The Job of Mission

By happy coincidence my Bible in One Year plan has been taking me through Job at the same time as I have been reading Tim Davy's The Book of Job and The Mission of God, a Missional Reading of Job.

I have read Job previously, and have usually found it hard-going.  The long poetic speeches have tended to drag (why don't they just get on and say what they want to say?) and I've not really understood how Job, the man, is seen as blameless and upright when he spends so much time questioning God.

This time, however, the text came to life.  At a surface level I particularly enjoyed some of the insults that Job uses in response to his supposed-comforters' speeches.

In chapter 13 Job bursts out, "if only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom."  Aren't there a few people we think need to hear that?!

Chapter 21 sees Job demand that his friends "Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on" and ask "So how can you console me with your nonsense?"  Clearly he felt misunderstood.

Among all the poetry, chapter 28 stood out. This chapter is an interlude in the conversation between Job and his friends and is a meditation on true wisdom.  The first section paints a picture of the search by miners for precious metals and stones in the depths of the earth.  They dangle on ropes and bring light where it has not been before, forgotten by people and animals alike, and bring hidden things to light.

Yet, the second half of the chapter contends, that is not where wisdom is to be found.  The earth and the sea know that they do not contain wisdom, and neither can it be had in return for any amount of precious stones.

God knows: "Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

What do we make then of Job's constant questioning of God and what he experiences and sees in the world around him?  Is that a demonstration of wisdom and understanding?

Davy puts Job's lamenting and challenging of God in the context of mission, in particular the Missio Dei, the mission of God to reconcile the world to God and to restore the relationship between the world and its people, and God.

The question of 1:9 ("Is it for nothing that Job fears God?") is key.  This question gets to the foundation of what is the mission of God.  If there is no reason for Job (and, by implication, any other human) to fear God, and to enter into a relationship with God, what is the point of the mission of God?

Another key verse is 29:14 which Davy examines in a very helpful discussion of the treatment of the poor in (and by) Job.  Here, in the middle of a passage where Job is laying out his credentials in terms of how well he has treated various kinds of poor and needy, Job declares that he is clothed in righteousness, and that righteousness is clothed in him.  This is a picture of Job being so infused with righteousness and justice that it defines who he is as a person.

In a powerful exegesis, Davy explains that Job once was a helper and advocate for the poor from a position of plenty and power, but now he is reduced to the same state of poverty.  This makes Job's advocacy all the more powerful, and the missional challenge to the church is to identify with the poor.  I was reminded of Philippians 2 and Paul's description of Jesus giving up everything to identify with humanity, and George Orwell's living in poverty before writing Down and Out in Paris and London.

The fear of the Lord is indeed wisdom, but Job shows that this should not mean unquestioning acceptance of the status quo.  Rather, it can and should mean lament, challenge and advocacy, seeking to bring the righteousness and justice of God to places where it is lacking. That is participation in God’s mission.