from God until chapter 38. That’s a long time without the leading character.

Intense pain, significant conflict, staggering questions, and agonizing frustration fill page after page for 36 chapters. Friends give bad advice, false accusations are made, and arguments erupt. Yet during that time, God does not speak.

So many times, during Catie’s lifetime and beyond, I wished that God would have shown up, given direction, provided answers, or calmed the storm. Many times, it felt as though the sky was made of bronze, and God was away, disinterested, or unwilling to engage my pain. It is easy to equate silence with abandonment, but nothing could be further from the truth.

God was at work when the Children of Israel suffered in Egypt, when Joseph languished in prison, when David hid from Saul, when Jonah ran away, when Paul was shipwrecked, and when Jesus hung on the cross.

Our inability to see and understand what God is doing does not mean that events are out of control or that God has forsaken us to the whims of this world. We walk by faith, not by sight.

It is easy to forget that we are merely the supporting actors on God’s stage. He alone is the lead character. We need to play our part as well as we can and let the leading character play His role to perfection.

But during those 36 chapters, Job asked legitimate questions. He asked:

Why did I not die at birth? (Job 3:11)
Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not? (Job 3:20-21, 6:13)
Has not man a hard service on the earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? (Job 7:1)
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? (Job 7:20)
Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? (Job 7:21)
How can a man be in the right before God? (Job 9:2)
Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? (Job 10:3)
Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer before I go.(Job 10:20-21)
Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy? (Job 13:24)

God did not respond directly to Job’s questions. When God openly reenters the plot in chapter 38, He began with a barrage of questions of His own.

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? (38:2)
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? (38:4)
Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place? (38:12)
Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness? (38:19)
What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? (38:24)
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? (39:1)
Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? (39:19)
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? (39:27)

Job, like all of us, failed this quiz, yet he passed the final exam. He said, “I am unworthy --- How can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer --- twice, but I will say no more.” (Job 40:4-5)

God dove back into His lecture in chapters 40 and 41, explaining both the limits of human awareness and the immensity of His power and knowledge. Stunned and ashamed, Job repeated his earlier contrition and went deeper. “I know you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, “Who is this who obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. . . My ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (42:2, 5-6)

After this excruciating experience, Job knew God in a deeper and more intimate way. Not only had he heard about God, now he had experience Him deeply and personally.

Interestingly, after his spiritual encounter with God, Job found himself back in an ash heap. The first time (Job 2:8) Job was responding to his utterly awful, painful circumstances. The second time (Job 42:6), Job was responding to his new awareness of who God is and the resulting self-awareness of his sinful, finite condition.

Even in his silence, God is at work. He is helping us discover who He is and how much we need a relationship with Him!

Dan Bolin

Author & President