Video Transcript: The Third Act and Brief Epilogue

We're looking at the book of Job as part of the wisdom literature of the Bible, the first one that we encounter as we read through the Old Testament, again, wisdom expressed in terms of the world being a moral world established by a moral God, and there being rights and wrongs,  and good and, and ill, and all of that. We've looked at the structures of the book of Job,  reminding ourselves again, that there is an opening setting in which Job's character is  described, and then all his good things like his possessions and his family are taken away  from him and even his health. And then a conclusion chapter 42, where the fortunes of Job are changed and restored. And in between three dramatic dialogues in that first dramatic  dialogue, Job's three closest friends Eliphaz and Zophar and Bildad each sit with him and  several times over address the situation all speaking about that. This is a moral universe, God is in control. Obviously, this has happened to you by the hand of God, what it means is that  you thought you were good, and we who thought you were good, we're mistaken that you are  evil, you've done something terrible bad, and that now God is punishing you for it. So it's time to repent or whatever, and get on with life, because obviously, you're a bad person. And then  second dramatic dialog in which the younger friend who didn't appear at all up until that time  enters the scene says that he's younger, and therefore he hasn't spoken, he's remained  silent. But he says to the friends, that they haven't addressed the issues appropriately. So  more wisdom is needed, which is very interesting at counter man's, the typical idea that  wisdom is found in years and experience. Therefore, the three friends should have more  wisdom than Elihu should have, but in this case, they haven't got the Wisdom. So a new kind  of wisdom needs to be found and Elihu addressing Job saying, sometimes God speaks through punishment. But sometimes God also speaks through pain, which amplifies the voice of God  so that we can hear it in the mundane things of life where we're too much focused on  ourselves. Well, once Elihu has given that wisdom, it is kind of confirmed in the third dramatic  dialogue and Job 38 through 41. Now it is God himself who speaks to Job. And here again, if  the second dramatic dialogue is mostly monologue, Elihu talking, the third dramatic dialogue  is mostly dramatic monologue with God speaking, and to brief encounters with Job near the  end, a sense in which God affirms the position or the direction that Elihu has begun to take,  and then leads us further down that same path. So what's going on? In the third dramatic  dialogue, which is mostly poetry, the voice of God thunders, whether there's an actual  thunderstorm storm storm cloud that emerges that the scene we're given to believe is that at  the end of these dialogues with the friends, that suddenly the clouds build, and the heavens  become ominous, and from the weather that challenges them all, the voice of God thunders.  And in fact, it's a very loud voice that comes, God appears in might and glory. And then God  speaks about 10 object lessons from the physical realm and 10 object lessons from the animal realm. This is really a kind of children's sermon, if you've ever been to a church where the  children were called forward, and there was some kind of object lesson that was given them,  hey, take a look at this thing. What do you think it is? And what do you think it does? And  what should we say about this, and then some moral conclusion was drawn from it. That's the kind of thing that's going on in these two parts of chapter 38 and 39. The 10 object lessons  from the physical realm 10 specific ways in which the elements of the weather and the extent of the creation are beyond the possibility, at least in those days of human perception. Where  does the wind come from? Well, you know, that's a good question. And we certainly with our  meteorological studies, can say the wind is the movement of air here and there, but where  does it come from? That's quite another question. Or where Do the hail storms originate? Or,  you know, how did these things happen? 10 object lessons from the physical realm, which  particularly in the days of Job, would be far beyond the understanding the scientific  understanding and its limited development that was capable for the human race at that time.  In other words, the outcome of the 10 object lessons from the physical realm is this, you think you're so smart? You think you're so wise, you think you know so much, you don't even know  any of these things. And it puts the brakes on human hubris. It puts the limits on human  wisdom or understanding or self importance. You don't control all things you can't know all  things, you are less than omnipotent. You are limited in your understandings. Similarly, with  the next 10 object lessons these from the animal world, how do the Coneys live in the rocks  and the holes in the rocks? How does this happen? How does Leviathan sport the big monster 

