How Love Holds
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
— Job
When we suffer and ask "Why?", only love can hold us. Job was introduced to us as a man who lived in a time of limited revelation, embraced a religion based upon fear, and claimed a righteousness built upon self-discipline. Now we meet him as a person who also enjoyed a relationship with God that went far beyond submission and servitude. God Himself reveals that relationship when He asks Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, . . . a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" (Job 1:8). A world of meaning is evident in the words, ". . . My servant Job." God is saying:
I call him by his name,
I claim him as My friend,
I commend him as My servant.
What a compliment! It is exceeded only by the parallel passage in the Gospels when God affirms Jesus at His baptism, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).
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If I had only one sermon to preach, I would choose this text from the Gospel of Mark. In it are all the essentials of the relationship that I desire of God for myself and others. Simply put, God claims Jesus as His Son whom He loves and of whom He is proud. Jesus needs nothing more for His sense of identity, His sense of security, and His feeling of worth. God says to His Son, "You belong to Me, I love you, and I am proud of you."
Extending this truth to my own life, I too realize that I need nothing more. To belong, to be loved, and to be praised by God is the highest commendation I can know. Therefore, to those who would hear the sermon of my life, I would speak with utter confidence — God claims us, loves us, and wants to praise us as His sons and daughters.
Here again we see the prophetic leaning of the Book of Job toward Jesus Christ in God's commendation, "Have you considered my servant Job?" His words confirm a personal relationship which goes beyond fear-filled worship and disciplined righteousness. God claims, loves, and praises Job as a son, a friend, and a servant. The relationship is mutual. The way in which Job talks to God is possible only in the confidence of mutual love.
As he gropes for the "Why?" Job dares to tease God as one might banter with a close friend. More than that, he takes the risk of testing Him as a covenant brother who seems to have turned upon him without reason. Yet, despite a prolonged monologue that begins with a tease and ends with a demand for justice, Job never loses his trust in God as his Father. Even though he does not hear God's question to Satan, he intuitively senses its meaning.
"Have you considered My servant Job?" reveals God's side of a love relationship — claiming him, loving him, and praising him. On Job's side, he knows that he belongs to God, is loved by Him, and is praised by Him. Even total and grotesque suffering cannot take away his identity as a son, his security as a friend, and his worth as a servant. Love holds Job through his suffering.
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Teasing Love
Among the many hints of the love relationship between God and Job, one stands out as unique. In his first rebuttal of Eliphaz's charge that he is a sinner who must repent, Job's anger turns to grief because his friends have failed him. After scolding them for their lack of understanding, he turns to God and addresses Him directly for the first time. Anguish pours from Job's heart and at the bottom is not bitterness, but the most profound question in scripture:
WHAT IS MAN, that You should exalt him,
That You should set Your heart on him,
That You should visit him every morning,
And test him every moment?
How long?
Will You not look away from me,
And let me alone till I swallow my saliva?
Have I sinned?
What have I done to You,
O watcher of men?
Why have You set me as Your target,
So that I am a burden to myself?
Why then do You not pardon my transgression,
And take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust,
And You will seek me diligently,
But I will no longer be.
(Job 7:17-21)
This is Job's psalm of suffering. Anyone who suffers will identify with his questions and the lack of answers. But wait. There is a love note hidden in the woeful song. Based upon their past relationship as friends, Job chides God with a reminder of what He will lose if Job dies:
And You will seek me diligently,
But I will no longer be.
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Lovers tease each other by saying, "You'll miss me when I'm gone." Even when it is said in jest, it's true. The loss of loved ones leaves us with a hollow heart. Going into a room, we expect them to be there. Calling out their name, we expect them to answer. Reaching out for them, we expect their touch. The loss of a loved one is irreparable for both parties.
How does Job dare to tease God by saying, "You'll miss me when I'm gone"? If he is not a partner in a love relationship, his arrogance is unforgivable. Try the same question with a stranger or an enemy. Without an intimate knowledge of each other's sensitivities, teasing must be avoided at all cost.
I have a friend who lost his thumb and three fingers on his left hand from a childhood accident with a dynamite cap. The first time I met him, nothing was said about his hand because neither of us knew how the other would respond to the handicap. In our next meeting, however, he told me the story of the accident. Later, I heard that students in the college where he coached called him "Uncle Nubby." Still later, I heard him speak at a banquet where he brought the house down with "Twenty-nine stories on how I got my nub."
