Out of the storm: grappling with God in the book of Job

Do we live in a well-run world?

Christopher Ash's new book Out of the Storm: Grappling with God in the book of Job, addresses some of the pressing issues about suffering that many of us face today.

In this extract Christopher introduces the book, its themes and the dilemmas it presents us with.

This book began as a series of sermons on the book of Job. 12 days before the first sermon, on January 14 2003, Detective Constable Stephen Oake was stabbed and killed in Manchester. Why? He was an upright man, a faithful husband and a loving father. What is more, he was a Christian, a committed member of his church, where he sometimes used to preach. The newspapers reported the moving statement by his father, Robin Oake, a former chairman of the Christian Police Association; how he said through his tears that he was praying for the man who killed his son. They told of the quiet dignity of his widow Lesley, and the happy family snapshots with his teenage son Christopher and daughters Rebecca and Corinne.

So why was he killed? Does this not make us angry? After all, if we are going to be honest, we have to admit that there were others who deserved to die more than him. Perhaps there was a corrupt policeman somewhere, who had unjustly put innocent people in prison, or a crooked policeman who had taken bribes. Or perhaps there was another policeman who was carrying on an affair with his neighbour's wife. If one of these had been killed, we might have said that, although we were sad, at least there would have appeared to be some moral logic to this death. But this family are, dare we say it, good people. Not sinless, of course, but believers living upright lives. So why is this pointless and terrible loss inflicted on them?

The question why

We need to be honest and face the kind of world we live in. Why does God allow these things? Why does he do nothing to put these things right? And why, on the other hand, do people who could not care less about God and justice thrive?

'Let's be honest', Job says. 'Let's have no more of this pious make-believe that it goes well for good people and badly for bad people. You look around the world and it's simply not true. By and large people who could not care about God live happier, longer lives with less suffering than do believers. Why? What kind of God might it be who runs a world like this?' It is hard questions like this that face us in the book of Job.

The scene is set (1.1)

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

Job was 'healthy, wealthy and wise'. Which is what we would expect in a well-run world: that one who is wise will as a consequence be healthy and wealthy. After all, to be wise - in the Bible sense - means to fear and honour the living God (as human beings ought in their religion) and to turn away from wrongdoing (as human beings ought in their morality). And any self-respecting god who claims to be both fair and in control is surely bound to reward such a person with wealth and health. To do otherwise would be either unfair or evidence of weakness. Likewise we may expect to meet others who are 'sick, poor and wicked', their wickedness leading inevitably to illness and destitution.

We don't know where Job lived. (No-one knows where Uz was, except that it does not seem to have been anywhere in Israel). We do not know when he lived (except that it feels like a very long time ago). He could be almost anybody, were it not for what the storyteller tells us in the very first verse: that Job is a real believer in the living God. He fears God, bowing down before him in wonder, love and awe, recognising that God alone is the Creator to whom he and his world owe their entire existence. And as a mark of true worship, he turns away from evil; his life from day to day being marked by repentance and faith. In Job 28 there is a poem about wisdom. The conclusion (28.28) is that wisdom is to fear God and turn away from evil; which is precisely what we are told about Job in the very first verse of the book. Job is, in the deepest biblical sense, a wise man. That is to say, he is a believer, a true worshipper. He is blameless, which does not mean he is perfect, but rather that he has personal integrity; his life is of a piece; what he says with his lips in spoken worship he lives with his life in whole-body worship. Here before us at the start of the story is the true believer par excellence, a man who walks before God with a clear conscience, his sins confessed and forgiven, his life showing all the marks of a worshipper.

Godly, wealthy father (1.2-5)

And if we believe that this world is ordered by a fair God, we are not at all surprised by the blessing that follows:

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, 'It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did continually.

We meet here a large, harmonious family filled with godly celebration and joy, and material wealth beyond the wildest dreams of the wicked. And yet (verse 5), amid this wonderful blessing Job maintains his godliness; he is watchful in prayer, ever concerned as his highest priority in life to keep himself and his family in right relationship with God. So here he is, a paragon of virtue and showered with blessings. What a feel-good start to a happy story!

Unexpected disaster

And now the horrifying surprise. Four sharp, quick, alternating scenes, the first three signalled by 'Now there was a day...'. We may picture them dramatised on a stage. Stage left, the Lord's council chamber; stage right, Job's land. As we walk through this staccato drama, let us watch for the four salient features or markers that our storyteller wants to fix in our minds at the outset of our journey. It is vital for us to be absolutely clear about these; otherwise we shall be hopelessly confused when we get into the body of the book. And the storyteller also poses a big problem. As we read the book of Job, we need to keep in mind the four clear markers signalled to us, and the big question we are left with.

Marker 1: Job really is blameless. As the poetry unfolds we shall see Job obstinately maintaining his righteousness. We shall be tempted to doubt him. 'Without this prologue the reader would side with the three comforters, thinking Job to be a demented villain, hostile to God and self-deluded about his own moral virtue' (John Hartley). We need to remember that three times (once by the narrator in 1.1, twice by the Lord in 1.8 and 2.3) we have been clearly told that Job is blameless and upright, that he fears God and turns away from evil.

Marker 2: The Satan has real influence. Some operate on a naive model of spiritual realities in which there is simply one God in control and all human affairs are directly ordained by him. God, if we may put it like this, is the only spiritual power or reality; all the rest is human and visible. The book of Job signals to us at the start that there are other real, influential, unseen spiritual powers, of whom the Satan is one. These powers may be subsidiary to the Lord, but they may not be ignored.

Marker 3: The Lord is absolutely supreme. Alongside Marker 2 we must remember that the Bible gives no encouragement to the idea that God is anything other than all-powerful. The book of Job is no exception. Indeed it is a vital part of its tension and drama that we know at the very start that the living God, the Lord, is the only supreme God. Nothing happens in the universe without his permission.

Marker 4: The Lord gives terrible permissions. We should see and be shocked by the permissions the Lord gives Satan over Job. We ought never to be other than shocked by them, never take them for granted as unexceptionable. For they are horrifying.

Question: Will Job prove to be a real believer? It seems so from 1.22 and 2.10. But if his faith is so simple and genuine, why the need for 39 chapters of highly-charged poetry before we reach the conclusion? We must carry this question with us on our journey.

Out of the Storm by Christopher Ash is available from IVP at www.ivpbooks.com at £6.99, ISBN 1 84474 056 0.

Christopher Ash is taking over as Director of the Cornhill Training Course in December 2004.

Do we live in a well-run world?

The question why

The scene is set (1.1)

Godly, wealthy father (1.2-5)

Unexpected disaster

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