Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly
Perhaps you’ve seen the video that has been around for some time now called “It’s Not About the Nail.” It is about a couple, and it begins with a partial shot of the lady’s face. She is describing this pressure in her head and pain in her forehead. Then the camera backs up and you can see there is a nail protruding from her forehead. The man says, “Well, it may be that there is a nail in your forehead.” She heatedly replies, “You are always trying to fix things. Stop trying to fix things.” It is a comedy that we have all experienced when we are trying to give an answer to someone who does not want an answer but only an open ear.
What is your first question when calamity strikes? The question is probably, “Why?” We don’t ask that question if we inherit a million dollars, but if something bad happens, we question why it happened to us. Sometimes we cannot get an answer from earthbound experience. In Job 4 we find that Job’s friends are trying to give an answer as to why calamity had befallen him. Their answers basically came down to their experience, their limited understanding.
In Job 4 a friend named Eliphaz says, “As I have seen…” and he explains what he had seen in life. Verse 16 says, “I heard a voice…” and he explains his own experience. Now, Eliphaz had quite amazing experiences. In verse 15 he says, “Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.” He had these amazing experiences and he wanted to help Job. Well, sometimes we can’t get an answer from earthbound experiences even if they are as dramatic as the experiences that Eliphaz claimed to have had.
Sometimes we want answers to questions that don’t have an answer, and some people don’t want an answer at all; they just want you to hear them. Perhaps that is what Job wanted. When we think about divine revelation, we have much more available to us now than Job’s friends had. It is easy to go after Job’s friends because they sometimes said things that were correct but they said things that were correct to a person to whom they weren’t really appropriate. In Job 42, Job actually has the big picture and it explains to us that they had not spoken right of God to Job. The friends didn’t do bad with what they had. They had nearly nothing. They didn’t have the Scripture we have.
In Job 5:27 one of Job’s friends said, “Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.” They were saying, “Hey, we have experienced it all. We know everything, so there it is. What are you going to do with it?” That is rarely the case. Think about Joseph being thrown into the pit, then into the prison after being lied about by Potiphar’s wife. Think about Esther who seemed to be nothing but a pawn in the Persian kingdom, and then you see Job. We know the big picture of these stories simply because we have read the Bible. God has the big picture. So, the productive question today is not primarily, “Why did this happen?” That question is looking to the past for an explanation. The more productive question may be, “What shall I do now?” That is agency and wisdom for the future.
Consider three elements. First, consider God’s Word. We have more of it than Job or his friends had. The productive question to ask in calamity is “What do I do?” God’s Word has been given to help us answer that question.
Second, consider God’s character. God’s Word comes from God’s character. Sometimes God does things that seem out of character, but that is simply because we don’t have the big picture. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, that was out of character for God. Of course, God never intended that Abraham sacrifice his son. God didn’t want Isaac, He wanted Abraham. A man who will not withhold his son will not withhold anything. So, God’s character is good.
Third, consider your listening. You can listen in sympathy as a friend and in humility if you are the person going through things. So many times, we want to understand when what we need is just to have wisdom. I don’t have to understand everything in order to make the right decision about the future. God understands everything and gives me wisdom as I am humble-hearted and seek to listen.
When I am with a friend and I don’t have all the answers, it may be that I just need to listen to them in sympathy, not giving answers I don’t have. When I am the person in Job’s spot, perhaps I just need to listen in humility to God’s Word and remember God’s character because the productive question is not primarily “Why did this happen?” that looks for understanding, but “What should I do?” which is wisdom and agency for the future.