A few years ago, several stories emerged in the news media about an 8th grade graduation test from 1912 that somehow turned up in the archives of a Kentucky museum. In its heyday this test was called the “Common Test” and it was administered to students all across the Bluegrass State. How students performed on this test determined if they would move on to high school. The exam spanned eight subjects: spelling, reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, physiology, civil government and history.
Some sample questions were: “A man bought a farm for
$2,400 and sold it for $2,700. What percent did he gain in profit?” “Diagram
the following sentence—The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.” “Name in order of
their sizes the three largest states in America.” “What is liver? Where is
located in the body and what is its purpose?” “Who invented the Cotton Gin?
“Name two presidents who died in office and the last battle of the Civil War.”
So how would you do? Need to hit the books again? When the test was administered to adults and high-schoolers today, most could not pass it. Are you smarter than an 8th grader from 1912? Perhaps, one of the most daunting series of questions is found in Job 38-39. Since his suffering began Job had sought an opportunity to put God on the witness stand and ask Him some questions. Instead, Job is put in the hot seat and cross-examined by God in order to show him how weak, ignorant and limited his understanding of the universe really is compared to God’s omnipotence and omniscience.
God bludgeons Job with a series of 77 unanswerable questions from different scientific disciplines – cosmology, oceanography, meteorology, zoology and more. Not once in God’s monologue, does the Almighty answer any of the questions Job posed earlier in the book about why he was suffering. When God was finished blasting Job all he could do was sit in stone silence. “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? 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). Job was humbled—the suffering stripped him of the physical props in his life while God’s interrogation stripped him of his pride.
Like Job, I’m sure each of us have some questions we’d like to demand of God, especially when it comes to the nature of suffering. There’s nothing that produces questions like when we are afflicted, or when someone we love dies, or when we witness heinous evil that goes unpunished. But after meditating on this scene, I am reminded of three truths.
First, God owes us nothing. God is not obligated to explain Himself to finite, fallen creatures. Second, perhaps God keeps us ignorant of the reasons for our suffering because we are incapable of comprehending the answer. God’s ways are higher than ours (Is. 55:11). How can the finite understand the infinite? We might as well try and explain calculus to a dog.
Third, when we suffer God doesn’t reveal His grand design, He reveals Himself. God spoke to Job from the whirlwind, which was the same storm that wrecked his life in the beginning (1:19). The vehicle that God used to bring suffering and great dread into Job’s life was also the means that God used to reveal Himself. And such is the nature of suffering. It’s the thing we dread the most that will teach us the deep things about God.
There will always be questions this side of eternity. Faith is trusting God and leaving room for the mysteries of life. As Augustine said, “Better that I find you God, and leave the questions unanswered, than to find the answers and not find you.” -DM
No comments:
Post a Comment