My Lonely City

Job 40. So God says, “Answer me, boy!” and Job says “…um…” and God says, “Let’s try this again.” But is God actually angry? I don’t know. I don’t really think so. I mean, yes, he is being rather cutting with his words, but he is also reiterrating Job’s inability to “save” himself, to “clothe [him]self in honor and magesty” – and these are things which God promises elsewhere to do for us. I think that instead of arguing with Job, God may be explaining his desires to Job in the same heightened emotional tone and rhetorical format that Job used himself. Maybe God’s proud of Job for being honest, and He is in turn being honest with Job – God is, and will always be, superior to Job in might, in wisdom, in fact in every way, but he does not abandon Job; instead, he pursues a conversation with him. God makes his ways known to Job, and even though there are still things separating them they are nonetheless closer than they’ve ever been.