Natural disasters often occur without warning, decimate vast swathes of land, and leave indiscriminate suffering and death in their wake. Their power can rip apart homes, wipe out bridges, and knockdown our strongest structures. Such terrifying power seems to mock human mortality and achievements.
But it's the randomness of who survives and which homes still stand that fuels our questions and generates endless second-guessing about our choices and purpose. The book of Job interrogates life and faith and the sh*t that happens for no reason. It simultaneously places God behind the bench and in the dock and as the prosecuting lawyer, as Job calls him to account for his unfair judgements against him.
Job questions his existence
Questions fill Job's ten speeches. He shouts out 125 of them altogether (in the NLT). That's an average of one every four verses!
It's no surprise that some of Job's earliest questions are existential:
Why wasn't I born dead?
Why did my mother nurse me at her breasts?
Why give light to those in misery?
Why is life given to those with no future?
Why didn't you let me die at birth?
[See 3:11, 3:12, 3:20, 3:23, 10:18, All NLT.]
As we saw in A soliloquy of despair, Job wishes he was dead so he can find peace from the pain of burying all of his ten children at once.
Job questions his "friends"
Starting in his second speech, Job's questions shift to defending himself to "his brothers," who "have proved themselves as unreliable as a seasonal brook" (6:15 NLT), and whom he wishes would "come back with a better argument" (17:10 NLT).
Don't I have a right to complain?
Don't people complain about unsalted food?
Would I lie to your face?
Do you think I am lying?
Are you defending God with lies?
Do you make dishonest arguments for his sake?
Will your long-winded speeches ever end?
How long will you torture me?
Must you also persecute me, like God does?
How can your empty clichés comfort me?
[See 6:5. 6:6, 6:28, 6:30, 13:7 x2, 16:3 (NIV), 19:2, 19:22, 21:34. All NLT unless otherwise stated.]
At several points in his speeches, Job emphasises how theology is useless when we ignore compassion.
"Do you think your words are convincing
when you disregard my cry of desperation?"
— Job in his second speech, Job 6:26 NLT
Job questions God
When Job begins to direct his questions towards God halfway through his second speech (see 7:6), we discover his view isn't any healthier than that of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. While his "friends" believe God punishes the deserving, Job's God is capricious, unforgiving, and obsessed with sin.
Am I a sea monster or a dragon that you must place me under guard?
If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity?
Why make me your target?
Why not just forgive my sin?
Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what's the use of trying?
Does it please you to oppress me?
Who can stop him?
Why do you treat me as your enemy?
Must you demand an accounting from me?
Why doesn't the Almighty bring the wicked to judgement?
Doesn't he see everything I do and every step I take?
For if the majesty of God opposes me, what hope is there?
[See 7:12, 7:20 x2, 7:21, 9:29, 10:3 (NIV), 11:10, 13:24, 14:3, 24:1, 31:4, 31:23. All NLT unless otherwise stated.]
"I am innocent,
but it makes no difference to me—
I despise my life.
Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God.
That's why I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.'"
— Job in his third speech, Job 9:21-22 NLT
