Last week my cousin got married in Chicago, so we road tripped back to the Midwestern motherland for a family reunion. Along the way we found lots of cool history nerd places to visit, including thefor a Field Museum, which has great lakefront views, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, which has a gorgeous building and amazing new interactive technology displays. If you're ever driving through Ohio it's definitely worth a stop!As I walked through halls of dinosaurs, ancient artifacts, and taxidermy specimens, verses from the Book of Job kept floating through my mind. Somewhere in Pennsylvania I had read its last few chapters aloud as part of the Office of Readings. Have you ever read the whole story of Job? It's way crazier than the usual summary of "Man loses everything but trusts God." There are pages and pages of esoteric speeches about the meaning of life while Job's knucklehead friends tell him he's suffering because of his sins. Finally God speaks and shuts up those morons. He tells Job to "Gird up your loins now, like a man," and then, frankly, He gets a little sarcastic. (In the King James translation Chapter 38 sounds like a string of Shakespearean insults.) Basically He's got a lot on his plate and you don't even know the half of what His job entails.
Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its placeSeriously, God is busier than Mufasa.
For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from it? ...
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all...
Has the rain a father; or who has begotten the drops of dew?
Out of whose womb comes the ice, and who gives the hoarfrost its birth in the skies?
Do you hunt the prey for the lioness or appease the hunger of her cubsMountain goats, ostriches, wild oxen and asses, hawks, and noble steeds - God directs them all. He even created some mammoth monsters.
While they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in the thicket?
Behemoth "carries his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are like cables.
His bones are like tubes of bronze; his frame is like iron rods."
 |
| Sue the T. Rex, Field Museum |
When Leviathan "rises up, the mighty are afraid; the waves of the sea fall back ...
He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood ...
Who can force open the doors of his mouth, close to his terrible teeth?
 |
| Jonah Cast Up, 3rd Century, Cleveland Museum of Art |
Either way, it's clear that humanity has been marveling at the power of nature since the world began. Pondering these things is part of who we are. And honestly, I've found some comfort in thinking about those mountain goats crouching down in the desert and the "storehouses of the snow."
hahaha Mufasa. No, I have not read Job all the way through, but I will put it on the list. We're working on the Gospel of Mark right now, so that would be quite a change in scriptural direction!
ReplyDeleteI want to give a more thorough reflection to the questions you posed at the end, but I also want to make sure I comment in case I fail to do that... I'll be back with my thunks.
Side note: I love seeing these little insights about museums you've visited. It gives me the travel bug. Achoo.
Maybe it is in the interaction with God that Job learned the lessons he was meant to learn from suffering? He suffers, and complains about it. He suffers, and learns that complaining about it provokes his friends to point out that he's suffering because of his wrongdoing. He still complains. What learning happens in Job's mind or in his surroundings from those experiences? It's nothing but self-pity and self-centeredness (especially in what the friends suggest: you are SO bad, that God has designed every way He can to punish you, Job. Spotlight on you!) until he actually takes it to God (or, in this case, God takes it to him).
ReplyDeleteIn His speech, God continuously alludes to previous scriptures about him providing for us/Job/Israel. I don't know if God is comparing our puny problems to the problems of the universe as much as he's pointing out how selfish Job and his friends are for thinking only of themselves, ignoring the countless scriptural and historical evidence they have that God keeps His promises. Joke's on you, Job. Now you're a tool used when modern day people make the mistake of self-centeredness! God's extravagant diatribe to Job gave Him another pillar to reference when I complain about XYZ.
Thanks for the further reflection! I like your point that blaming suffering on your sins is still making it all about YOU. God's plan is as vast as the universe He created; we're just part of that creation and owe our existence to Him.
Delete