So we come to the end of our study in Job. It’s been like a five act play in some ways. Act 1 is the introduction that sets the scene for the rest of the book. Then there is the rising force that comes with the arrival of the friends, seven days and nights of silence and then their challenges to Job with his defense of his righteousness. Then the climax in chapter 19 when Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives and in the end he will stand upon the earth. In drama language Act 4 is where the counter parties beat upon the soul of the hero and he is almost defeated. There is always a moment of final suspense where we think he is defeated and we see that in chapter 31 where Job sits speechless and his words are finished. But then there is Act 5 which the Greeks called catastrophe where the hero meets his final destruction or what the French called denouement where all the conflicts are resolved and there is a release of tension and anxiety for the audience.

Another model is what some have called a U-shaped plot where the main character begins with a state of happiness and well-being but a series of misfortunes brings the action to an almost fatal low point until there is a twist and an awakening of the main character to their tragic circumstances that results in an upward turn of the plot that sends the the conclusion to a happy ending.  Think about the plot of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Then there is the inverted U-shaped structure where the main character rises to a position of prominence and success. At the top of the inverted U, the character enjoys good fortune and well-being. But a crisis or a turning point occurs, which marks the reversal of their good fortune and begins the descent to disaster. Sometimes a recognition scene occurs where the main character suddenly sees something of great importance that was previously unrecognized but the final state is still disaster and adversity.  There is no return to prosperity in spite of the recognition of the new truth.  It is too late. All is lost.

Here is the complication of Chapter 42. I don’t think it fits any of the normal patterns. Yes, there is conflict. Yes, there is prosperity, suffering, and even a return to prosperity. Yes, there are reversals of fortune. But, in the end, the resolution we would normally expect – either a flash of insight before destruction or a return to total normalcy – are not here.  It is more complicated than that, isn’t it? It ends but it does not leave us with the feeling that we walk away with a clear and easy lesson about life or genuine comfort with God. He is still an enigma and a mystery that will not be limited to either a happy ending or a disaster. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people.

Of course, think about what we were all taught when children about poetic justice and how things should eventually end.  Most of us were influenced by what we call fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea, and The Ugly Duckling. As well, we all read Aesop’s Fables as children. The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Fox and the Grapes. Then there were Grimm’s tales that were a little darker like Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood. What did they teach us? Bad things will eventually happen to bad people and good things will eventually happen to good people.  There is a fairness to life that wins in the end. Conflicts resolve and life makes sense in ways we can understand.  These tales were meant to teach us what the world was like – even when we learned later that it wasn’t. Life is sometimes more about good things happening to bad people and honesty not always being the best policy. There is not always a resolution to conflict so the wolf wins, the hare beats the tortoise and the ugly duckling is never a swan. Life is not as simple as the stories and fables make it out to be.

Perhaps that is why the Book of Job will not likely be on the shelves of the children’s section in bookstores any time soon. It is not for children but maybe it should be. Maybe children should come to realize sooner than they do that suffering is real and God is not easily put into a category. In the end, our relationship with Him cannot be reduced to what we learn about him from stories or logical doctrines. In the end, God is beyond explaining and His ways are actually beyond ours. They are beyond the lessons of fables and fairy tales and even children’s sermons. Sadly, some of us are reluctant to go beyond that ourselves because we don’t have stories that teach us about the parts of life that cannot be explained by simple rules and formulates.  That is why we have the book of Job. It is, you might say, for adults only. It is something we should save for the time of life when we have realized there is. often no poetic justice, the wicked are not punished and the good are not rewarded. Life and our relationship with God can be a mystery that we will never fully understand or explain. Job, like life, does not fit the mold.

Then Job replied to the Lord:

“I know that you can do all things;

    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’

    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,

    things too wonderful for me to know.

“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;

    I will question you,

    and you shall answer me.’

My ears had heard of you

    but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore I despise myself

    and repent in dust and ashes.”

