Last week we were in Wisconsin for my son’s wedding. Everything went great, though 5 of the 8 groomsmen did get the flu and were various shades of green for most of the weekend, but both the bride and the groom said, “I do” or rather “I will” and I suppose that is all that matters. It was fun being back up in Yankee land for a long weekend. In addition to the wedding celebrations, we got to see a lot of old friends. One of those friends is a woman named Phoebe.
Phoebe is not a typical friend. For one, she is old enough to be my mother. In fact, she is the mother of one of our closest friends. Michelle and I have known Phoebe for decades. Her husband was the president of my High School, then president of my college, then one of my professors at the Seminary. When Michelle and I were teaching at Luther Preparatory School Phoebe would stay in our guest room and my last year at the Seminary my family lived in Phoebe’s house while she and her husband were on sabbatical in the Ukraine. I have this beautifully maternal friendship with Phoebe. I tell you that so you will understand the context of the story I am about to tell you.
I am probably going to get canceled for telling you this story but, It was almost 24 years ago. Phoebe was sitting next to me and Michelle during morning chapel. My son Jacob was a toddler and was in the midst of a temper tantrum that was disrupting worship for everyone within 100 yards of the boy. Phoebe leaned over and whispered in my ear, “flick him”. I whispered back, “what!” She repeated, “flick him.” I whispered, “what do you mean flick him?” She made a flicking motion with her fingers. I whispered, “where do you want me to flick him?” She whispered back, “on the cheek”. I whispered, “I am not going to flick him.” She whispered, “Flick him.” I whispered, “fine, I’ll flick him!” Now, I have no idea how the preacher was able to keep going through all this commotion, at this point Pheobe and I were probably just as much a distraction as my wailing child, so I knew something had to be done. So, I flicked him. Not hard. Just a gentle flick of the cheek, and when I did Jacob looked up at me clearly surprised, but so distracted by the flick that he forgot whatever it was he was fussing about, and the wailing stopped… just in time for the preacher to say “Amen”. I think he was done with his sermon but now that I think about it maybe his Amen was an expression of relief. Michelle and I looked at Phoebe in total shock as our temper tantrum throwing toddler sat quietly on my lap. From that day forward, we became proponents of what we affectionately call the Phoebe Flick.
I tell you this story not because I believe this is the only way or even the best way to deal with a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, rather I tell you this story because as I read through Job 38:1-11 I couldn’t help but notice that the LORD is giving Job a Pheobe Flick.
In the verses that precede our text, Job is throwing a temper tantrum. Now, I trust most of you are familiar with the story of Job. In rapid succession the man loses everything, his wealth, his family, his health, his everything. His nag of a wife tells him to curse God and die. His so-called friends tell him he is getting what he deserves. For a long time, Job does a really good job of not letting the haters get to him, but eventually Job cracks and starts throwing a temper tantrum. Like a whinny baby Job cries, “I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm. I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.”[1] Job then tells God how unjustly he has been treated, how unfair it is that a good man, such as himself, should suffer. In effect Job was criticizing the way God was running the universe and suggesting that he, Job, could do a better job. Job then finishes his tantrum by stomping his feet up and down and demanding that the LORD explain Himself to Job “I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.”[2] Job pouts.
Does Job’s temper tantrum sound familiar to you. It does to me. Like spiritual babies we tend to whine and complain when things don’t go our way. Somehow, we have got it in our heads that everyone should like us, and everything should work out for us. So, when they don’t and when it doesn’t, we’re shocked. When a person gossips about us, we ask, “how could they do such a thing!?” When a group doesn’t praise our accomplishments, we feel snubbed. When family members don’t appreciate us, we are insulted. Why? Because we believe we deserve to be treated better. Further, when pain and sadness enter our lives, we cry, “woe is me”. When we are afflicted with sickness and disease, we lament how unfair life is for us. And when death visits someone we love or starts knocking on our own door, we cry, “Why God!?” Why? Because we believe we don’t deserve to suffer.
Even after we spiritually mature beyond this infantile understanding of life, we then become spiritual teenagers who think they know everything or at least know more than their parents know. We listen to what our heavenly Father has to say about the creation of the universe, the roles He has assigned to men and women, the purpose and place of sex in the marriage of a husband and a wife, the respect we are to show to the governing authorities, the instruction to turn the other cheek and pray for our enemies, the instruction to help our neighbor in their time of need, the instruction to forgive our brothers and sisters when they sin against us not once not twice but again and again and again. We hear our heavenly Father say these things but like sassy teenagers we say, “naaaahhhh”. “The old man doesn’t know what he is talking about.” “That’s not how the world works anymore.” “Instead, I am going to do what feels right to me.”
