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Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering

Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering. David Lipscomb University Sermon Seminar May 10-12, 1999. Job as Dramatic Lament. The Dialogical Structure of Job. Prologue (1-2) Heavenly Staging The Trials Jobian Lament. Epilogue (42:7-17) Divine Vindication Divine Grace Jobian Joy.

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Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering

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  1. Faithful Lament:Job’s Response to Suffering David Lipscomb University Sermon Seminar May 10-12, 1999

  2. Job as Dramatic Lament The Dialogical Structure of Job

  3. Prologue (1-2) Heavenly Staging The Trials Jobian Lament Epilogue (42:7-17) Divine Vindication Divine Grace Jobian Joy Job’s Bookends:The Interpretative Frame

  4. Prologue Righteous Job “Does he serve God for nothing?” Maintains Integrity Epilogue Job said what was right (42:7-8) Job interceded for his friends (42:10) Interpretative Keys

  5. The Dramatic Flow • Opening Lament (3): “Why was I born?” • Dialogical Spiral to Despair (4-27) • Wisdom Re-Orientation (28): Fear the Lord • Monologue Recovery (29-42:6)

  6. Dialogues (4-27) Repent! (4-14) Shut up! (15-21) Beyond Help! (22-27) Monologues (29-42:6) I’m Innocent! (29-31) God is Praised (32-37) God Speaks (38-42:6) Poetic Drama

  7. “Job, Repent!” Zophar: “Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble…” Job 11:13-16a

  8. Job Responds to Zophar Job: “I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock….But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. As for you, you whitewash with lies...” Job 12:4; 13:3-4a

  9. “Job, Shut Up!” Eliphaz: “Would he argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value? But you even undermine piety [fear] and hinder devotion to God. Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not mine.” Job 15:3-5; cf. 15:13

  10. Job Responds to Eliphaz “I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.” Job 16:4a, 5-6

  11. “Even If You Were Righteous” Eliphaz: “Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless? Is it for your piety [fear] that he rebukes you….Is not your wickedness great?” Job 22:2-4a, 5a

  12. Job Responds to Eliphaz “I would state my case before him….I would find out what he would answer me…Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me. There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge.” Job 23:4a, 5a, 6-7

  13. The Dramatic Flow • Opening Lament (3): “Why was I born?” • Dialogical Spiral to Despair (4-27) • Wisdom Re-Orientation (28): Fear the Lord • Monologue Recovery (29-42:6)

  14. Wisdom “…then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the man, ‘The fear of the Lord -- that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” Job 28:27-28

  15. Dialogues (4-27) Repent! (4-14) Shut up! (15-21) Beyond Help! (22-27) Monologues (29-42:6) I’m Innocent! (29-31) God is Praised (32-37) God Speaks (38-42:6) Poetic Drama

  16. “I’m Innocent” • Then: “I put on righteousness as my clothing.” Job 29:14 • Now: “God has…afflicted me...my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.” Job 30:11,16 • But: “let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless.” Job 31:6

  17. Elihu Responds • What he says about God is right • God disciplines “to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride” (33:17) • God is just, “it is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice” (34:12). • God is transcendent, “How great is God--beyond understanding!…Who can understand how he spreads out the cloud.” (36:26a, 29a).

  18. Elihu Responds • What he says about Job is wrong • God “repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves” (34:11). • “Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost for answering like a wicked man!” (34:36) • God “is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction” (36:16).

  19. Elihu “no iniquity” (33:9) “profits a man nothing to please God” (34:9) “What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning” (35:2) Job “iniquities of youth” (13:26) the wicked say “profits….” (21:15) the wicked say “profit…” (21:15) Elihu Misquotes Job

  20. God Speaks • “Do you know….” (37:15, 16; 38:33; 39:1) • “Can you… (13 times; 38:31-35) • “Have you… (7 times; 38:12, 16) • “Everything under heaven belongs to me” (41:11b)

  21. Jobian Lament: “Why” • Why is life given to those in misery (3:20)? • Why has God made Job his target (7:20)? • Why does God hide his face (13:24)? • Why do the wicked prosper (21:7)? • Why does not God judge the world (24:1)?

