When God is Silent

Based on Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Do you all remember the repeated scenario in Peanuts where Charlie Brown and Lucy are outside with a football? Lucy always promises Charlie Brown, “I won’t pull the ball away.” And Charlie Brown trusts her. He runs up to kick the ball and, at the last second, Lucy pulls the ball away anyhow, and Charlie Brown spins through the air and lands on his back side. Every time. And we all know what will happen. We almost want to yell at the newspaper or the TV screen for Lucy to cut it out. Don’t you wish that just once someone would see what was going on and tell Lucy to stop doing that? But there’s never anyone else around. It’s just Charlie Brown and Lucy. There is no one to intervene. Lucy goes off laughing and Charlie Brown says, “Rats!” Poor Charlie Brown is alone in his experience of injustice. It’s not fair, what Lucy does to Charlie Brown. And there’s no one around to make sure that Charlie Brown gets his fair shot at kicking that ball. Charlie Brown is alone.

Those who suffer with intimate partner violence often feel alone. How many people suffer in an abusive relationship and are afraid to speak out or do not who to reach out to? They are afraid to speak out because of what their abusive partner might do to them. Or there is fear about what others might think. The one being abused may not know who to talk to. If they tell someone who knows them, what if it gets back to their partner? The thought of airing one’s personal life to a stranger also doesn’t feel right. There is fear about living on one’s own. Where will they go? What about their kids? The manipulation that abusers can use to keep their partner in the relationship can be strong. The abused feel trapped and alone. They don’t know who to tell or what to do.

By the way, there is help. If you are experiencing intimate partner abuse or suspect that someone may be, I encourage you to visit www.familysafetyandhealing.org if you can access a computer that your abuser cannot get to. Or call 614-224-4663. No one who is abused has to suffer alone.

But many do anyway. They feel trapped and don’t know where to turn. They may even cry out to God for help. They may cry out for justice, or deliverance. But the cries go unheard. There is no discernable response from God. The abuse continues. To be alone in your suffering and not able to turn to anyone who can make things right, or not knowing who you can turn to, that’s a recipe for despair. For too many people in our community, this is their reality.

Job was alone in his suffering. At least, that’s how he perceived it. Sure, he had his three friends. But they were no consolation. They kept arguing with him that he must have done something very sinful to get the suffering he has. They question Job’s honesty. They are not supportive and understanding. But God is with Job. God is everywhere, right? But if God was there, there didn’t seem to be any evidence. Job says he looks in every direction but can’t find God. He can’t sense God’s presence. His friends are no support. God is silent and appears to be absent. Job feels alone.

There’s no doubt that Job believes in God. Job was incredibly righteous and pious. He knew that God was a just judge. He made every effort to assure that neither he nor anyone in his family would receive God’s wrath. If we go back and look at the beginning of Job’s story, we read of how when Job’s kids had their drinking parties, Job would offer burnt offerings for each of his kids the day after on the oft chance that in their partying they many have done something that would have prompted God to punish them. Because God punishes the wicked. This is central to Job’s belief about God, that God is a righteous judge who punishes the unrighteous. God is just. God punishes those who sin. Job is convinced that if he could just state his case before God that God would immediately acquit him from whatever was causing his great suffering. This has to be a big mistake. Job just wants his day in court. But he can’t have his day in court because the judge is absent. The One who can easily fix this situation, clear up the misunderstanding, make things right, give Job justice, is missing, hiding, unreachable. And there is nothing Job can do about it. The One who can give him justice is nowhere to be seen. There is no one that Job can turn to.

What do you do when you experience injustice but the one who can give you justice is absent? Such a tough position to be in. You just feel impotent. It hurts. You want to cry out, “It’s not fair!” Whether on the school playground, in a street protest, or an argument between a parent and child, we hear the cry, “That ain’t right! It’s not fair! No justice, no peace!” How many of have told a child who said, “It’s not fair,” and you said back, “Life’s not fair.” That’s a true statement. Life isn’t always fair. Justice is not always served. We have a justice system that strives to be impartial and fair. But the system is made up of people. And we all have blind spots, unperceived prejudices, that skew judgment. All the necessary information to make the right judgment is not always received. It is a tough situation to try to make a right judgment when not all the facts are known or can be known. When there is no corroborating evidence, if it is a “he said, she said” situation, judgments have to be made and they may not always be the right or just decision. Sometimes our justice system produces a miscarriage of justice. What do you do when the justice system has failed you? Where do you turn?

