Hokum is defined by Merriam Webster as ‘unrealistic situations or dialogue; nonsense’ verses hokmah as ‘spiritual wisdom’. The more I listen to the news or browse social media I am beginning to wonder if this isn’t all hokum. COVID-19 has compounded financial stress at public and private institutions across our country. Our homes are in a state of limbo. The #alonetogether mindset has slowed life down and increased time with family. It has forced families to rethink their personal priorities. While that is good on many levels there are some households that see this as suffering confinement and not respite. After 11 plus weeks of limbo, respite or waiting many pieces of our lives and relationships are beginning to suffer. During times such as these my only hope for peace comes from God’s Words of Wisdom, hokmah.
The prominent theme of wisdom literature found in The Bible are timeless questions: meaning of life, order of the world and theodicy. These questions apply across all disciplines; scientifically, philosophically, socially, politically, judicially, psychological, relationally and cosmologically. The worldview continues to hold order as an important value in all aspects of living and understanding. In ancient times wisdom was the pursuit of understanding and preserving world order. Ancient wisdom held that the key to attaining world order was the ‘fear of the Lord’. (Prov. 1:7, NRSV) It was recognized that God ordered the cosmos and with obedience of His requirements and expectations comes understanding of life. Where Ecclesiastes ends Proverbs picks up and all of the Wisdom literature pivots on the key, the beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. (Prov. 1:7, NRSV) Secular philosophy struggles to find wisdom and relies on Retribution Theology to explain why good people suffer. The Old Testament sets the world right with God at the head and his wisdom as the creative order principle throughout making it possible for people that are disciplined and learned in wisdom to find life and fulfillment in God’s will. Jesus affirms in Luke 13 that the sinner should fear the justice of the Lord but further challenges humanity to recognize that suffering is a normal part of life. God allows the experience of tragedy so that God’s might will be evident in the fulfillment of His purposes. In John 9:3 Jesus challenges us to look to the future for the purpose and not to the past for the cause or answer to “Why?”. We are incapable of discerning the cause of tragedy and injustices in this world. Yet, these books of wisdom teach us that “God can bring justice out of circumstances” beyond our control.
I found reading through the book of Job during one of the most difficult times in my life very reassuring. In Job, God is put on trial for unjust suffering and Job’s defense is Appeasement Theology upon the recommendation of his friends. Obviously, God is angry or else Job wouldn’t be suffering. So his friends urge him to repent of his unknown sin so that he might return to God’s favor and receive blessing. In this courtroom dialogue Job’s life is used to show how best to handle the reality of God allowing adversity and tragedy to continue in our broken world. God would have lost the court case if Job would have cursed or followed through on appeasing God. Wisdom is found when Job reorients his thinking to the purpose of experiencing suffering rather than the cause. The purpose of Jesus’ suffering was to reconcile all creation through grace. While this was voluntary for Jesus he did pray that the cup be removed from Him, but ultimately submitted that God’s will be accomplished. (Mk. 14:36, NRSV) Job doesn’t receive the mediator he asked for but eventually sees the same Wisdom in trusting in God’s wisdom for His will to be done.
