Summary
From Oz to Uz: Living with the Question "Why?"
The Land of Oz is governed by a single question: how? How can Dorothy get back to Kansas? How can the Scarecrow get a brain, the Tin Man a heart, the Lion his courage? In that fictional country the answer is conveniently near at hand—follow the yellow brick road, find the wizard, and every "how" gets sorted out. The Land of Uz is different. Uz is real, and the question that hangs over it is not how but why.
Job 1:1 introduces us to a man in the land of Uz who was "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil." Blameless does not mean morally perfect—Job was a sinner like the rest of us. The word carries the sense of complete: Job was not half-hearted in his devotion. He was all in with the Lord. And yet, in a single day, raiders, fire, wind, and death stripped him of property, servants, and children. The dominant question of his life from that day forward was simply, Why?
The accuser had charged that Job's faithfulness was mercenary—that he served God only for the hedge of blessing around him Job 1:9-11. God permitted the testing but kept Satan on a leash: "only do not stretch out your hand against him" Job 1:12. Even as suffering crashed into Job's life, God did not surrender His sovereignty. The same prowling adversary still walks "to and fro on the earth," as Peter warns in 1 Peter 5:8—but always under the limits set by the Almighty.
Job's three friends sat with him for seven days in silence Job 2:13, and that was the best counsel they ever gave. When they opened their mouths, their wisdom collapsed into three bad answers: bad things happen to bad people; you get what you deserve; if you just tried harder. Scripture's counsel is different and far better. God can bring good out of suffering. He sometimes uses suffering to refine us. But there is no neat correlation between the amount of sin in a person's life and the amount of suffering they endure, nor between the depth of suffering and the degree of refinement required. Above all, God does not punish His people for their sins, because the wrath due our sin was poured out on Jesus at the cross. He took the punishment in our place.
That theology is true and necessary, yet even after we have rehearsed it, the personal question can remain: Why me? When God finally answers Job out of the whirlwind in Job 38, what is striking is what He does not do. He does not explain. He asks question after question of His own: Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? God never gives Job a self-justifying account of why this happened. His answer, in effect, is: You know who I am. You can trust Me. That is enough. And Job repents—not of some hidden sin that caused his suffering, but of his lack of trust in God in the midst of it.
Like Job, our "whys" may go unanswered in this life. Our minds cannot fathom the ways of God, and He does not owe us explanations. But the God who speaks to us is not a little man behind a curtain pulling levers and projecting an eerie voice. He is the Almighty who tore the curtain of the temple at the crucifixion of Jesus, opening direct access to His presence through the blood of Christ. You are forgiven. You are redeemed. You are reconciled. You are claimed in the waters of Baptism. And to every "why" that rises from the land of Uz, God answers: I am with you always. You know who I am. Trust Me. That is enough. (See “Why?” (From Oz to Uz.) 7-28-24.)
Video citations
- “Why?” (From Oz to Uz.) 7-28-24 — Would you open up your Bibles, please, for our time and God's Word today to the very first chapter of the Book of Job. If you're using a Pulidish and of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that in…