On the trail - Chambers, Oswald

Job 12–14

True religion is betting ones life there is a god. Donald hankey

1. The charge of inveterate intolerance ( job 12:15)

and job answered and said, no doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. But i have understanding as well as you; i am not inferior to you; yea, who knoweth not such things as these. ( job 12:13)

Job is speaking in a mood of annoyance, he rebels against the intolerance of his friends who do not give him credit for having any common-sense. If we talk with a man who is dealing with the fundamentals, he may appear to pay no attention to any common- sense explanation we offer because his deep is beyond our deep, so we instantly credit him with having no common-sense and get back to our own shallows. The friends charge job with a lack of seeing the obvious, and job replies, i am facing things you have not begun to dream about; why dont you either plunge into the deeps with me, or else keep silent, if you cannot tell me what to do? A religious view which causes a man to deal only with the shallow side has the ban of finality about it.

2. Common sense of irrefutable inference ( job 12:625)

who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the l ord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. ( job 12:910)

Job accuses the friends of telling lies for the honour of god. That is the danger of putting theology first; it leads a man to tell a lie in order to be consistent with his point of view. Job is speaking not with the view

Of disproving god, but of proving that the religious conceptions of these men are not right. The things job states are commonsense, obvious things, and they flatly contradict the creed he had believed, and which his friends are pushing down his throat. Are we going to remain true to our religious convictions or to the god who lives behind them? True to our denomi- national view of god or to the god who gave the denomination its initial inspiration? Are we going to be mere sticklers for the theological statement? In the ecclesiastical history of Scotland many a man has gone to martyrdom rather than let his theology go. The organised church is up against these things to-day.

Theology is tested by history and logic; religion must be tested by experience.

Jobs creed has crumbled into ruins, therefore, he says, i leave my creed, but i deny that i have left god. In a theological dispute the theologian is apt to put his point of view in the place of god. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, says st. Paul. Only one man in a thousand can maintain his spiritual life and controvert; he may increase his intellectual vim, but he does not increase his spiritual grasp of things. Dr. Alexander why te 16 put this better than any other when he said: oh, the unmitigated curse of controversy! Oh, the detestable passions that corrections and contradictions kindle up to fury in the proud heart of man! Eschew controversy, my brethren, as you would eschew the entrance to hell itself. Let them have it their way; let them talk; let them write; let them correct you; let them traduce you; let them judge and condemn you; let them slay you. Rather let the truth of god suffer itself, than that love suffer. You have not enough of the divine nature in you to be a controversialist. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, he threatened not; . . . By whose stripes ye were healed. Heal me, prays augus- tine, again and again, of this lust of mine of always vindicating myself. We start out with the notion that god is an almighty piece of ourselves, but god can never be on the side of any individual; the question to ask isam i on gods side? In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul talks about the invincible ignorance of fanaticism and he says that

If a man is deluded, he is to blame. On the other hand job says, i am not going to say that my former definition of god is true; god must be true. But i find that the way i have expounded him is not true. This put job on the right track to find god. Are we on the trail of god, or on the obstinate, intolerant line, where we argue for our statements instead of for the truth? Does our religion put us on the line of understanding the rev- elation of god, or is it merely a blind authority? It is a good thing to take stock of the things which common- sense inferences and religion cannot explain.

3. The conception of invincible ignorance ( job 13:112)

what ye know, the same do i know also. ( job 13:2)

This verse is a description of the fanaticism which builds on one point of view only and is determinedly ignorant of everything else. This is the thing job rages against all the time god must be other than you have stated because of what i have experienced, and job is right. It is possible to build logical edifices on a theological position and at the same time to prove in practical life that the position is wrong. For example, on the metaphysical line the predestinations of god seem clear, but our conception of those predestinations may prove dangerously false when we come to the actual facts of life. The theological view ought to be constantly examined; if we put it in the place of god we become invincibly ignorant, that is, we wont accept any other point of view, and the invincible ignorance of fanaticism leads to delusions for which we alone are to blame. The fundamental things are not the things which can be proved logically in practical life. Watch where you are inclined to be invinci- bly ignorant, and you will find your point of view causes you to break down in the most vital thing. An accepted view of god has caused many a man to fail at the critical moment, it has kept him from being the kind of man he ought to be, and only when he abandons his view of god for god himself, does he become the right kind of man.

