Job 40-41: Conversations
Sunday, August 17, 2025
This is the portion of the Book of Job where God finally speaks from out of the maelstrom. Job thirsts for the answers to his poignant questions about his pain. He asks the question we all ask: Why do the innocent so often suffer? God’s answer is mysterious. God enumerates the number of ways that we cannot possibly understand the plan, even if God were to communicate the divine economy to us. This is why it is important to have constant conversations with God. We need directions for every step of the road.
What I like most about chapter 40 is that God appears to have a sense of humor. This makes me smile because I hope that in an eternal life there is much laughter. It also reminds us that while we cannot discount or diminish suffering, we may want to try to smile throughout our passage as much as possible.
When we think about the size of behemoths, the strength of oxen, and the protection of a double corset, we realize that God deals in the maximum. The thought that follows for me is this: If God can create and handle all of these enormities, God can certainly handle with ease the problems I lay at God’s feet each day.
We know that Job is restored in all that he was, and all that he had; he receives the reward of the faithful.
Paul asks the rhetorical question in Romans 11:34: Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been its counselor? He reminds us in 1 Corinthians 1:10 that through Christ we might become perfectly united thought and mind. In the second chapter, verses 9-16, he reminds us that Eye has not seen and ear has not heard the goodness God has prepared for those who love him, and that we are to join one another so that we might have the mind of Christ.
When we love someone, we come together. We communicate with those we care about; we invest time in understanding them and in listening to them. This is what God seeks in relationship with us. It is what we seek in relationship with God.
We have said this frequently in our Noontime reflections: Let us find time several times a day to put all else aside – even if for only five minutes – to reserve time for just God. We send him our petitions constantly and we ask for answers. Perhaps he is speaking but we cannot hear. If we shut out the world to listen with our heart and mind and soul, we may be happily surprised to hear that our deepest questions have complex answers that God provides to us a bit at a time. Let us make time just for God.
A Favorite from May 4, 2009.
Image from: http://rickconlow.com/communicate-difficult-conversations/
The Noontimes 