You can say to yourself that God knows what happened and someday you will get your justice. You can have faith that God will make things right. But when will God make things right? Will it be in this life? Or will you have to wait until Judgement Day? Nobody knows. You can become bitter when you don’t get justice. You can despair about ever getting justice. You may wish to tear the justice system down. You may lose your faith in God. Or you can choose to remain hopeful. You can choose to be resilient, to say to yourself that yes, you have suffered an injustice, and it hurts. But your value is so much greater than any injustice or indignity you must endure. You are still a beloved child of God, no matter what. No one can take that away from you. You are loved. You are worthy of life. By God’s grace you can endure even if you suffer a great injustice, and the justice system fails you.

As for Job, all he wants to do is disappear into the darkness. He just wants to fade away. At one point in his back and forth with his friends, he says he wished he had never been born. But, since he isn’t fading away, he chooses to keep arguing. He argues with his friends, and he argues with God. He is not going to just accept it. He will not let God off the hook. Job is convinced that he is innocent. He knows there is no way he deserves this amount of suffering. He believes that God is just. There has to be some big mistake. He will not allow God to just blow him off. Job will persist, demand, that God give him a hearing. Job even determines to put God on trial for what he sees as a travesty of justice.

Do you remember the story that Jesus told of the persistent widow? Jesus tells the story of an old woman who demanded justice from the judge. But he would not listen to her plea. He didn’t want to be bothered with her. But she didn’t give up. She kept coming to the judge again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until the judge says to himself, “I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to give this widow justice before she wears me out with her constantly coming to me.” It took a lot of persistence for her to receive her justice. Sometimes persistence is necessary to get justice. Job has the same mindset. He will persist, demanding justice from God, even if it seemed like he was shouting into the wind. Job refused to give up on God, even though God seemed absent, missing, perhaps even hiding. Job may feel alone, but he was not going to give up proclaiming his innocence, even if no one was listening, not even God.

How little Job knew that it was God who allowed this suffering to happen to Job. Job wasn’t suffering because he had sinned. He was suffering because God wanted to prove Satan wrong. Again, I mentioned this last week. God said the suffering inflicted on Job was without reason. It was unnecessary. God said so. And yet, God gave permission for Satan to inflict Job with that unnecessary suffering. God, the righteous and just God, is complicit in Job’s unjust and unnecessary suffering. Job did nothing to deserve this suffering. In fact, it was Job’s piety that got God bragging about him to Satan that started the argument. God could have handled Satan’s accusations about Job’s faith without allowing Job to suffer like he did.

What are we to do with this? Does it not seem that God is complicit in Job’s unjust suffering? That is a hard and unsettling question. It is a question that I don’t want to think about. I don’t know about you, but it is hard for me to contemplate the possibility that God would be complicit in unjust suffering as God appears to be in Job’s situation, just to prove Satan wrong.

What kind of god is this? How can a righteous god who is just be complicit in unjust suffering? Job may be trying to put God on trial and isn’t getting a hearing. But those of us who are reading and reflecting on what is happening to Job, what has been inflicted on Job, puts us in that position where we may want to put God on trial as well. I wonder what Job would have done if he ever found out that his suffering was inflicted on him just so God could win an argument with Satan. From what we know of Job, I doubt if he would have just shrugged his shoulders. He would have been demanding an answer. He would have been calling on God to defend himself. He would want to know why God thought that it was ok to take away all his wealth, kill his servants, and all his children, and then inflict him with a painful skin disease, just to prove a point. Job would ask, “Is that fair?” But the One who Job wants to pose that question…is silent.