Who sends the rain where no one lives?

Okay, let's dive into God's answer from the Book of Job!  Whoo hoo!  

Let me per-requisite this post with: If you haven't read Job lately, and everything you know about him you learned in Sunday school; you will freak out about what I'm going to say.  It might be helpful to go back and read through Job quickly to get the big picture.  Job and his friends had to "repent in dust and ashes" for what they believed about God.  This is a clue that everything they had to say about Him wasn't golden.  Job persevered through his questions, depression, and frustration until his saw God for himself.  There's more on this if you read chapter 3 of "Lessons from Dinosaurs and Dragons."  You can find a link to it in my blog post entitled "In the Land of Uz."


Now on to the good stuff!  There is a reason God uses questions instead of statements.  It is one of the best ways to get us to change our minds.  Humans are stubborn; when we think we're right, it is difficult to change our minds.  He is getting us to challenge our own long held beliefs about Him.  He's getting us to think, to come to the truth.  He is "instructing with questioning."  It is a tactic He uses throughout the Bible.  We can avoid some of our combativeness by not entering into a yes/no war, but instead opening our minds to think about why we believe what we believe.  Is it based on fact, or "what we've always known since the time of our fathers"?

In His answer to Job, you will hear many questions that sound something like this:  "How do you know this is the way it works?  Were you there?  Have you done it like that before?"  He isn't necessarily making a statement like "This is how it works."  In fact, most of his questions directly address a statement Job or his friends used to "prove" God zaps and blesses based on behavior.

Job and his friends held the common theology of their era that God is "The Almighty" El Shaddi.  He is the giver of life and the destroyer of it.  Life is a series of "you reap what you sow."  God's relationship to us is simply based on our behavior.  If you do good, God loves you.  If you do bad, God hates you.  (El Shaddi is a true name of God; we will see later how the name El Shaddi fits in the picture of a loving and merciful God.) 
 

For example, in chapter 12 Job says:

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?   In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”  [NIV]

   Job says we can ask the animals and birds to teach us about how God deals with His creation.  Chapter 26 of Job has many more things Job thinks are proof of the way God deals with His creation listed: water, sea, sky, clouds, the horizon, pillars of the heavens, and even the moon.

God begins his answer directly addressing these phenomena.  God questions if Job and his friends have interpreted God's motives correctly.

Does Job really know how and why things work?  Does he have the wisdom of God?  Let’s look at what types of questions God started out asking:

Were you there at creation?               Job’s internal answer would have to be, no.

Do you know why the sea behaves like it does?                               The answer?  No.

Do you know how the sun rises each morning?                                           Answer: No.

Do you know how the earth’s crust got its shape?                                                    No.

So, do you know how I handle the wicked?  I thought I did till you put it like that.

Do you know the secrets of death and the dark places?                                        No.

“If you know everything there is to know on earth let’s hear it.”

Can you tell me where light and dark come from since you’re so wise and aged? 

                                                                                                                                                    No.

Job quickly remembered that being the wisest, greatest man in all the East didn’t mean that he knew all there was to know.  While he and his friends thought they had it all worked out, they really knew so little of how things actually work.

The next little bit is interesting. Before we read it, let’s look back to 37: 9-13.  Elihu says, 

         

     “The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds.  The

       breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen.  He loads

      the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.  At his direction

      they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he

      commands them.  He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth

      and show his love.” [NIV]   

This is a great description of the immense storms Job would have experienced during the ice age following the Great Flood.  This is how Job and his friends believed God dealt with the earth.  Bad=spanking.  Good=love and blessing.  The same basic thing is said throughout Job.  God asks how they know this is true.

 

Have you been to the place where I store all this pent up judgment you’ve been describing? 

Job’s answer would again have to be no.  In fact, there’s no such thing as a storehouse for snow or hail—Job could never have seen it.  The implication is that since Job doesn’t know how everything else works he may not understand how judgment works either.  In fact, he’s very wrong.

Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? [NIV]

What an astounding question?  It must have felt like an explosion in his brain!  Contrast what God said with what Elihu said.  Elihu claims that God waters the earth to zap or to bless, to punish or to show love.  If God does what He does simply for reward and punishment, then why does He bless a land where there isn’t a soul to incur reward or punishment?  Why does he "satisfy" and nourish a land where no one lives?  Here we can see the contrast between the human assumption at the time and what God was trying to show them.

Why does it rain in an uninhabited wasteland?  Job did not know.  

 

Her Hands

I'm not one of those weepy people.  I didn't cry when I went away to camp or anything.  My Mom tells a story of how my first day of pre-school all the other kids were clinging to their parents and crying.  I waved and ran to the toy box, “See you later.”  I deal with things as they are and make the best of what I have.  So, walking into church yesterday surprised me.  

