Conjuring Hope and Book of Job

The purpose of these four mini-essays entitled "Conjuring Hope" is to trace the way that hope arises in the Book of Job before Job's fortunes are reversed in Job 42. My major point will be that developing hope is a long-term struggle, a struggle often laced with false starts and disappointing initial results. Four passages are crucial to understand Job's emerging hope: 9:33; 14:13-17; 16:18-19; and 19:23-27. This essay will concern only the first.

I. Hope Emerges in the Context of Hopelessness. In his speeches of chapters 3 and 6-7, Job glumly lays out the new realities of his life. His body is wracked with pain; his concept of time is disoriented; he considers his friends treacherous; he is bitter, resentful, and angry and, to top it off, he feels that God has singled him out for special torment. The cumulative weight of this distress leads him to statements of utter dejection, self-loathing and desire for God to leave him alone. "Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good" (7:7);"I loathe my life; I would not live forever" (7:16); "In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me" (6:13); "Let me alone, for my days are a breath" (7:16).He is mired in a Slough of Despond much inkier and thicker than any Bunyan could have imagined.

II. Hope Emerges Gradually. I have already indicated this point, but it needs to be refined. Of Job's four expressions of hope, the first has the most indistinct and ill-defined contours. The second takes on further precision, but it still is quite nebulous. It is not until the third and fourth passages that hope becomes tied to a particular person, such as the "witness in heaven" or a "redeemer" of Job's life. Just as we need to practice any discipline with regularity and energy, so hope needs several tries before it emerges with clarity.

III. "There is no Umpire (Job 9:33)." So we come to Job's first inkling of hope. In fact, his first expression is really an expression of non-hope but, curiously enough, even the ability to say, 'I have no hope' means that the term has not completely slipped from one's vocabulary! You have read my summary of Job 9 in the Basic Essays. When Job's three strategies have been exhausted, he returns again to the conundrum of law: God will not confine himself to current legal practice (9:32). The problem is that "There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both" (9:33).What Job needs is a mediator; possibly an arbitrator; but definitely a referee or an official who will keep the game from getting out of hand. God's energy, wisdom and anger need a check from another source in order for Job to have a fair trial. 'Oh if there were (but there is not) such an intermediary. He could ensure that I get a fair shake before God. Then God wouldn't terrorize me anymore and I would "speak without fear of him'" (9:35).

Although he rejects his own suggestion as quickly as it came out of his mouth, Job has pried open the door of hope, even if only a crack. There may be no umpire in chapter 9, but there may be someone else in a later chapter. Once the imaginative seed of another person strong enough to handle God has been planted in Job's mind, it will germinate, even if he seemingly is preoccupied with other things. Here his disappointment is palpable, but it provides the soil out of which a new flower of hope may emerge and flourish. To see how hope develops, click on the next essay.

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