Difficult Questions

Job 42:5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

Questions are one of the remarkable tools of language. They solicit the person on the other side of the conversation to enter into our world and for us to enter into their world. Questions can be an invitation to intimacy.

But questions can also be accusatory. They can have a bite that pierces the soul and conscience. They can put the other person on the defensive, feeling attacked by the words we have spoken.

Honest questions can be asked with freedom. Questions have motives, both positive and negative. The same question can be asked with different voice tone, facial expression and context and have very different meanings.

Job has finally gotten the opportunity to be face to face with the LORD and ask his questions. But when that moment happens, all his questions seem to fall by the wayside. They slip from his mind and end up scattered on the floor, no longer relevant.

Job is still in his horrible circumstances, having lost everything, family, livelihood, assets, possibility of a future. They have all been taken. His questions have piled up around him in the intervening days and weeks. His friends have only pointed out his deep need for connection which has eluded him.

So the LORD begins to speak to Job, and by extension to his friends and to us. His message to them is simple: I am God, you are not!

Any question can be asked of the LORD if you are willing to “be a man” and take the answer. Sometimes we want to ask the question, but all too often we are not willing to hear His answer. We want our answer inserted into His mouth.

But Job hears the LORD’s answer and yields to His. The questions and ponderings drop. When Job hears the questions coming back his direction, all he can do is yield.

He has heard of the LORD, but now He becomes personal! He believed the LORD had intervened in the past, now He sees the LORD intervening in the present moment. And that changes everything.

When we pray do we expect the LORD to answer? Or are we just doing what we are supposed to do in times of struggle? Do we really want His answer? Will we be obedient when He does answer?