I would like to say things get better after we mature beyond spiritual teenager, but that’s when we become bitter old coots. We begin to see the world through spectacles of negativity. As we observe corruption in the government, instability in the economy, indecency in our communities, we long for the good old days, we lament how things keep going from bad to worse we grumble to whoever will listen that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. The not-so-subtle implication being that God is no longer able to curb the wickedness of the world, that He has fallen asleep at the wheel, that He has lost control of the universe.
Job’s temper tantrum sounds familiar to you and to me because on any given day at any given moment we all tend to act like whinny babies, know-it-all teenagers, and bitter old coots. In one way or another we all tend to criticize God for the way He runs His universe and suggest that we could do a better job. We all tend to stomp our feet up and down and demand that the LORD explain Himself to us. Which means we are all in desperate need of the Phoebe Flick.
Job needed a Phoebe Flick and for the next 129 verses that is exactly what Job gets. Our text records the initial sting. “1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” This is God saying, “I accept your challenge, Job.”; “You want to swing at me, well then put up your dukes, let’s go”. 4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” “Where were you,” The LORD asks Job and all the whiny babies, know-it-all teenagers, and bitter old coots who believe they possess the wisdom and experience necessary to run the universe. Where were you? You weren’t there when the earth’s foundation was laid so tell me how is it that you can pretend to understand more and know better than the one who was there?!? The LORD continues, “8 Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?” Here the LORD compares the mighty oceans to a helpless baby that is birthed, swaddled, and confined to a crib. The implied question being, “You puny people who are so easily tossed back and forth by the wind and the waves you think you can do better!?!” “You think you are more capable of running the universe than the one who commands and controls the oceans?!?”
The LORD, as I said, goes on like this for 129 verses to ensure that Job and all the whiny babies, know-it-all teenagers, and bitter old coots understand none of us knows better than God and none of us is more equipped than God to run the universe. Just because we don’t always understand the hows and whys of life; just because we don’t always observe the whens and the wheres of God’s plan does not mean that the one who laid the earth’s foundation and swaddled the seas has lost control. The LORD God who made the universe continues to rule the universe. He does not need your help, He does not need your input and He most certainly does not need your whining and complaining, questioning and criticizing. The only thing the LORD should hear us say is what He heard Job say 129 verses latter, “You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”[3]
I know these words sting a bit. I feel the sting as much as you. Nobody said the Pheobe Flick was pleasant. But pain is not the point of the Phoebe Flick. There is a powerful rebuke in these words, there is no denying it, but the fact that there are words is evidence of God’s grace. There are 129 verses of rebuke, but they begin with the words, “1 Then the LORD answered Job.” Why would the LORD bother to enter into a conversation with Job? You would not get sucked into a conversation with a cockroach; you would not feel the need to explain yourself to a dung beetle, you would not be concerned about the opinions of pond scum. So why would the LORD God Almighty bother to dignify Job’s temper tantrum with a response? And why when He does respond is there not fire and brimstone raining down from heaven and a smoldering pile of ashes where Job once stood? Why? Grace. God’s undeserved love for Job. Like the loving parent of a toddler having a temper tantrum the LORD rebukes Job in order to lead Job to repentance so that Job might be blessed. Undeserved love is why the LORD God Almighty continues to speak to whiny babies, know-it-all teenagers, and bitter old coots like you and me.
In the Epilogue, that is the days that followed the Phoebe Flick, we are told “The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first.”[4] There is of course no guarantee the LORD will bless you in the same way as Job, but there is for you who repent of your tantrums and place your trust in the LORD, there is a guarantee that there are more blessings in your future than there are in your past or present. The substitutionary life and sacrificial death of your Savior Jesus assures that you will have an eternity full of blessings. Occasionally the LORD may have to Phoebe Flick you out of a temper tantrum so that you don’t lose sight of those blessings but even when He does even when the LORD’s words sting, they do so out of love. I think, more than anything, that is why this section of Job reminds me of the Phoebe Flick. Amen.
[1] Job 30:20-23
[2] Job 31:35
[3] Job 42:3-6
[4] Job 42:12