QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS

Job 37:1-39:30; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:10; Psalm 44:9-26; Proverbs 22:13

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: ‘Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?’”

“We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

“Rise up! Help us! Ransom us because of your unfailing love.”

 I’m a big mystery fan. Except for one thing: I tend to read the last several pages of the book as soon as the mystery becomes apparent. I do the same thing with pretty any much any fiction. Who lives, who loves, who dies…, I just cannot stand not to know. Of course, that means I do know, and there is not much suspense in actually reading the book. I satisfy myself with the rationalization that I can better appreciate the author’s plotting because I know where the story will end up.

But rushing to get all the ultimate answers is always less satisfactory than experiencing them in the ordinary course of time. Taking things as they come allows one to appreciate character development and the nuances of the story’s telling. It may lead to some bunny trails, but at the end of the day, it actually helps avoid false assumptions. Mainly, though, there’s a strange sort of thrill that only comes when the reader puts the pieces together on his or her own.

I feel much the same about life generally. I want to know how things end up. Bad economics, swine flu pandemic, wars and rumors of war… how much suspense are we supposed to be able to stand without going crazy? How many questions without answers are we supposed to tolerate? Getting to the answers sometimes is most definitely not half the fun. If Christ is planning to come back anytime soon, now might not be such a bad time for a Rapture.

Thinking through things, it’s probably a really good thing God has more patience than I do. Though He sometimes seems positively inscrutable, it’s still good to know that I, at least, am not the one who put boundaries on the oceans or who laid the foundations of the earth. I don’t have the responsibility for knowing or explaining the tough answers. I can rest easy, knowing that matters outside my ability to handle or respond to them are being addressed by a Higher Authority. Had I been in charge, I likely would have messed things up, because I would not have had the patience to let anyone figure out things for themselves. I’d rush headlong into the future, heedless of the joy and beauty that could be mine if I was not so single-minded about getting to the end of the mystery.

Jesus wants to know if we are willing to let God be God and allow Him to come to us on His terms, rather than our own. He wants to know if we are going to trust Him completely, even in spite of our knowledge that things are not as they should be, and that we don’t have good answers for why. He wants to know if we will have faith, or if we are going to petulantly insist that God explain Himself to us before we will believe?

It is almost impossible for any human to take a long term perspective on much of anything. It is impossible for us to see things exactly as the Lord does. Job and his friends all wanted to rush to the conclusions of life, to reveal the mystery. It’s a difficult answer to hear, much less accept, but God does answer that request. He lovingly says no. Some things must be left to the imagination precisely because faith is the evidence of things unseen. We don’t have to explain God, nor does He have to explain Himself to us. That would spoil the surprise. The Holy Spirit’s answer to the tough questions is always the same. Believe. Just believe. We don’t need to know the reasons or the endings. We just need to know Who’s in charge.