Slowly and with extreme caution, I tested whether I could tease him about his nubby hand. Bit by bit a developing and deepening relationship stood the test of teasing. Soon I was introducing him as "Uncle Nubby" to student groups and adding my own absurd version to his twenty-nine stories. He himself led the laughter and when his time came, returned my teasing with some kind of comment that implied, "You'll miss me when I'm gone." He's right, even in jest. Underneath the teasing is a friendship whose loss would leave a hollow spot.
Job dares to tease God the same way. He cannot be accused of arrogance or irreverence. Rather, on the basis of a loving relationship that permitted God to test Job and Job to tease God, he said, "You'll miss me when I'm gone." Only love can say that.
Testing Love
God does not respond to Job's teasing. His silence confounds His friend. Job realizes now that he is suffering
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not only the loss of God's protection, but also the loss of His voice, and with it the promise of His word. Verbal communication is essential to any love relationship. Although friends and lovers can communicate without words, the moments of silence grow out of hours of intimate conversation. The communication of silence, in fact, can take place only between people who have first communicated through words. Otherwise, the silence is awkward and embarrassing.
Two strangers cannot sit in silence without talking unless they choose to ignore each other's presence, if not each other's existence. On airplanes if I am seated next to a stranger, for instance, I have the choice of opening a conversation or blocking the small space between our seats by silence. If I choose to open the conversation, I usually become involved in the life of the other person and, therefore, find it difficult to lapse back into my reading or writing. So, if I need to read, write, or think, I say "hello" and then proceed to open a book, take out a pad, or close my eyes as a signal that I don't want to talk.
When I travel with my wife, however, it is just the opposite. We can enjoy eachother without speaking. She knows that I frequently read, write, or think while flying. Therefore, with just an occasional touch of the hand we communicate. Out of the experience of past conversation and the assurance of future conversation, we are comfortable in silence. Each of us knows that when the other needs to talk, we will be ready to listen and respond.
But what if the conversation between two lovers ceases? Something has to be wrong. The first assumption is that silence is the result of inattention or preoccupation. Teasing, such as "You'll miss me when I'm gone," usually takes care of that. No answer? Naturally, the ignored person assumes that he or she has done something wrong. "What have I done to hurt you?" is a common question between friends and lovers whose communication has been mysteriously broken off.
But what if the person still doesn't speak? The appeal advances to a call for a rational approach to the problem, such as, "Give me a reason why you won't talk to me." If this appeal fails, the final recourse is to go public by asking for an open hearing, such as, "Will you go to a counselor with me?"
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or "Can we ask friends to help us?" Only in the most desperate circumstances do friends and lovers take their case to court. They know that once in the courtroom, they are adversaries. It takes the rarest of love to hold in a confrontational setting where the primary issue has become a question of justice.
Job cannot stand the silence of God. If only his Friend would speak to him once more, he feels as if he could understand his suffering. Instead, the silence of God provokes him to pursue the test of love to the extreme of calling for justice at the risk of losing that love.
At first, Job cannot conceive of himself as entering into a rational argument over his innocence with God. In response to Bildad's demand for his repentance, Job answers:
Truly I know it is so,
But how can a man be righteous before God?
If one wished to contend with Him
He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.
(Job 9:2-3)
In a sense, Job is talking to himself. Quite in contrast to his past experience of open and friendly conversation with God, he is asking in his own mind if he dares to challenge God to a debate in order to reopen their conversation. In successive thoughts, Job asks himself:
How then can I answer Him,
And choose my words to reason with Him?
(Job 9:14)
I am blameless, yet I do not know myself;
(Job 9:21)
For He is not a man, as I am,
That I may answer Him,
And that we should go to court together.
Nor is there any mediator between us
Who may lay his hand on us both.
(Job 9:32-33).
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God still does not answer. Finally in sheer desperation, Job concludes that he has nothing to lose in a direct confrontation with God his Friend. He concludes his self-debate by saying:
My soul loathes my life;
I will give free course to my complaint,
I will speak in bitterness of my soul.