4. The consecration of instinctive integrity ( job 13:1328)

hold your peace, let me alone, that i may speak, and let come on me what will. Wherefore do i take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand! Though he slay me, yet will i trust in him. ( job 13:1315)

Job feels that in spite of all that is happening, gods integrity remains, and his own integrity. He cannot

Explain his sufferings by saying, i am being punished because i have done wrong, or, i am suffering because i needed to be perfected. The friends have accused job of being a hypocrite and imply that he is also an atheist, but just at this very time job gives expression to the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the old testament though he slay me, yet will i trust in him. Though he, whom you are misrepresenting, and whom i cannot state in words though he slay me, i will trust in the fact that he is full of the integrity i believe him to be, and i will wait for him. I will face my own common- sense integrity, and dedicate my instinctive sense of gods integrity, and in the end i know that both will work out into one. Always remain true to facts and to the intuitive certainty that god must be just, and do not try to justify him too quickly. The juggling trick tries to justify god for allowing sin and war. Sin and war are absolutely unjustifiable, and yet the instinct of every christian is know that in the end god will justify himself. Meantime you can only justify him by a venture of faith which cannot be logically demonstrated.

5. The consciousness of implicit infirmity ( job 14)

O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will i wait, till my change come. ( job 14:1314)

Job has discovered that the basis of things is tragic, not logical. I know i am weak and there are facts in my life and in human history which i cannot explain, but because of my conscious infirmity i know that god will see me through it all and out the other side; meanwhile i refuse to accept a creed which misrepresents god, and also misrepresents me. To get there means a man is on the right trail.

Jobs integrity remains as well as his conscious infirmity, and also the sense that he is not entirely to blame for his sinfulness. No man is held responsible by god for having an heredity of sin: what god holds a man responsible for is refusing to let Jesus Christ deliver him from it when he sees that that is what he came to do (see john 3:19).

Judged by average theology, many of jobs utterances sound far from right, yet in reality they are full of reverence. He is saying that in any statement about god there must be some indication that will justify him in allowing human beings to be infirm your statement of god is not only untrue to man, but blasphemously untrue to god. Job states the facts of human experience, and that there seems to be an unsatisfactory end to lifejust when i was going to grasp the thing and find the fulfilment of all my desires, i am cut off. There are countless men like that to-day; just when life was at its best and highest, suddenly they are swept clean off.

We get an expression of jobs meaning in verses 1322 when we say of a man well, he is dead now, and although he did not come up to the standard of our orthodox religion. We will leave him in the hands of a merciful god! That is a subterfuge. Job states the facts and he is strong on the point that he will get to the place where he will see god justified in what he has allowed to happen. Never take a suspended judgement as final, but watch for the chance of get- ting fresh light on the matter. It is never sufficient to take a mental safety valve as the end of the matter. Many problems which arise from a mans instinctive integrity have not been answered; no theological statement can make answer to them, and we have to watch that we do not accept any statement which our instinctive nature tells us is a lie. We have our guide in Jesus Christ; we must never accept a view of god which contradicts what he manifested i am the way, the truth and the life. The vital thing is to get on the trail of a personal relationship to god, and then use the facts of experience and of revelation to bring us to a consideration of things which satisfies our nature, and until it is satisfied, dont say it is. I will stick to it that god is a god of love and justice, and i look forward to the time when i shall see it manifestly. We have no business to say piously, oh, i leave it with god. God will have us discern what he is doing, but it takes time because we are so slow to obey, and only as we obey do we perceive morally and spiritually.