The primal clash - Chambers, Oswald
Job 21–25
If we are going to understand the ordinary run of human life we must take into account the extraordinary experiences and tragedies. One reason for the futility of pseudo-evangelism is that we have taken the mediocre man, the average man, as the one best able to expound christian experience. Christianity does embrace the weakest and the feeblest, but it is the men of exceptional experiences, such as job or the apostle Paul, who make clear the basis of things. The primal clash means that we are down to the foundation of things.
1. The realising sense of perverseness ( job 21)
What is the almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? . . . God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it. . . . Behold, i know your thoughts and the devices which ye wrong- fully imagine against me. . . . How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood? ( job 21:15, 19, 27, 34)
It is soul certainty that the world needs, even more than sound principles not soul facility, but soul certainty, not ready religion, but sure. Dr. Forsyth 20 job persists in stating that the basis of things is not clear or easy to understand. It is absurd to say, as you are doing, he says, that god punishes the evil man and looks after the good, there is so much per- versity at the basis of things that that explanation wont do. The friends give this explanation because they are true to their creed, and job says, i held the same creed as you do until i came to my great trouble. Their creed was based on sound principles, but what is needed is a sound relationship at the basis of things. When things are suddenly altered by bereavement or by some tension in personal experience, we find ourselves wonderfully at home with what job says. There is a wildness about things, and we revolt against the people who explain everything on the basis of sound principles. They have everything ready to hand, and can tell you just where everyone goes wrong; but jobs contention is that when a man is face to face with things as they are, easy explanations wont do, for things are not easy; there is a perverseness all through. If job is not right in his contention, then the redemption is much ado about nothing.
2. The reasoning severity of pharisaism ( job 22)
Then eliphaz the temanite answered and said, can a man be profitable unto god, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself ? . . . Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. ( job 22:12, 21)
Many a gross pharisee is a mighty moralist and he believes himself sincere with it. The deadliest pharisa- ism is not hypocrisy, it is the unconscious pharisaism of unreality.
Dr. Forsyth
The nature of pharisaism is that it must stand on tip- toe and be superior. The man who does not want to face the foundation of things becomes tremendously stern and keen on principles and on moral reforms. A man who is hyperconscientious is nearly always one who has done something irregular or who is morbid; either he is close on the verge of lunacy, or he is covering up something wrong by tremendous moral earnestness along certain lines of reform. A pharisee shuts you up, not by loud shouting, but by the unanswerable logic he presents; he is bound to principles, not to a relationship. There is a great amount of pharisaism abroad to-day, and it is based on devoteeness to principles. Devotion to a cause is the great mark of our day, and in religion it means being devoted to the application of religious principles. A disciple of Jesus Christ is devoted to a person, not to principles.
Jobs experience flatly contradicts the creed of this particular pharisee, eliphaz, so he jumps on job. His words are eloquent and his charges terrific; he sums up all the facts and informs job that he has maltreated the innocent, wronged the widow, and starved the orphan
Is not thy wickedness great? And thine iniquities infinite? For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. ( job 22:57)
This is always the dodge of a pharisee, whether he is a demagogue or a religious man, he must make a moral issue somewhere. If he can rouse up a passion for a neglected principle, it is exactly what he wants, but there is no reality in it. The pharisaism of our lords day was based on the principles of judaism, and when Jesus Christ came the pharisees did not recognise him but said, you are a hypocrite, we can prove it. Many of the religious phases of to-day do not touch reality, but only the pharisaic insistence on a certain form of sound doctrine, and the man who is up against things finds nothing but chaff. Every denominationalist is certain that the crowd who does not agree with what we call our sound principles must be wrong; he never imagines that the job type of man can be right with god. When god spoke to eliphaz, as he did at the close, it would be the last humiliation for eliphaz to find that after all from gods standpoint job was the only one among them who was right. In the meantime it is far easier to stand by the utterances of eliphaz than by the utter- ances of job.
The pharisee is an intense moralist (see john 16:2; Hebrews 13:13). When jesus christ came he was found to be unresolvable by every set of religious principles, that was his reproach. To go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, does not mean going outside the worldly crowd; it means being put outside the religious crowd you belong to. One of the most poignant bits of suffering for a disciple comes along that line. If you remain true to Jesus Christ there are times when you will have to go through your convictions and out the other side, and most of us shrink from such a step
Because it means going alone. The camp means the religious set you belong to; the set you do not belong to does not matter to you. Eliphaz is certain that job is so bad that he won- ders at the patience of god with him. If eliphaz had been in the position of god, he would have excom- municated job right away; and yet job is the one who is face to face with reality. To-day men are not ask- ing, is the thing true? But is it real? It is a matter of indifference whether a thing is true; any number of things can be demonstrated to be true which do not matter to us. Have i a real god, or am i trying to produce a pharisaic cloak for myself ? Job would not accept a pharisaic cloak; he would not grant that he was wrong, neither would he say that the friends creed was right. He was in a quandary, but he knew that god was real, and therefore he would wait until he appeared.