I will say to God,
"Do not condemn me;
Show me why You contend with me."
(Job 10:1-2)
The stage is set for Job to argue with a silent God. With a boldness that few sufferers would dare to risk, he challenges God:
Does it seem good to You that You should oppress . . .?
Do You have eyes of flesh . . .?
And there is no one who can deliver from Your hand . . .?
And will You turn me to dust again?
(Job 10:3, 4, 7 and 9)
All these questions, admittedly spoken out of the bitterness of his heart, lead Job back to the first question that he asked:
Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
(Job 10:18)
Job's question hangs in the air. It is a reasonable question for suffering people to ask. If God really loves His creation, why does He permit us to suffer? No answer comes. For those of us who are burdened with guilt, we simply assume that suffering is fair payment for our sins. With Job, however, his innocence drives him to demand a courtroom setting in which a third and neutral party arbitrates the conflict between him and God. He doesn't want to win as much as he wants to understand why God has targeted him for suffering and yet remains silent.
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The test is on: In preparation for a legal contest, Job makes two formal requests of God. One is that God give him space so that he will not be afraid to speak; the other is that God speak to him once again, either with an accusation that Job can answer or with an answer to Job's questions:
How many are my iniquities and sins . . .?
Why do You hide Your face . . .?
(Job 13:23-24)
Job is not longer pleading for either the love of a friend or the mercy of a brother, but for the justice of God. From now on, he is willing to put himself on the scales that weigh our sin against our righteousness. How many of us would dare to take that risk? Like Nebuchadnezzar, we would be weighed in the balances and found wanting. Not Job. He is willing to have the motives of his heart and the conduct of his life put on the scales of divine justice and to accept the verdict of an impartial judge.
God still does not answer. Completely baffled, Job exhausts every means of reasonable recourse which he knows. Having hoped for a mediator and having pleaded for a hearing before God, he finally resorts to a call for a public trial to attest his innocence. After writing his own bill of particulars which lists every win of which he might be accused, Job contends for his innocence and then puts his life on the line:
Here is my mark.
Oh, that the Almighty would answer me,
That my Prosecutor had written a book!
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder,
And bind it on me like a crown;
(Job 31:35-36)
According to the laws of his time, Job's court of last resort is to appear in public with the charges against him written on a tablet to be read by all people as he carries it through the streets of the city. Anyone who can prove his guilt on any count is invited to come forward and press charges. In contest with a silent God, Job is willing to do
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anything to get his former Friend to speak. He has taken the test of love into the court of last resort!
If Job's tests for God are isolated from a love relationship, they become adversarial acts that border on blasphemy. In fact, Job's three friends interpret his brash and wordy challenges to God as evidence of his sin and wickedness. Why would God permit a human upstart to question His integrity by demanding a courtroom hearing, insisting upon a bill of particulars, and appealing for public vindication? Trusting love is the only answer.
Trusting Love
People who suffer have a ministry all their own. They teach us the meaning of trusting love. For the sake of definition, trusting love is that which holds when all the traditional supports for faith are taken away. Job is our example. In succession, he apparently loses God's protection for his life, His promise for his future, and His presence for his suffering.
Few of us know what it means to have our faith tested without the protection, promise, and presence of God. Most of our testing is in the shallows of our faith. Illness may seem to signal that God's protection over our physical life has been listed, but God's promise for our future and His presence for our suffering remain intact. What if all three supports are removed at once? We are driven to the bare ground of our faith where only trusting love can hold us.
The Book of Job is known for its monumental affirmations of faith. With relative ease, we quote:
...though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
...I know that my Redeemer lives,
and
...when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
(Job 13:15; 19:25;23:10)
These statements are affirmations of trusting love. The depth of their meaning, however, can be understood only in the context from which they are spoken. In every case, the
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traditional supports for faith are removed so that Job's relationship with God is being tested at ground level.
When His Presence Seems Lifted
Preceding his declaration, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him . . . ," Job tells us he believes that God has lifted His hand of protection over his life. Because death is imminent, Job is willing to challenge God by defending the fact that he is innocent even though he suffers:
Why do I take my flesh in my teeth,
And put my life in my hands?
