Trusting God in the Whirlwind: A Journey Through Job’s Trials
Scripture: Job 38:1-7, 34-41
Introduction: Grief and the Silence Before the Storm
Today’s lectionary offers many options, but the turning point in Job’s story resonates deeply with us, especially as we prepare for All Saints Sunday and mourn the loss of several church members and friends who passed away this year. It’s essential to address the lingering questions we face in our grief.
Loss is a universal experience, and our faith speaks to these profound moments. The preservation of Job’s story over 4,000 years reflects its timeless relevance. Did you know Job is likely the earliest written book of the bible, dating back to around 2000 BC, which is when Abraham was living? This story predates Hammurabi by 300 years. Each generation has grappled with suffering and has sought meaning through Job’s narrative, which we will explore together today.
Job’s Trials and Questions
You might not know all the details, but you probably know the basics. Job was a man who had it all: wealth, family, status. And—most importantly—Job was a righteous man. He lived his life with integrity and faith. And yet, despite doing everything right, Job lost it all. Everything.
Job’s wealth vanished in a moment. His children were gone, his health deteriorated to the point where he sat in ashes, scraping his sores with broken pottery. And in this brokenness, Job does what we all do—he asks, “Why?” Why has this happened? Why does a just man suffer? Why me? Why this? Why now? These are the questions we all ask when life turns unfair.
In a land of suffering, questions aboudnd.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar Try to Answer Why Do We Suffer
Job’s friends come to his aid, but their help isn’t helpful. They try to explain his suffering in ways that make sense to them. They insist that Job must have done something to deserve it.
Eliphaz sees suffering as divine discipline. Bildad insists on Job’s repentance even if Job doesn’t know what he did wrong. Zophar argues for blind acceptance of suffering. Their views mirror the concept of karma and what’s known in Christian theology as retribution theology—good deeds yield blessings, and bad deeds lead to suffering. The difference between them being that Job’s friends see God at work and karma sees an invisible force at work, like, the law of the universe. However, neither adequately addresses grace, reconciliation, or innocent suffering.
Grace is the concept that someone can receive unearned favor despite making a mistake or sinning. Karma, by contrast, is based on earning consequences through actions. Church, grace disrupts this transactional view, showing that God offers love and forgiveness and doesn’t treat us that way.
Reconciliation is the idea that our relationship with God can be restored through love, repentance, and forgiveness. Retribution and karma leave little room for the idea that brokenness in relationships can be healed through something else besides violence.
Innocent suffering: neither karma nor retribution satisfactorily explains innocent suffering—why good people experience hardship despite not deserving it based on their deeds. Both suggest that there is perceived innocence. Like Bildad said to Job, “You just think you are righteous. You’re not, so get over it, and just say you’re sorry to God.”
“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.”
Proverbs 4:7
Are there consequences for our actions? Yes. Is everything that happens to us a consequence of what we’ve done? No. Sometimes things happen to us that no one deserves.
The whole parable or story of Job, which is 99% Hebrew poetry, sets out to have this conversation with these various viewpoints. Job represents anyone who has ever suffered and has cried until their stomach hurt, asking, “Why God? This doesn’t make sense. I can’t believe this is happening. This feels like a dream. Why God?”
For 37 long chapters, Job’s friends have said in one way or another, “This has happened because of something you did. Repent! This has happened but something good will come of it. You’ll learn from it! God will get glory from it!” For 37 chapters, Job disagrees, holds his ground, and debates with his friends, demanding time and again to get answers from God.
And here’s where we find ourselves today—standing on the edge of those 37 chapters, waiting—because now, God speaks.
But God doesn’t speak the way we expect. God doesn’t give Job the answers he’s been asking for. God doesn’t explain why Job suffered and God doesn’t justify the actions.
Instead, God speaks out of the whirlwind.
The Whirlwind: When God Steps In (Job 38)
What does it mean when God speaks out of a whirlwind? This is a violent, swirling storm. It’s chaos. It’s power. And that’s where God is—right in the center of it.
The whirlwind is significant. It’s not just a dramatic entrance; it’s a message in itself—a symbol of the uncontrollable and unpredictable forces we all face. While Job is swept up in the chaos, God is not. God remains firm, unshaken by the storm, reminding Job—and us—that God’s power and presence are steady, even in life’s most turbulent moments.
Job, you lost your children, your livestock, your livelihood, and your health. You are turned upside down by all of this. You stand on the outside of the whirlwind, battered. I am in the whirlwind unmoved, unchanged. I am still the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
I’m reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah when his country faced the biggest crisis of his lifetime. He said, “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne.” In the chaos of losing a benevolent, wise, and godly king, I was anxious, sleepless, and worried, but God was not.” God was seated, calm, and in control.
