Not Why, But What and Who

“But I know that my redeemer is alive, and afterward he’ll rise upon the dust … Whom I’ll see myself – my eyes see, and not a stranger’s.” Job 19:25-27 (Common English Bible)

A course I teach every semester at High Point University is entitled “Biblical Themes.” It’s designed to explore the great themes of our Judeo-Christian faith: Law, Grace, Sin, Salvation, the Centrality of Love, the Search for Meaning, Incarnation, Spirit, etc. One of the lectures is always about Theodicy (a theological consideration of the reality of suffering in a world governed by a good God). Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book about that entitled Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (New York: Shocken Books, 1981) It became a bestseller because the book’s title is a question almost everyone asks if they live long enough. 

Our classroom session on theodicy is always based on the Old Testament book of Job, a study in human suffering vis-a-vis the existence of a loving God. Job lost everything a person can imagine losing … except for his belief in God’s presence. He was grief-stricken, angry, confused, unsure why he had done his best in life and seemingly had been repaid with nothing but hurt and heartache. And yet, even when a loved one told him to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9), he did not give up his belief in the Divine. Mind you, he did feel that life was unfair. He did feel Covenant had not been honored, even though he had kept his end of it. He didn’t just glibly say, “It is what it is.” Job kept crying out “Why?” Suffering made no sense to him, as often it makes no sense to us. But amid questions for which he could find no answers, Job never let go of one fundamental belief: “I know that my Redeemer is alive ….” (Job 19:25)

When at last Job got his moment to pose his question to God about why he had suffered so seriously after having done his best, God answered, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?” (Job 38:4) It was not a curt or unkind response. Instead, it was God’s way of replying that even if the reason for suffering were explained to Job, no mere mortal could wrap his mind around it. Furthermore (and even more importantly), getting an answer to “Why?” wouldn’t change a single thing. If you could determine why an illness or accident took the life of a loved one, that knowledge wouldn’t bring the loved one back. It wouldn’t change anything. So, God helped Job understand that the important questions are not “Why?” but instead “What?” and “Who?” What do I do to survive? To move forward? What resources do I have at my disposal? What friends provide shoulders I can lean on? What inner strengths do I need to call to the surface? And, Who is God? Do I make God into the enemy who caused the pain or the ally who will help me survive and overcome it? Knowing why something happens doesn’t undo it. But knowing what steps to take and who is the God that promises to walk with you on the journey help one to survive it.

I remember hearing my friend Peter Rubenstein, a retired rabbi from New York City, say, “All that the Hebrews were called to do when the waters parted was to take the next step. They did so believing that God was walking with them. Sometimes taking the next step is all we can do, and it is enough.” His words were biblical and absolutely true. Just take the next step. You don’t have to heal in a day or a month or by any imposed calendar or guideline. Just take the next step, one step at a time, one day at a time, and trust that even when you don’t understand, still the One who loves you is walking with you – day by day, step by step. “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth … I myself will see him with my own eyes.”

Joy,