(Job 13:14)
The answer is trusting love. In times of suffering, faith needs more than intellectual assent for the assurance that God is trustworthy. The experience of love in a personal relationship is the support base which holds up the reasoning of the mind and the commitment of the will. Therefore, we cannot isolate Job's affirmation of faith, "though He slay me I will trust Him," from the attestation of love that lets Job take the risk, "Why do I take . . . my life in my hands?" Only trusting love can do that.
Yesterday I went to the hospital to minister to a faculty wife who had just received the news that her body had been invaded with inoperable cancer. As our eyes and hands met, she took charge of the conversation by saying, "This is the time that will test my faith. Can I apply to myself what I have said so often to others?" I could only nod as she went on to declare her trust in God and then to give thanks for a full and beautiful life. "My mother," she said, "died of cancer when I was fourteen. She never had the chance I have had to see my children grown with families of their own. So, I'll take it a day at a time and live every minute with thanksgiving."
I could only nod my head. She went on to tell of her witness to the attending nurse, her concern for her husband's health, and her interest in her family. As I left, I thanked her, "Jane, I came to minister to you, but you have ministered to me." Only then did she confess that she had cried out her
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tears before I came. Then, referring to the Book of Job which she and her husband had been studying, she smiled with the wryness of one who knows the truth and said, "Though He slay me, I will trust Him."
When His Promises Seem to Lapse
Job's second affirmation of faith is even more memorable than the first one. It has become the triumphant theme for Handel's Messiah, an aria which never fails to thrill us:
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God.
(Job 19:25-26)
Most of us, however, cannot fully appreciate the circumstances from which Job speaks. He has come to realize that God's promise for his future seems to be lost. Like us, his faith has been built upon the Word of God. In this case, it is not the written Word, but the spoken Word that has been communicated between friends. Job has learned to trust God's Word and knows that His promises for the future are assured. Like us in our healthy prosperity, Job lived with bright hope for the future. We learn this later on in the story when out of the depth of his suffering, Job recalls his days of peace and prosperity. He also remembers his confidence in God's promises for the future:
Then I said, "I shall die in my nest,
And multiply my days as the sand.
My root is spread out to the waters,
And the dew lies all night on my branch.
My glory is fresh within me,
And my bow is renewed in my hand."
(Job 29: 18-20)
Job assumed that he had the promise of God for longevity, health, family, peace, prosperity, fame, and vitality. Now this
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promise appears to have failed. Job has lost all of his hope for the good things of life. What has happened to the promises of God? Job does not know. He can only hang on to the proof of the past when God's promises came true and the realities of the present in which he knows that he has not sinned.
Oh, that my words were written!
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
That they were engraved on a rock
With an iron pen on lead, forever!
(Job 19:23-24)
This is a statement of trusting love that is almost beyond us. Job is saying that even though he will die, he is willing to have his words in a permanent record because the time will come when God will fulfill His promise. Think of it! Even though Job himself will never see God's promise fulfilled in his lifetime, he knows that God's Word is good. So good, in fact, that Job is then lifted in the Spirit to make a declaration of faith far, far beyond his time or knowledge:
I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth
And after my skin is destroyed . . .
That in my flesh I shall see God.
(Job 19:25-26)
Believe it or not, against the apparent lapse of God's promise for Job's future, he actually foresees the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and his Redemption through Jesus Christ. Only trusting love can see that far.
My wife, Janet, and I have just returned from the funeral of her only brother who died unexpectedly at the age of sixty-seven. As I mentioned before, their ninety-two-year-old mother is in a nursing home, almost vegetating in a senile state. When my wife told her about the death of her only son, nothing registered. We began to debate the wisdom of taking her to the funeral, but decided the family needed her presence even if she did not know what was going on. Rain drenched the area the next day and we again debated the wisdom of taking her out and risking a cold. Something compelled us to stick with our earlier decision, so we bundled her up and took her to the funeral.
Entering a side door along a ramp for the handicapped,
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we were surprised to be ushered directly into the funeral parlor in full view of the mourners. Instantly, we saw on the faces of the family the value of her being there and we heard the audible gasp of surprise from our friends. For her, however, no sign of recognition let us know she was aware of being at her son's funeral despite the flowers, open casket, organ music, and tears. Watching her closely, I detected no light of awareness in her eyes as the officiating minister read the Scripture, gave the eulogy, and offered a homily of comfort for the family.
