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Job is the first of five poetic books, the beginning of a new section of the Bible that includes Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. The Book of Job is the story of a blameless and upright man who experienced the loss of his property, his children and his health, throwing him into a profound personal crisis. Although Job had lived a righteous life, he suffered for no reason that he could discern, and the book raises the question of why really bad things happen to truly good people. His wife responded to his situation by saying to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). A group of friends accused Job of wrongdoing, and suggested that his suffering was a punishment for sin. Then God shifted Job’s perspective by inviting him into deep reflection about who he was is in relation to God, without giving quick or easy answers.
We need to do this kind of deep work, now more than ever. In the world today, our electronic devices are constantly calling out to us, but research is revealing that we really should make an effort to avoid distractions. In his Hidden Brain podcast, Shankar Vedantam profiles Cal Newport, a computer scientist at Georgetown University and author of a book called Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Newport says that when we let text messages, phone calls, emails or Facebook messages guide our workday, we’re weakening our ability to do the most challenging kind of work — what Newport calls “deep work.” This is the work that requires sustained attention, such as writing a report, solving an engineering problem or doing significant research. The solution to distractions, according to Newport, is to do what we can to set aside long portions of many days to focus on deeper thinking. This means no social media, limited email and strict limits on appointments. The result is a life that is richer and more human than a life of robotically responding to emails and messages.
In chapter 38, God challenges Job to do the “deep work” of answering the question of who he is in relation to God. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” asked God (Job 38:4). In other words, “Where were you — Job — when I — God — laid the foundation of the earth?” Both the “you” and the “I” are important here. In his book Institutes of the Christian Religion, Protestant reformer John Calvin wrote, “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” Knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves are connected and interrelated, according to Calvin, and we cannot have one without the other. Calvin begins by saying that “without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.”
That’s why God asks Job from the whirlwind, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4). Knowledge of both God and self are important. “Who determined its measurements?” God asks. “Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?” (Job 38:5-7). Writing in the journal Interpretation, pastor Tom Are points out that “the voice in the whirlwind asks a series of questions that Job cannot answer.” Job does not know the answers because he is finite. Only the infinite God knows. “This is perhaps the first word from the whirlwind: Job is creature, not creator.”
So, the deep question “Who is God?” can be answered with the word “Creator.” But since knowledge of God is connected to knowledge of self, we are also challenged to go deep into the question, “Who are we?” What does it mean for us to be human creatures? God answers this, in part, as the one “who has put wisdom in the inward parts” and “given understanding to the mind” (Job 38:36). As creatures who are made in the image of God, we are people who have been given wisdom and understanding by our Creator. When we do deep work, we realize that we do not have all the answers. Only God does. But we can have wisdom, understanding and the ability to search for answers as we live in relationship with God and with one another. “The world is complex and painful,” writes Tom Are. “But the [God] who laid the foundations of the world did so in order that there might be a world, and so that we might be in it.” Our Creator wants us to live in relationship with God, and to share the wisdom, understanding and love of God.
When we go deep for answers, we discover that our Creator is the source of all wisdom and understanding. Calvin knew this, saying that “the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone.” This passage from Job is one of the Bible’s greatest hits because it challenges us to search for knowledge of God as Creator and knowledge of ourselves as creatures. When we put the two together, we are doing the deep work that God wants us to do.
Questions:
1. What kinds of daily distractions keep you from doing “deep work”?
2. Where do you see a link between knowledge of God and knowledge of self?
3. Which qualities shared by Creator and creature are most important to you?
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