The Book of Job: God’s Hymn to Nature
--
In Hebrew scriptures, one of the most ancient and unusual books is that of Job. He is not a prophet, per se. He is just a man who has lost his worldly wealth, his family, his health, and even many of his friends. Job holds God accountable. His losses are recounted in Chapters 1 and 2. Since chapter 3, Job has been asking the questions: “Why me? Why this suffering?”
Job’s “friends” provide the sort of answers we are used to: they blame the victim. They tell Job that his own sins have caused his losses, that God is punishing him for his wickedness. In the end, God makes it clear that his friends are wrong — not all who suffer are guilty of the evils which have caused their suffering. Nonetheless, in chapters 3–37, Job demands an answer from God.
In chapters 38–41, God turns the tables and flips the questioning around. “I will question you, and you shall declare to me.” (38:3) God questions Job whether or not he knows the size of the earth, or the number of clouds in the sky, or if he gives the hawk the skills of flight. God turns pointedly to him:
“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (40:2)
Job stammers out his answer:
“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” (40:4–5)
What is it that convinces Job to silence his fundamental questioning and to “lay [his] hand over [his] mouth”, to “proceed no further”? Is it just the idea that God is an all-powerful, bullying super-deity that must be obeyed or He will crush all resistance? Such might be the interpretation drawn by Machiavelli’s Prince, but that is not what God has presented to Job here. Instead of answering Job’s question with a theological treatise, and rather than have Job simply grovel on the basis of God’s power, the Hymn to Nature directs Job to behold the interlocking web of the way the universe is put together. God asks Job to consciously consider The Everything, from the forgetful ostrich to the Night of the Stars.
Job asks, “Why me? Why do I and my family and lands suffer?”
God does not say, “Don’t ask.” Quite the contrary — it is through our asking such questions about evil and suffering that God’s answer emerges. Most of our questions may remain unanswered. God rhetorically asks Job, “Have the Gates of Death been revealed to you?” (38:17). We cannot see beyond those gates, but that does not mean we cannot enquire about the nature of death. Our duty is to seek the Truth, even if that means asking God our darkest questions.
God does not say, “I am all powerful so you must obey me!” God points to the power and marvels He has imbued in Nature, but His power is manifest through Nature, not miraculously above it or separate from it. Behemoth and Leviathan are creations of God — to be feared and beheld. The attention is placed on God’s creation and sustenance. God is viewed through these things, not separately from them.
God does not provide a theodisiacal justification for Job’s grief and suffering, although that is what Job’s “friends” attempt to do. God does not explicate the difference between active and passive causation of evil. God does not posit “free will” as the reason for evil. God does not articulate a theory distinguishing between God-as-Nature (materiality) versus God-as-revealed-in-Nature (spirituality). God also does not blame Satan. God does not sidestep accountability for Job’s suffering and loss. God does not put the onus on “the universe” or “fate”. By showing up before Job in the whirlwind, and by confirming that what Job has said is right, God owns up to His role played in Job’s suffering.
Job asks, “Why me?” God says “Behold!” Is God evading Job’s question?
God’s tone is emphatic: “Behold!”- hinneh — הִנֵּה־ . God directs Job to behold the beauty and terror, wonder and complexity of Nature. This is not a call to pray or meditate upon an abstract deity, but a command to deeply contemplate Nature in its material form and as a system. It’s as if God were a recruiter for the Institutes of Science.
“Behold!” is an oblique answer to Job’s question: “Why?” As traditionally understood, God’s answer is to remind Job that the universe God has ordered into existence is vast and complex and that Job’s question itself is beside the point. By telling Job to “Behold!” creation, God reproaches Job, asserting that Job’s personally inflected question of “Why?” fails to grapple with the enormity of the Everything. It is in this context that Job responds that his puny perspective is but a drop in the ocean of the universe, “Behold!” — hên — ( הֵ֣ן ), says Job, turning the phrase back to God, “I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand on my mouth.” (Job 40:4) God is reminding him that the totality of all existence (which God created) cannot be contained either in Job’s question, nor comprehensibly grasped by Job’s person. Such is the traditional understanding of the reason for God’s response. But the play of a midrash is to explore further possibilities — the spaces between the traditional words…
God’s commands to “Behold!” are not rational answers to Job’s question about suffering. Instead, they are balms for his suffering. “Behold!” is a behavioral answer, a therapeutic answer, not an intellectual or theological one. God is not saying that Job should merely grab a geology or biology textbook and read about creation. No. When Job proclaims his misery and questions God about it, God’s response is: Get up from your ash-pit, head out and “Behold!” Nature in all its amazing variety, terror, and splendor! Don’t force yourself to come up with complicated and false explanations (as Job’s friends do) for the interactions between horrific events and the structure of the Universe, God, and Satan. Instead — get out and “Behold!”- hinneh — הִנֵּה־ It’s not a rational, intellectual defense, it’s a mandated therapy for the sick soul. This is the voice of God speaking to us above the din of tragedy and calamity.
God’s command to Behold is not a call for Job to gawk only at charismatic creatures. Job, in beholding Nature, will see terrors like those he, himself has suffered. God calls him to consider ”the place of darkness” (38:19) and the “storehouses of the hail which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war.” (38:22–23). The state of Nature is not benign. In it, Job will find signs of suffering to which he can relate. God reminds him of “the prey for the lion” (38:39) and, in terms of ravens, at times, the “young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food” (38:41). God reminds Job of the ferocious eagle whose “young ones suck up blood” (39:30). Just as the natural world devours and consumes creatures, so too the Fire of God rains down and kills Job’s sheep and servants. Job’s losses are not unique. They are reflected in the natural world. Of the ostrich, their eggs are vulnerable: “a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them.” (39:15). Job’s children, like those of the ostrich, cannot be guaranteed safety and security. Death can come to them, to any one of us at any moment.
In addition to becoming a witness to darkness and suffering, by following God’s command and Beholding creation, Job will also see the beauty and bounty of the world: the singing of the morning stars (38:7), the conversion of the wasteland into a grassy pasture at the coming of the rain (38:27), the heavenly procession of the constellations (38:31–33), the calving deer (39:1–4), the roaming donkey and wild ox (39:5–12), horses and hawks (39:19–26), and, supreme above them all, Behemoth and Leviathan in their might (chapters 40 and 41).
All of this realm of creation, from the blood-thirsty eagles to the careless ostrich, to the singing stars, and the mighty Leviathan has already been blessed by God in the creation in Genesis. There’s that word from Chapter 1 again: “barak” — בֵּרַ֥ךְ . In Genesis, the verb is not used as a curse, but as a Blessing. (Genesis 1:22, 1:28, and 2:3)
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
(Genesis 1:20–22)
This is the counter against cursing God: beholding Nature. Beholding Nature is not a rational answer to the question of suffering. It is not a cure for grief. It may not even make you feel “better”. Beholding Nature is to help you open your eyes to the Everything. It is an inspiration to act, to engage in the world. Instead of pulling ourselves away into an egotistical downward spiral, the Hymn to Nature calls us to get out and surround ourselves with the Blessed — with the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, with the stars and the seas, with Behemoth and Leviathan. These are the brothers and sisters God has given us, even when our own families have been pulled away from us and veiled by Death.
So ends the Book of Job except for three small but important details, which I shall address in a future post.
