by Chris Alexion, Copyright August 05, 2006, all rights reserved. 306 views
From my Literary Roots of Western Culture class.
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The Old Testament books Genesis and Job present one concept of God from the unique angles of creation and suffering. The central aspect of God's nature that unites both books is His sovereignty. The Old Testament views God as an almighty and independent actor who causes all things and needs no cause outside Himself.
Genesis gives us this conception of God from the first verse: "In the beginning God…." No attempt is made to provide empirical evidence for God's existence; there is no reference to Platonic Forms higher than the Creator. The text simply and authoritatively states what God did. The first two chapters depict God as moving, breathing, creating, and finally pronouncing His creation good (Genesis 1:31).
Job also relates God's sovereignty. When God appears in chapter 38 of the story, He begins by turning Job's questions around. He does this not to rebuke or beat down Job–who is acknowledged as a "righteous man"–but to help Job see his circumstances in light of divine control. The Lord says, "Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! … Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:3-7) God is here, as it were, telling Job and his friends that He will ask the questions.
The theme of God's power also surfaces clearly in both accounts. Genesis describes the Creator bringing forth the universe from his own mind, without any previously-existing material. At His command stars spring into fiery existence and waters clothe the newborn earth. Job's story also looks at this attribute of God. "Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, or a path for the thunderbolt, to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one … and cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass?" (Job 38:25-27) "Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you 'Here we are!'? Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?" (38:35-36) When Job speaks toward the end of the book, he acknowledges, "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You" (42:2).
But these books also present God as good and wise. The biblical conception of God differs strongly here from that of the Greeks. The gods of Olympus are finite, fallible, and sometimes petty (thus prompting Socrates' clever ethical dilemma in Euthyphro). The Old Testament presents a God who is always good because He is the standard of good. God asks the onlookers in Job whether they can number the clouds by wisdom (38:37), fully understand the world (chapters 40-41), or put Him on trial in the court of human opinion (40:8).
Yet tying these attributes together—goodness, wisdom, omnipotence—requires some explanation. Job's story dramatically highlights the intense suffering that sometimes accompanies human existence. How, then, does this experience square with the reality of a good, wise, and powerful God? A proper answer to the ancient philosophical problem of evil can't be handled in a brief essay, but Genesis and Job give us a hint when they point us to the sovereignty of God. Maybe in our necessary and sometimes painful search for ultimate answers, we've lost the bigger perspective.
Maybe God's asking the questions here.
1 • LHR • August 07, 2006 • 8:01 PM
Excellent!
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