AN UNFAIR ARGUMENT WITH GOD

Like others in the Bible story, Job wanted to argue with God.

He was confident that God would have a case to answer if they could somehow turn up in a courtroom and if he could get a fair hearing.

But even if God would give him a hearing, Job also seemed well aware of the unequal nature of any such argument. He recognized that any appearance of God would be simply overwhelming, that in his own strength, he could not stand up to God in any meaningful way. This was the same fear that sent Adam and Eve to hide among the trees at the sound of God approaching (see Genesis 3:8), the same fear that hinders our deeper engagement with and understanding of God. Job’s solution was a mediator. “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, . . . so that his terror would frighten me no more” (Job 9:33, 34). This is a remarkable theological insight into what is traditionally believed to be one of the Bible’s oldest stories. While the stories of the patriarchs include experiences of direct encounters with God, and conversations and arguments with Him, much of Job’s reflection is about God’s seeming silence and unapproachability. As such, his argument is for those of us and those times in our lives when we feel the absence of God while at the same time recognizing that His potential appearance is also a cause for fear and suspicion that it might also be a way for God to sidestep our questions. But Job’s request for a mediator also points us to another part of our story of God. The Bible insists that God has provided a mediator—Jesus, who is the “one mediator between God and mankind” (1 Timothy 2:5). As Job suggested, our questions, doubts, and fears find their first answer in Jesus.