But then, to close the service, the pastor asked us to join in the recitation of the Twenty-third Psalm which was printed on the order of service. At the sound of the first word, "The Lord is my shepherd . . ." a strong and firm voice began to lead the congregation. It was Mom. Without missing a single word, she led us through the Psalm. Awe swept over us as we realized that Mom's lifetime of reading, memorizing, and quoting the Word of God brought her back to reality and became her promise when her only son died.
After dismissal, we took Mom forward to the casket. Squinting to see his face, she asked, "Is this my boy?" Janet answered, "Yes, it's Eldon." With full awareness now, Mom asked her next question, "Did he make it to heaven?" Again, Janet answered, "Yes, he's in heaven with Joyce and Daddy now."
With that word of assurance, Mom lapsed back into the fog of senility and rode home without another word. In her, we saw trusting love at work. As with Job, God's promise had been engraved on her heart and even after she had lost touch with reality, it came back to her in the evidence that God had answered her prayer and fulfilled His promise. Never again will I assume that spiritual communication stops when it appears as if the mind is gone. Despite the suffering of senility, a lifetime of love is holding Mom in communion with her Lord.
When His Presence Seems Lost
Job's third affirmation of faith is made in the most difficult circumstances of all. Apparently, he has lost the presence
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of God in his suffering. It is tough enough to stand physical suffering when God seems to lift His hand of protection from our lives or when His promises for the future seem to have lapsed, but to lose His presence is hell itself:
Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come to His seat!
(Job 23:3)
Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
I cannot behold Him;
When He turns to the right hand,
I cannot see Him.
(Job 23:8-9)
God is gone. Like the spouse or friend who dies, the lonely survivor searches from room to room with the faint hope that death might have been only a bad dream. Instead, each line of search bumps against the harsh reality that the death is real and the person's presence is lost. Job goes through a similar process — searching backward and forward, right and left — only to encounter the personless places that had once been filled by the presence of God. He might have lost his faith in that moment. Instead, he gives us an affirmation for the ages:
But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me,
I shall come forth as gold.
(Job 23:10)
Like Job's other affirmations of faith, this one does not stand alone. It echoes through the chambers of a universe where a suffering soul has searched for God and found only empty space. Yet, despite the emptiness, he declares that God is not dead and will reveal Himself once again. Only trusting love can hold in a time like that.
Earlier, I noted the text that I would choose if I had only
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one sermon to preach. Now, I note the one sermon I would choose for suffering people to read. John Arthur Gossip tragically lost his wife and ministerial companion of many years. Although overwhelmed with grief, he insisted on preaching to his people as soon as possible. Returning to the pulpit, he announced the subject, "But When Life Tumbles In, What Then?" His text was Jeremiah 12:5:
If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the flood plain of the Jordan?
After confessing that he had been victimized by a fairweather faith until his wife died, Dr. Gossip took his congregation with him through the verities of faith which are tested in death. In his conclusion, Gossip compares himself to Hopeful in Pilgrim's Progress as he speaks:
For standing in the swelling of the Jordan, cold to the heart with its dreadful shill, and very conscious of the terror of its rushing, I too, like Hopeful, can call back to you who one day in your turn will have to cross it, "Be of good cheer, my brother, for I feel the bottom, and it is sound."1
Job gives the same message to all who suffer. Trusting love calls us back from the edge of death, the pit of despair, and the depths of loneliness:
Be of good cheer, my brother, for I feel the bottom and it is sound.
We cannot forget that Job's relationship with God prefigures the love that binds Jesus with His Father. He, too, has His times for teasing, testing, and trusting God. The difference is that Job experiences the apparent loss of God's protection, promise, and presence. For Jesus, the loss is real. He dies alone and experiences hell. But today, thanks to the power of His Resurrection, for all who struggle with the apparent loss of God's protection for their lives, God's promise for their
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future, or God's presence for their suffering, Jesus is the One who speaks the ultimate affirmation of faith:
Do not be afraid,
I am the first and the Last.
I am He who lives,
and was dead, and behold,
I am alive forevermore.
(Rev. 1:17, 18)
Only love that holds can say that.
