Emmanuel Day 11
Emmanuel, God with the suffering
“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said…”
Job 38:1
I was driving through Maine with my husband one fall day, in awe of all of the autumn color when suddenly I started to wonder, if leaves could talk, would they let us know that they are appalled by all the people who gather around every year to watch their death? Ultimately, it’s the death of a leaf that makes fall so beautiful right? It made me wonder that day, could our death be beautiful to the heavenly host? And I don’t just mean physical death, but the death of our flesh that happens any time we choose to bow in surrender to the ways of God, rather than looking out for ourselves and our own earthly desires. I wonder if at any moment of death to our often-frantic pursuit of our own comfort, if there could be even just a tiny bit of gorgeous color that lights up from our lives?
Depending on where you live, you might describe Job’s situation as a whirlwind, tornado, snow-flurry, or dust storm. However you want to look at it, Job’s life looked to be spinning out of control. We talk about spinning plates in life, and I don’t know about you, but my plates seem to spin a bit faster around Christmas. To “be still and know that I’m God” is a fought-for concept in this season, and maybe for you this year, it isn’t just because of a Christmas-overload of fun.
The story of Job is one that can strike slight terror within our hearts, isn’t it? Most Biblical stories seem to make logical sense to us as we read them. Some fell into moments of sin and had to walk out the consequences. Others had a small difficult season before Emmanuel, God with us, showed up and made it all better. Even stories of hard times like David’s or Joseph’s take longer than we would like to personally live through, but in the end, we see that their trials served an understandable purpose. But the story of Job just sits a bit different, doesn’t it? It can feel somewhat startling to read of Satan walking the halls of heaven and of a godly man being handed over to the enemy in order to have his uprightness tested and proven by the loss of almost everything. A bit later the physical pain sets in and we find him in an ash heap scraping his rotting, worm-filled body with broken pieces of pottery. We read in Job 3:25 that everything he had dreaded and feared had come upon him. As if all that we’ve already read isn’t enough, Job’s “friends” show up and if you know this story, then you also know we should say the word friend very loosely. Their words can be shocking to read, full of opinions that are of no help to the hurting, and more than that, some of their words are just downright mean. For Job it was a season of where every bit of understanding he thought he had of godly living and the goodness of God was called into question and seemed to fall crashing down before him. Imagine the shame of trying to prove that you’re not harboring any secret sin, when every area of your life looks like an imagined punishment from God. Even with our insight of reading Job chapter one and knowing the “why” behind his story, aren’t there still elements of it that tend to make our hearts tremble a bit?
Job brings up question after question, but still only silence emanates from heaven, reinforcing his feelings of being alone, forgotten, abandoned, forsaken.
Where is Emmanuel, God with us, when no one seems to be there?
We know God promises to work all things together for good, and to never leave us nor forsake us. But when we seem to be alone, forsaken, and left with everything crumbling around us, how can we reconcile what we feel to be the truth with what we know to be the truth? It’s in those times that we are able to cling to Job’s story as an anchor of hope.
Job was left with silence from God for a while, but not forever. Faithful as always, Emmanuel, God with us speaks out from the whirlwind to reveal Himself to Job, right the wrongs, and to set him on his feet once more. Whirlwind seasons of life will always end with a greater revelation and a deeper understanding of how Emmanuel truly is God with us.
God’s response to Job is a little different than you might expect it to be, isn’t it? I would think He’d say something like, “Listen Job, here’s how it all went down. Satan was attacking you. I was defending you. I knew you would come forth as gold, so I let him…” But our God doesn’t show up with a “because.” Instead, Emmanuel, God with us, shows up with greater revelation of who He is by asking Job seventy-seven questions that could only be answered by God’s wisdom and sovereignty. The presence of God is the answer to every question of life we could ever ask. “Do you know where the ostrich lays her eggs? Have you seen the store house of snow? Can you tame behemoth or play with leviathan? Can you say to the sea stop here and have it obey?” Without the book of Job we wouldn’t have discovered much of what we know to be true about the earth. Because of this time in Job’s life, we know that the world is suspended on nothing, and that there is a water cycle where the clouds are wrapped up with water yet don’t burst until they’re ready to pour down their moisture. We could go on and on with the revelation we have of God and His world thanks to Job’s suffering and the revelation of God to his hurting heart. Emmanuel, God with Job, gave him all he needed to gain back the clarity and perspective once more of who God was, and who he was to God.
“Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained. You said to me, Who is this that darkens and obscures counsel by words without knowledge. Therefore I now see I have rashly uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, please and I will speak; I will ask You and You instruct and answer me. I had heard of You only by the hearing of the ear, but now my spiritual eye sees You. Therefore I retract my words and hate myself and I repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:1-6
In the whirlwind times of life sometimes we seem to be spinning alone. It can feel as though we have lost everything, including our reputations of how other believers view us. But when God shows up in the whirlwind to speak out truth and clarity, everything changes. We realize how little we truly knew and understood, and our eyesight gets fixed on God in an even greater way. Precious friend, regardless of what life seems to look like, or what the enemy is whispering into our ears, we are never left alone for even a moment. Even if we appear to be losing everything, and we’re convinced that nothing will ever feel blessed or full again, we are still in the loving hands of God. Emmanuel, God with us will show up and speak out in an even greater revelation of His glory, wisdom, and sovereign care.
Most likely as you read this, autumn is getting ready to pass and winter is about to begin. Every autumn we have confidence in the process of the wind, knowing that the death of the leaves isn’t for the purpose of the tree’s destruction. Without the wind blowing away the old, there would never be room for new growth and new fruit. In much the same way, Emmanuel, God with us, measures perfectly what will be lost in the whirlwind of our lives and has seasons of much greater fruitfulness in store for us. Windy winters will end with us having an even greater knowledge and understanding of God, and an even deeper revelation of who He is and how He works. As Christmas brings a chill to much of the world, we can be reminded today that our windy winters will someday be over. God will be spring around once more, and we’ll soon find ourselves blessed in the fragrance of His fruitful abundance once again.
Emmanuel; with us IS GOD