Due to Mother’s Day, there was a bit of waiting to drop the kids off in their classes.  I arrived in the auditorium just after the music started.  Everyone was already standing and singing.  There was a beautiful lady sitting in front of the row I rushed to settle into.  You could tell her feeble frame would not have been able to stand through the whole song.

Just as I walked up she rested her hand on the armrest.  It was one of those hands that you knew had worked hard its whole life.  A little swollen from arthritis with thin skin showing blue veins, it matched the one clinging to the woman next to her.  They were talking incessantly in a loud almost whisper.  Her hearing was obviously not what it used to be, but her laughter was still clear and bright.

The sight of that sweet, old hand caught me off guard.  It was one of those moments in the movies were the camera zooms down on one thing, everything else disappears, and the narrator starts talking.  I inhaled sharply; tears stung my eyes and instantly rolled down my cheeks.  I spent the song weeping quietly in my seat hoping no one noticed.  How I missed my own Granny and Mother today!  I would love to have Granny’s sweet hands to pat my face and hug my neck.

I tried to get it under control by looking away from those hands and focusing on the lyrics displayed on the screen.  “You are not alone.  You are not alone.”  Well, that just made me sob all the harder.  My God already knew I would be missing wrapping my arms around the neck of my Granny today.  He 

knew I’d be missing my Momma.  Whatever the rest of the song, the message I heard the Narrator say was "I love you, Honey, and I have perfect timing.  I am with you always even to the end of the age."

I am 700 miles away, but I am not alone.

The Roaring Lion Set His Heart On Job.

Have you ever wondered why God pointed out Job?  In "Lessons from Dinosaurs and Dragons" chapter 2, "The Accuser" takes a look at the dynamic that happened in the courts of heaven that day.   Here is a snippet that may answer some of your questions:

A great portion of Job’s frustration and confusion was the fact that he had not witnessed the scene in heaven prior to all of his troubles.  He did not see Satan come before God.  He did not hear the accusation against him.  He did not see Satan go out from God’s presence intent on tearing him to shreds.  He did not understand how or why anything was happening.  Job attributed every ounce of his pain directly from the hand of God alone.   

One of Satan’s best tactics is to mask his role in the world.  He gets people to think it’s all God’s fault or all their own fault without taking any of the blame himself.  Many theologies say he doesn’t even exits.  Bad stuff just happens.  We live in a fallen world due to the sin of humanity; therefore, we should expect bad stuff to happen to us.  The choices made in the Garden did bring death and decay into existence, but is that the whole answer?  

1 Peter 5: 8 gives us a wonderful illustration of how Satan is working.  He is prowling around like a lion just looking for the opportunity to swallow us up.  This is the exact description given to us in Job.  He has just come from “roaming throughout on the earth, going back and forth on it.”  

After finding what he was looking for, he came to the Heavenly Court to present his accusation to the Judge on the appointed day.  In this scene Satan plays the role of the Accuser—the Prosecutor.   God is the Just Judge who will hear both the Accuser’s case and the Defense.  We humans are the defendants.  

From other places in the Bible we can piece together a fuller picture of what went on and learn more about how the heavenly court works.  For instance Christ Jesus is our Defense Attorney entering a plea of guilty or not guilty.  God listens to all the witnesses including the Holy Spirit, human beings, and sometimes evidence from the earth itself.  What happens next is just like a court room.  In fact, our humanly courts are set up as a reflection of how it works in heaven.  God gave Moses a set of instructions on how to carry out court.  It has been a model for judicial systems for millennia.  There is a hearing of testimony, a judgment and a sentence.  

Here in Job we have an abbreviated retelling of what happened in heaven focusing mainly on the accusation, the conviction, and the sentence.  It starts with the opening statement.  Satan needed a little prompting to get started—though his silence was probably just a ploy.  “Where have you come from?” God asked.  And the heavenly court room drama unfolds:  

“Just patrolling the Earth checking out what’s going on there.”

“Have you noticed my servant Job?  He’s the finest man in all the Earth.”  Wait, WHAT!?  Did God just single out his favorite guy?  Why would he do that?

The three Hebrew words interpreted “considered” or “noticed” in most versions of the Bible are literally “set heart on.”  God did not point at Job and say, “Hey, have you noticed how wonderful my servant Job is?  He’s pretty great, eh?  Why can’t you be more like Job?  You want to mess with him and see if he gives up?”  Not at all!  God was telling Satan He knew what Satan was up to—stalking God’s most righteous servant.  God knew Satan had “set his heart on” Job.

In fact the scene in heaven could be read just like this: 

“Satan, where have you been?”