In the end there is no easy explanation. God does not fill Job in on his wager with Satan or give him the backstory. He does not give him a medal for passing the test. But he also does not condemn him. He simply shows himself to him and while Job does not understand what has happened he has a revelation of the incomprehensible wonder of God. He is no longer speechless but it is not asking questions or protesting his innocence. It is simply knowing at a level that is so many levels above what is what we might call “knowing God”. It is not a description of God or of heavenly places. It is simply the opening of the eyes of his heart in a way that only a few have experienced. God revealed part of himself to Moses but warned him that to see him fully would be fatal. God revealed parts of himself to Ezekiel in dreams. God revealed himself on the throne to Isaiah and Isaiah was afraid for his life because he had seen the King. God revealed mysteries to Paul in being taken up into a third heaven and he heard inexpressible things that he was commanded not to talk about.

You can never be the same after this experience when you realize that whatever you have heard about God or been taught about him is nothing compared to what it is to see the living God or to hear him speak.  For each of them it was fearful, wonderful, life changing and unlike any other experience. They don’t talk about it as learning something new about God, do they? They don’t talk about a new insight. They simply say it was beyond the comprehension of the mind – but not beyond the ability to experience through the Spirit. We need doctrine. We need fables, fairy tales and stories that give us a moral framework for how we should live but actually experiencing the presence of God makes all these pale by comparison. I don’t know that we should lightly say, “I desire to see God or I wish that he would reveal himself to me as he did to these.” I don’t know that we are prepared for the results that come with that.  We want a powerful emotional experience or a revelation that resolves all the conflicts that confuse us but we have no idea what we are asking for.  Do you remember Jack Nicholson’s response to Tom Cruise saying in “A Few Good Men”, “I want the truth.”

“You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall — you need me on that wall.

We use words like “honor,” “code,” “loyalty.” We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line.

 I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the post. Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!

In some ways, God gave Job the truth even though he knew he could only respond by falling on his face and repenting in dust and ashes. That would be our response were God to tell us the truth about everything we say we want to understand. We could only fall on our faces and repent in dust and ashes.  We would not walk away from that encounter with new knowledge or insight that inspires us or makes us feel more secure in having a special understanding of the world. We would be overwhelmed with what we heard.

And then the epilogue. You could say that it is a classic ending of a five act play with the protagonist returning to good fortune, a long life, a new family, and the knowledge that he survived the test. Maybe or maybe not.

Epilogue

After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 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 on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

True, Job is justified by God with his friends who are rebuked. It’s not Job’s words throughout the book that are commended but his final words, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”  (By the way, the word despise does not mean what we might think but it means “I retract what I have said before.” Job is not saying he is a worm but only that he realizes his words have made no sense now that he has experienced the presence of God.)

But they have not had Job’s experience so they are still wrong about God even though so much of what they said would have been considered absolutely right about the way God deals with us. They were right in their words and wrong in their spirit. And so God is angry not with their words but their self-righteousness and complete lack of humility.

True, the friends are reconciled both with God and Job by the prescribed sacrifice and the prayer of Job for his friends who misused their understanding of God in unhelpful ways. There is the resolution we had hoped for at the end of the story. All is well between God and men.

And then like the U-shaped story we saw earlier, the main character is returned to prosperity and health. Unlike before, 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, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. He has passed the test and the Lord blessed the latter part of his life more than the first.  Even his wife is reconciled to him apparently.

But with everything added back and even increased I have to think there is a longing for what he had seen in the whirlwind and this life is no longer as satisfying and complete as it might once have been.  It was certainly that way with Paul, wasn’t it? He longed to depart and be with Christ after what he had heard. He stayed out of a sense of responsibility. Something he had seen, along with Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel must have left them with the desire to go back and join the angels calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” What it must be like to have seen that glory that filled the earth and then wait so long to see it again.  I think the story of Job is certainly about suffering and recovery but even more it is about the revelation and sight of the Almighty, the Redeemer, and then returning to a world with all we value but one thing – the full glory of God that somehow fills the world. He saw it once briefly and now he waits another 70 years to see it again.