Hi friends,
What do we say when life feels unbearably heavy?
When God seems silent?
Job teaches us that sometimes the wisest thing is to say nothing at all.
Why is that? Let’s look at today’s liturgical reading, which includes Job 40:3-5:
Then Job answered the LORD:
I am so insignificant. How can I answer you?
I place my hand over my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not reply;
twice, but now I can add nothing.
One commentator, John Hartley, summarizes the meaning of God’s argument to Job in chapters 38-39, which Job is responding to in this passage. He says that in light of God’s speech to Job, he is “left with a decision either to trust Yahweh, believing that he wisely rules his created world, or to pursue his complaint that exalts himself above Yahweh” (NICOT).
Culturally, Job’s response, as the commentator Robert Alden notes in the New American Commentary, is overlaid with layer upon layer of meaning that communicates a humble, submissive posture before God.
To simplify the point:
Suffering inevitably prompts the questions: Is God good? In charge? Wise?
Most of all: How could God allow this to happen?
God’s engagement with Job emphatically answers these questions: I am good, sovereign, and wise - in ways far beyond your understanding.
Job’s humble response shows an attitude of faith: Before I judge God, I should reconsider my relative insignificance. The wise thing to do is to put my hand over my mouth to prevent myself from speaking out of turn.
Job is speaking with the wisdom of Solomon. We read in Ecclesiastes 5:2, “Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”
It’s the same attitude that the Apostle Paul expressed in Romans 11:33-34,
Oh, the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments
and untraceable his ways!For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
And who has ever given to God,
that he should be repaid?
In 2021, after resigning from RZIM, I grappled with deep disillusionment. Why did God let Ravi get away with harming so many women? Why does he still let RZIM’s board of directors and senior leaders off the hook?
Even now, I can’t fully explain why God permits evil.
But through the breaking and rebuilding, I discovered something: God’s priorities are often far beyond my grasp—and that reshaped how I found a way to trust God again.
God does not necessarily give us a full accounting of his reasons. But he makes it abundantly clear that he is incomprehensibly greater than us, and his wisdom, goodness, and power are displayed through all of Creation.
As we reflect on Job’s response, here are three questions to consider:
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What situations tempt us to judge God’s actions?
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How can we practice humility without suppressing our pain?
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What truths about God can serve as anchors when suffering shakes our faith?