“Oh, nowhere, just the earth.”

“What were you doing down there?”

“Nothing, just roaming about, back and forth.”

“You saw my most upright, perfect servant, Job, while you were there.  I know you’re interested in him because there is no one like him on the face of the earth.  He is blameless and fears me.  He refuses to give into your temptations, and you can’t stand it.  You’ve set your heart on him, haven’t you?”

From His very earliest dealings with his creation, God has used questions to help us arrive at the truth.  Remember when man had sinned in the Garden of Eden?  The first thing God asked was, “Where are you?”  God did not ask this question because He did not know the answer, but so that Adam through conversation would eventually come to the admission that he was guilty of disobeying God.  Admission of the problem is the first step in restoring our relationship.  Humans have a really hard time admitting our faults—especially when we think it will get us in trouble.  So, rather than barking at us until we admit our guilt, God guides us at our own rate to the truth.  A truth He already knows full well.   He often instructs us through questions.

That is the same thing that is happening here in Job.  God doesn’t ask Satan where he has been because He doesn’t know, but in order for Satan to admit what He has done.  

It’s a lot like when Johnny was about four years old and his momma asked him, “What have you been eating?”  

And he, in all his four year old wisdom, answered, “Nothing.”  

She continued to prod, “What’s that on your face?”

“I don’t know.” 

“You’ve been eating chocolate chip cookies, haven’t you?”

She knew before she ever asked, that he had been eating chocolate chip cookies, but she was giving Johnny an opportunity to admit that he had broken the rules.  She used guiding questions to get to the point because Johnny wasn’t about to tell on himself.    That is what God is doing.  He knew exactly were Satan had been and exactly what he had been doing—and why.

However, Satan had come to God’s throne before, and he is no small child with crumbs on his face.  He had been anticipating this conversation before he ever approached the Bench.  He is an expert at this game and hadn’t come to the Judge until he was fully prepared.  He had a trap that he thought God could not overlook.  

 Satan, as a brilliant tactician, had prepared by looking for a hole in Job’s defenses.  However, Job was protected behind a hedge erected by the Law of God.  Finding a flaw would be no easy task.   The rules God instituted are for our good, intended to keep us safe and protected.  By following them religiously Job did not give Satan grounds for prosecution in the Court of Heaven.   Through all his obsession and pacing, his studying and digging into Job, Satan could find no chink in Job’s character; he was blameless.      

 He had surveilled the perimeter of the hedge and could find nothing to accuse.    Job’s defense was flawless.  He gave to the poor and needy.  He was just in all his judgment.  He did not steal, or lie, or covet.  He didn’t lust after women.  He did not worship any other God but the Almighty who created the earth.  He didn’t abuse others for personal gain.  He regularly made the prescribed sacrifices.  He believed God and acted on it.  He was dutiful and faithful.  He was the most perfect man in all the earth.

There was only one technicality that Satan could find.  The trap he couldn’t wait to spring.  Satan found an accusation but, it wasn’t a behavioral issue; it was a heart issue.  The only thing with which The Accuser could prosecute Job was his motivation.  

 “Yes, but Job only obeys you because of what you do for him by blessing him with stuff and protecting him.  He doesn’t love you the way You deserve.  He only does what You want cause he’s scared.  It’s not for Love; he’s just using You.  Now, destroy him for abusing the system!”

God’s answer is astonishing.  It’s not at all what I would have expected.  Rather than defending Job because of all of his good deeds, He says, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” [NASB] This word “Behold” is unfamiliar to most of us these days.  In other places in the Bible it is interpreted “see, indeed, surely.”  The NIV interprets it, “very well.”  It is a positive affirmation.  God in this one little word says, “Indeed, I see.”  In other words, “Yes, I know.”  Job obeys God perfectly, but in a do-to-get manner.

Satan had his conviction.  What sentence did the Prosecutor win?  Remove the blessings Job thinks he has earned with his obedience.  Let “all that [Job] feared come upon [him].” [see 3:25]

There is more to it of course.  If you'd like to read the full chapter follow the link:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gI9JrwU1CBNldvRkJLUlJNSFU/edit?usp=sharing

In the Land of Uz

Before I get into the meat of “Lessons from Dinosaurs and Dragons” let me introduce Job to you.  Chapter 3 is called “In the Land of Uz.”  It sets the stage for who Job is and the environment which shaped his thinking.  He is the “Greatest man in all the East” who is blameless and upright.  But is that all we know about him before the story starts?

There are several clues found in other parts of the Bible that can tell us about Job and his theology.  The first tidbit we learn about Job is that he is from the land of Uz.  That seems like such an insignificant detail, but it holds an important clue about Job and what world-view he grew up with. 