3. The revolutionary struggle of prayer ( job 2324)
Oh that i knew where i might find him! That i might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. (job 23:34)
There is no reality without struggling. If you are not called to wrestle, it is only because the wrestling is being done for you.
Dr. Forsyth
The reason the experience of redemption is so easy is because it cost god so much. If my religion slips easily into my life it is because someone else has paid the price for it. If, however, the simple experience is taken as true to the whole of life, we will be mis- led; only if we take the experience of those who have paid the price for us, do we get to reality. It is men like job and the apostle paul who bring us to the basis of things, not the average christian among us, who knows no more why the basis of his salvation is redemption than the average common-sense man knows the basis of ordinary human life. We must get hold of the great souls, the men who have been hard hit and have gone to the basis of things, and whose experiences have been preserved for us by god, that we may know where we stand. One of the reasons for the futility of pseudo-evangelism is that it bases its doctrine on the shallow weak things it has saved. Thank god, christianity does save the shallow weak things, but they are not the ones to diagnose chris- tianity, they are the expression of the last reach of christianity. Paul said. . . Not many mighty, not many noble, are calledhe did not say not any mighty, not any noble. It is our lord himself, and men like job in the old testament and paul in the new who give us the indication of where we are to.
There is no sting in them, no tremendous grip of a man face to face with things. There is no way out by rites or by religious beliefs, but only, as jesus christ indicates, by prayer. It takes a tremendous amount of reiteration on gods part before we understand what prayer is. We do not pray at all until we are at our wits end. . . . Their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the lord in their trouble (psalm 107:56). During this war many a man has prayed for the first time in his life. When a man is at his wits end it is not a cow- ardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with reality. Oh that i knew where i could get into touch with the reality that explains things! There is only one way, and that is the way of prayer (see 1 john 5:1415).
There are undoubtedly things which present a puzzle, e. G. , the presentation of the basis of redemp- tion; how am i going to understand whether the redemption covers everything, or only partially cov- ers? Never by reasoning, only by prayer; and as sure as god is god you will get the answer and know of a certainty. If we take the line of disputing and spitting fire like eliphaz did, we will get at nothing. We do not get insight by struggling, but by going to god in prayer. Most of us are wise in our own conceits, we have notions of our own which we want to see through. There is nothing to be valued more highly than to have people praying for us; god links up his power in answer to their prayers.
Redemption is easy to experience because it cost god everything, and if i am going to be regenerated it is going to cost me something. I have to give up my right to myself. I have deliberately to accept into myself something that will fight for all it is worth, something that will war against the desires of the flesh, and that will ask me to go into identification with the death of jesus christ, and these things pro- duce a struggle in me. The majority of us prefer to get up and ride rather than to get out and shove. It is Only the people who get out and shove who really make things go. The men who are up against things just now and who are determined to get at reality at all costs, and will not accept a thing on the religious line unless that line states realitythese are the men who are paying the price for the next generation. The reason we are here in the natural world is because our mothers struggled for our existence, and the more unhindered the birth pangs the stronger and health- ier the child. A thing is worth just what it costs.
4. The redundant sonorousness of position ( job 25)
Then answered bildad the shuhite, and said, domin- ion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom doth not his light arise? ( job 25:13).
We have the modern and insidious type of pharisaism, the unconscious hypocrite, the man or woman not of fraud, but of pose, not of deep and dark design, but of subtle egotism, prompt certainty and facile religiosity.
Dr. Forsyth
Bildads utterances here are inadvertent and wildly away from the theme. The modern pharisee of the bildad type is the man who has a pose to keep up; he is not touched by any problem himself, and when there is trouble on he comes out with these redundant phrases.
Job does not get annoyed with bildad, he is full rather of pity for him. Eliphaz stings job because he takes up a superior position; he knows why job suffers; he stands strong for his set of principles, but he is not in touch with reality.
Bildad is in touch with nothing, he is courageously heartless; he never thinks when he talks, but simply pours it out. The bildad type is often met with in the pulpit; men roll out phrases and talk the most ponderous stuff with nothing in it. It is like a roll of thunder over your head when what you want is real nourishment.
These men continually brought things to the surface and said to job, this is what you want. What a man wants is somewhere to rest his mind and heart, and the only place to rest in is god, and the only way to come to god is by prayer. Much of our praying has nothing in it; it is not the talk of a child to his father when he has come up against things or is hurt. Ask, and it shall be given you, jesus says.
We do not ask, we worry, whereas one minute in prayer will put gods decree at work, viz. , that he answers prayer on the ground of redemption. Jesus christ did not say, ask what you like, and it shall be done unto you, but ask what you will, ask when your will is in the thing that is a real problem to you, and god has pledged his honour that you will get the answer every time.