of the sea? How does he get there? And where did he come from? All these things which are  beyond the range of human understanding, particularly at that time, are used to describe a  world which is much more large and complex and powerful, and intricate, and complicated  than anything that Job is able to give sense to. Certainly larger and more complex than the  friends are able to speak about larger and more complex than anything people know in that  day. Again, the outcome is this. You can't probe the limits of knowledge, you can't understand  the far reaches of divine experience or the creator's actions which have produced the world in which we live, you don't know all things, so stop trying to think you're so self important. After  having given those object lessons without really calling for a response, God turns specifically  to Job twice over very brief. But statements essentially this first he demands from Job, who's  accusing me. And here you have to think about the accuser at the beginning of the book of  Job where Satan is the accuser. Now, Satan's accusations are being translated into the human realm. What Satan said before God in heaven, the idea that Job only serves God for what it  gets out of it. That kind of thing has been said, in part by the friends, and by Job himself in  this sense, I'm righteous, therefore, I deserve the good, I don't deserve this evil that's come  on me. And where Satan has brought that accusation into the heavenly realm, Job has now  articulated and certainly the friends in the human realm, and Job has to say I'm sorry, in other words, what Satan has said in the beginning was wrong. And now Job has to acknowledge as  well that that's not the true value of the universe. And that's not the way that he can live or  that life is to be understood in the human arena. It's not cause and effect. It's not rigid,  righteousness, it's relational. Well, God makes a second challenge. And this is now that you  know, your limitations you think you can rule in my place? In other words, do you think you're  so wise that you can say, I know I can. I can speak wisdom to all things, I can decide what's  good and evil. And again, Job has to back down along with his three friends and Elihu, I'm  sorry, where those times were when even in my challenge to my situation, I doubted your  goodness, or whether you were truly in control? Is this a resolution to Job situation? No, it's  not. Is it an answer to a Job situation? Well, sort of. What happens in this dramatic dialogue is  that God reduces the wisdom of Job and his three friends and Elihu to a position of you  understand things from your perspective, but your perspective is severely limited. The third  dramatic dialogue is very brief. Overall, God doesn't really answer either Job's friends  challenges nor Job's questions. But this new perspective that was brought forward first by  Elihu, seems to inform the new dialogue. God's certainly remain sovereign and God affirms  that who can be in charge but Me, I am the one who created all things. The reflection is there  that this is indeed a moral universe, but good and evil, blessings and curses are all caught up  into something much bigger than individual questions about moral behaviors. You do  something right, you get blessed, you do something wrong, and you get punished. That's not  what's going on. We live in this reflection on things in a complex world that we cannot fully  explain. The challenge of God to Job is not about any specific sinful actions on Job's part, but  about any presumption that he can declare his righteousness, or know the mind of God, or  even presumed to dare to understand these things. In other words, the goal of this is what  Elihu or Elihu began to suggest that sometimes it's not punishment and repentance, that  need to be the outcomes of suffering in this world, but rather submission, to own our limited  perspective, to own our inabilities, to own the place of humankind in a world, which is  responsive to God, but not fully understood by humankind, over against God's sovereignty.  And this is quite a lesson to be learned. It's a huge lesson that takes a lot of wisdom and  thought, which is precisely what these books are all about wisdom, how will we gain wisdom?  Again, remember the overall drama, there's the opening setting, there are the three dramatic  dialogues, and then there's the closing setting. Now what was true at the beginning is truer,  in the end, the blessedness of Job is accentuated and multiplied. In the end, he has more  possessions more children, does this mean they're there to replacement for the previous  ones? No, it simply means that the issues have been resolved, and God is Good God, God  continues to affirm God's relationship with Job and does so at least in part, through this sense  of blessedness, which is what God intends for all humans on Earth. The three friends are  chastised. We're told that Job has to offer sacrifices for them. It's very interesting that their  perspective is now being lived out. They talked about Job being punished for doing wrong. 

And now they are threatened with punishment for having spoken wrong. And precisely the  graciousness of God, which Job was the first one to express is what saves them. In other  words, they do not get what they deserve, even though that's the world that they talked  about. Job was blessed with many possessions, and Job is vindicated. And we'll talk about the  impact of all these things in the next lecture. But again, facing the questions is the book of Job really all about suffering? And I would suggest it's about suffering but so much more. What  else might that more be about? We'll think about those things next time. Where does Satan  the accuser come from? Well, we don't really know. His origins are not important for the book,  but his actions are because they help us address or assess our own understanding of things.  What's the cosmology of the book, who's in charge? Does the plot resolve itself? Those are  the issues we'll face next time as we conclude our look at the drama of the book of Job