Where in the world is the Land of Uz?  We will have to look for clues in history.  This is where those tedious genealogies come in handy.  There were several poor guys whose names were Uz. 

Abraham’s nephew by his brother Nahor and his wife Milkah.  According to Genesis 22 their “oldest was Uz whose brother was Buz.”  Uz and Buz; bless their hearts, I try not to laugh.  Although, Elihu, the young man at the end of Job, was a “Buzite” this is probably not the Uz we are looking for. 

There is another Uz who is much more interesting.  He is found in the genealogies of Genesis 36 and 1 Chronicles 1.  Esau, of the famous Jacob and Esau, also known as Edom, moved his three wives and five sons out of Canaan because his possessions were so great the land could not contain them all “due to their great amount of livestock.”  They settled south/southeast of Israel in the country of a man named Seir whose grandson was Uz.  

Edom intermarried and gradually took over the country.  There was a change from Seir’s heirs ruling the land, to Esau’s heirs ruling the land.  In fact, one of Esau’s wives, Oholibama, was Seir’s great-granddaughter.  Because the land was occupied by several people groups, the place they lived went by several names including Edom, Seir, and Uz. 

Lamentations 4: 21 says “Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom, you who live in the land of Uz.”  [NIV]  This is most likely where Job was from.  He is an Edomite living in Uz, the land of Seir.  He is a descendant of Abraham, but on the black sheep side.

If we look a little farther down the genealogies we see Esau and his wife Adah   the Hittite had one son together.  His name was Eliphaz, the eldest of the five sons.  Eliphaz had seven sons the first of which was Teman.  One of Job’s friend’s in this story is Eliphaz the Temanite.  Job’s “friend” was probably Eliphaz who lived in a town built up by his eldest son Teman.  He is possibly Job’s great-uncle. 

This would explain why Eliphaz the first-born from the eldest generation did the most speaking of the friends in the Book of Job.  It would also explain why it would have been okay for him to reprimand Job for speaking his mind, and why he would have felt an urgent need to come and comfort his relative in the first place. 

It would have also been a bone of contention if Eliphaz the Eldest was not the greatest man in all the East.  Job even bragged that his elders hushed to hear him speak.  [Ch. 29]  Eliphaz possibly had to defer to his second-born brother’s great-grandson.  In the family of the rejected first-born Esau, this would have been very bitter indeed.  It would have seemed like the injustice was happening all over again.  No wonder there seems to be a power struggle between the two over who is the wisest.

The next friend we meet is Zophar.  He was a Naamathite.  Very little is known about the name, “Naamathite.”  Most of it is stretching.  There is a Palestinian city named Naamah not to far from the border of Edom.  The people from there are called Naamathites.  Eventually, when Jacob’s descendants returned to Abraham’s land, it was captured and given to Judah as part of the foothill country. [Josh. 15:41]  It is possible this is where Zophar is from.

There is no record of who his people are.  Although, I find it interesting that Esau’s son Reuel had a first-born son named Nahath.  There is a major spelling difference between Naamah and Nahath but it is intriguing.  If Naamathite has anything to do with Nahath, that would possibly make Zophar and Job first cousins with Zophar being a descendent of the elder son.  This would produce many of the same conflicts as would have occurred between Eliphaz and Job.  (He is for sure not from Naaman, the guy with leprosy in 2 Kings.)

Bildad was a Shuhite.  Shuah, his ancestor, was one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah whom he married after Sarah died.  Shuah would have been sent off to the East along with his brothers.  Therefore, though Bildad was not an Edomite, he would be one of the men “of the East.”

Eliphaz was a descendant of Abraham but not an Israelite. Bildad is a descendant of Abraham but not an Israelite.  Even young Elihu was a family member of Abraham but not an Israelite. Job’s friends were a collection of chiefs from the clans of Abraham outside of Israel.  Job was the greatest of these chiefs. 

Some scholars have even suggested that Job is the same person as Jobab found in the genealogies of Esau that we’ve been looking at.  Esau and his wife Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael, had one son named Reuel.  Reuel had four sons; the first was Nahath the second Zerah.  Zerah was the father of Jobab.    That would make Jobab Esau’s great-grandson. 

Jobab became the first Edomite king to rule the region of Seir or Uz.  He was from a city in Uz called Bozrah.  It is now in the modern country of Jordan.  Bozrah means “fold.”  A fold is a place where animals are kept, like a sheepfold.  It would have been fitting for a man who owned so many animals to be from a town named Bozrah.  

If you'd like to read some more details and what the implications of this are you can follow the link to chapter 3.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gI9JrwU1CBSllzcUN0ZmM1dU0/edit?usp=sharing