  22. Second Person Laments • “Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me?” Job 7:12 • “Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?” Job 10:3 • “I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer.” Job 30:20

  23. Third Person Laments • “Surely now God has worn me out.” 16:7a • “God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me.” 19:6a • “He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.” 30:19

  24. Job 20-21: A Homily • Context: Job 20 • The wicked will be consumed! • Complaint: Job 21:1-15 • Look at me! I am bitter. • Look at the wicked! They prosper. • Commitment: Job 21:16 • Job will not follow the counsel of the wicked

  25. The Death of Job’s Children • Job habitually prayed for them (1:5). • A mighty wind killed his children (1:19). • “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (1:21).

  26. Friends on Children • Concerning the Righteous: • “your children will be many” (5:25) • Concerning the Wicked: • “His children are far from safety” (5:4) • “When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin” (8:4) • “He has no offspring or descendents” (18:19)

  27. Job on the Wicked’s Children “They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them…they send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about.” Job 21:8,9,11

  28. Job Remembered a Time... “Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.” Job 29:4-6

  29. Job’s Commitment “Yet they say to God…’Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?’ But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.” Job 21:14a,15-16

  30. Christological Application “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Hebrews 5:7

  31. Faithful Lament:Job’s Response to Suffering David Lipscomb University Sermon Seminar May 10-12, 1999

  32. A Jobian Theology of Lament A Questioning, but Trusting Faith

  33. Divine Responsibility Prologue • Job’s Confessions (1:21; 2:10). • God is responsible for what happened to Job • The Hand of God (1:11-12; 2:5-6). • God hands Job over to Satan

  34. Divine Responsibility The Dialogue • “God’s terrors are marshaled against me.” (6:4) • “If it is not he [God], then who is it?” (9:24) • “You [God] have devastated my entire household.” (16:7b)

  35. Divine Responsibility Epilogue “All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him.” Job 42:11

  36. “Hand of God” Motif Prologue • “stretch out your hand and strike...” (1:11) • “stretch out your hand and strike…” (2:5) “And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” (2:3b)

  37. “Hand of God” Motif Dialogue I • “that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off.” (6:9) • “...no one can rescue me from your hand. Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?” (10:7b-8).

  38. “Hand of God” Motif Dialogue II • “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 every human being.” (12:9-10) • “Withdraw your hand from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors.” (13:21)

  39. “Hand of God” Motif Dialogue III • “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.” (19:21) • “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.” (23:2)

  40. “Hand of God” Motif Monologue “You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.” Job 30:21-22

  41. Lament: Silence Rejected • “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.” (10:1) • “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. Yet I am not silenced by the darkness.” (23:16a, 17a) • “Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may.” (13:12).

  42. Can Job Just Forget? “If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’ I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent. Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain.” Job 9:27-29

  43. Lament: Job and Psalms

  44. Psalms “Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (10:1b) Job “Why do you hide your face and count me as an enemy?” (13:24) Complaint

  45. Psalms “O Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands…then let my enemy pursue and overtake me.” (7:3, 5a) Job “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit… then let me sow, and not eat; and let what grows for me be rooted out.” (31:5, 7) Innocence and Self-Imprecation

  46. Psalms “Hear, O Lord, my righteous plea; listen to my cry...May my vindication come from you…Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, and test me, you will find nothing.” (17:1a, 2a, 3a) Job “Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.” (13:18-19). Legal

  47. Psalms “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.” (4:1) Job “Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summons me and I will answer, or let me speak and you reply.” (13:21-22). Petitions

  48. Psalms “But I will trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” (13:5) “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’.” (31:14) Job “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (13:15a) “I know that my Redeemer lives…yet in my flesh I will see God.” (19:25a, 26b) Trust

  49. Psalms “I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.” (13:6) “I will declare you name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.” (22:21) Job “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” (12:13) “Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (26:14) Praise

  50. Jobian Lament: “Why” • Why is life given to those in misery (3:20)? • Why has God made Job his target (7:20)? • Why does God hide his face (13:24)? • Why do the wicked prosper (21:7)? • Why does not God judge the world (24:1)?

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