Job
The questions of justice and injustice, sovereignty and freedom, innocence and guilt, good and evil, blessing and cursing and worldview and God's view are all a part of the dialogue in the context of undeserved suffering and theodicy. We are introduced to the hero of the narrative in the prologue contained within the first two chapters of the book. In Chapter 3 the writer of Job gets to the weighty issues of life regarding the nature of wisdom and the mystery of human suffering with a complaint against God. It is Job’s lack of lament and accusation against God that forces the dispute between him and his friends for the next 25 chapters. The summary of the debate is “Who is wise?” Of course, each friend tries to prove that their theology of retribution portrays a just God and a sinful Job as most accurate and wise. Job doesn’t agree and places the fault squarely at God’s feet. While his friends talk about God, Job talks to God about the injustice he is experiencing. The middle of the book contains Job’s hymn of rhetoric. In it, Job is talking out loud to noone, everyone or quite possibly anyone. He is exasperated with anguish and pleads with God for an explanation. Job is on a quest for justice or an answer to why must he suffer. “Where can wisdom be found?” (Job 28, NRSV) It is hard to know if who joins the conversation next is a reader or editor of the original translation but, Elihu seems to be invited by the polyphonic nature of the narrative to enter the dispute himself and prepare Job for what might be coming next. At the end of Job, YHWH speaks in a whirlwind to Job directly, but seemingly not with an answer, or at least with an answer that Job does not expect. Truly, is there an answer that could possibly explain your suffering while in the midst of it? God knows that what Job needs is a right relationship with Him, but first Job must recognize that God is just in His allowing suffering, adversity and even unthinkable tragedies. God does not offer justice, but Job repents of accusing God of injustice. Why? It is in the storm that God shows up. The many voices ultimately yield to One voice that brings the book to a dramatic resolution. It is ‘the theophany itself that rehabilitates Job’. Job knows Wisdom, face to face, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You;”. (Job 42:5, NRSV) In seeing God and hearing His Words, Job has gained a peace that passes all understanding amidst his suffering. No further explanation is needed.
The interpretation of Job could be theologically challenging. As with most books in the Old Testament there is a question as to whether the book has been translated in its entirety, is a piece meal of texts or if parts were removed because of the ancient language and ensuing grammatical challenges. I propose that ‘we can’t handle the truth’ of wisdom found in Job. The difficulty is not in the translation of the literal message of Job, but grasping and accepting the allegorical perspective. Job may or may not be a real hero of the Bible but he is a hero that the majority of humanity can relate too. I have sat with Job in the ash heap, praying for the healing oil of joy. I have heard the polyphony and chaos around me silenced by the Voice of Truth. Like Job, I had a relationship with God, that when faced with a crisis of belief, I did not let go of God. Like Job, I made the right choice at the right time to adjust my focus from the injustices around me to know Wisdom and trust God’s will and purposes for me to be just and good. I can not control what happens to those I love or myself by righteous actions or horrific sin. Job was righteous and lost everything. My son Daniel loved God, was faithful, good and kind but he died at 16 of cancer. My husband wondered what sin he committed to lose his first born. Much like the disciples questioned Jesus regarding the reason why a boy was born blind. Jesus responded that the suffering was allowed so that God’s power be demonstrated in his healing. (Jn. 9:2-4, NRSV) In our situation the demonstration of God’s power came in healing Daniel by taking him to heaven. While that is not the answer we wanted, we were able to trust in God’s love of Daniel and see the Wisdom in His will and receive the joy that comes amidst the anguish of suffering. The demonstration of God’s wisdom and power in our life caused many to seek out God on our behalf and find Him for themselves. When we look to find someone to blame or focus on the apparent injustice experienced we miss the lesson of how to thrive in adversity. Central to Paul’s teaching is the hidden power and wisdom of God in Jesus. (Col. 2:3, 1Cor. 1:18-2:16, NRSV) This Wisdom defies the worldview of traditional wisdom as pure hokum and becomes a living demonstration of God’s grace and hokmah. Job was commended by God for taking his doubts, and anger directly to Him. How will you respond during this time of adversity, with hokmah or hokum?
Bibliography
Alexander, David & Pat. Eerdmans Handbook to the Bible. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973.
Longman III, Tremper. Job. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2012.
Newsom, Carol A. The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Schultz, Carl. Vol. 2: Joshua through Song of Songs. 2014. Theology of Work Project, 2019. https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/theology-of-work/toc/
Walton, J.H. and A.E. Hill. Old Testament Today: A Journey from Ancient Context to Contemporary Relevance. Zondervan, 2014.
Waters, Larry J. “Reflections on Suffering from the Book of Job”. Bibliotheca Sacra 154 (October-December 1997): 436-51.
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