God's Whirlwind Answer

"Then the Lord answered Job 

out of the whirlwind:

'Who is this that darkens counsel 

by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man, 

I will question you, 

and you shall declare to me.'" 

Job 38:1-2

I love a reading a good mystery by authors such as Martin Walker, Louise Penny, and Tana French. 

Each of their stories follow a pattern. There is a crime, a cast of characters, and a solution to the crime.

Life  can be like that.  A tragedy occurs, a cast of characters surrounds the victim offering comfort, and a resolution appears.

Sometimes, though, there doesn't seem to be a conclusion and we ask ourselves, "Where are you God?"

When Bad Things Happen to Good People is a book by rabbi Harold Kushner whose son, Aaron, who died at the age of 14 of the incurable genetic disease progeria. Rabbi Kushner asks the question most of us would ask during a tragedy, "Where are you God?"

That's what the Book of Job is about: tragedy, characters, resolution.

The mystery begins as Job, a righteous man, loses everything and endures suffering and chaos. Three friends tell him he deserves the suffering because of his sin. 

Job doesn't buy into this. 

Job, protesting to God, lists ways he's a righteous man demanding an answer from God. "What's Going on God? What have I done to deserve all this?"

God's whirlwind answer asks Job where he was during Creation when God created an order and structure in the universe. There is meaning in the order and structure.

Job realizes that, because he isn't God, he doesn't know or understand everything. First he heard, now he sees.

Sometimes a tragedy is a mystery because it's part of being human. We don't know or understand everything.

God's whirlwind answer to us is this: 

    Whatever the tragedy, I am with you. 

    When you protest, I am listening. 

    In your chaos, I am structure.

In your darkness. I am light.