You and I are carried like leaves on the breeze, but our God remains unmoved. For that, we should be thankful.
Yet, the whirlwind reveals something more. Throughout Scripture, God appears in the whirlwind to show overwhelming power. When Elijah is taken to heaven, it’s in a whirlwind. When the prophets speak of judgment, it comes like a whirlwind.
It’s in these moments God shows up with force and majesty. And the Lord Almighty shows up for Job—not with answers, but with a presence so powerful and steady, it demands awe and trust.
Imagine living 4,000 years ago and wondering, “Why do the stars always align in that certain spot this time of year, every year? There is an intention to all of this. Why? What makes it all work?” What amazing things God has done!
The Cosmos and God’s Unimaginable Wisdom
When God speaks, what does the Lord say? Or not say?
God doesn’t explain Job’s suffering and doesn’t tell him why it happened.
Instead, God asks Job a series of questions:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who marked off its dimensions? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?” These are rhetorical questions—because the answer is obvious: only God can do these things.
Think about this: what God is asking Job to consider is not just the immediate world around him but the entire universe—the cosmos. It’s as if God might be saying, “Job, you might think I’m a bit dumb and not up to the task of lordship and divinity but let me pull out my ledger and show you what I did just this week.”
Bill Bryson, in A Short History of Nearly Everything, writes about how the universe is a finely tuned masterpiece. There are dozens of distinct factors that had to align perfectly for the universe to even exist. Thirty factors that, if any one of them was off by even a fraction, the stars, the planets, and life itself would be impossible.
Take gravity, for example. If the force of gravity were just slightly stronger, the universe would collapse in on itself. If it were slightly weaker, stars wouldn’t form, and there would be no life. This is wisdom on a scale we can’t even begin to fathom.
And that’s what God is pointing Job toward. God is reminding Job that the world, the universe, and everything in it is held together by a kind of wisdom, preciseness, and intention that staggers the imagination.
Trusting God in the Chaos of Life
In the second part of God’s speech, God moves from the cosmos to the everyday workings of life on Earth. He talks about sending rain to water the land, about providing food for the ravens and the lions. God is not only responsible for the grand design of the universe—God is also intimately involved in the smallest details.
And this is where it hits home for us. If God is powerful enough to set the stars in place and wise enough to create a universe that sustains life against all odds, then surely God is good and wise enough to meet us and care for us in the whirlwind.
The promise of God is not that we will not suffer, but that God is wise, big, and good enough to see us through our suffering. Remember what we talked about in the spring: minimum protection, maximum support. Jesus Christ said to the disciples, “In this world, you will have suffering. Fear not, I have overcome the world.” That is minimum protection, maximum support!
The psalmist said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Why? “For you are with me, Lord, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” That is God meeting us in the whirlwind with maximum support.
Job didn’t get the answers he wanted. God never explained why Job suffered. But what God gave Job was a much larger perspective. Job’s life, his suffering, his questions—they were real, they were painful, but they were part of something much bigger.
Eventually, we all walk with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Surrendering the Need for Answers
I hope you will read the continuation of this conversation for yourself. You will see a profound truth: though he remained unaware of why he suffered, Job’s response was humble trust. Job says, “I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”
He processed his anger, disappointment, and questions and it led him to the realization that he didn’t need all the answers because he trusted the one who met him in the whirlwind. Yes, God meets us in the very thing that wounds us.
Our challenge is to trust even when we cannot comprehend.
Closing: From the Garden of Eden to Gethsemane – Trusting God in Life’s Whirlwinds
There is a songbook in the middle of the Bible that has 150 songs, 60-65 of which are laments and complaints, seeking answers to suffering, calamity, and hardships.
In the middle of the New Testament, we have the culmination of the life of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Like Job, the psalmist, and all the other innocent sufferers, he prays and asks God, “If there is any way for this not to be true, please make it not be true.”
He literally prays, “Father, let this cup pass from me.” The cup refers to his suffering. He was fully aware of the pain that awaited him and he yearned for another way.
Like Job, Jesus ultimately responded with reverent humility. This surrender was not easy; it was a gut-wrenching decision that echoed the depth of his humanity. He asked for relief but was denied. Nevertheless, Jesus didn’t succumb to despair; instead, he prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
That prayer is often called the prayer of relinquishment.
We suffer with such deep pain and agony at what we are going through. It causes our minds to race, our hearts to give way, and our stomachs lurch. We mumble our prayers out loud as we walk down the hallway. We are a ball of questions, fear, anxiety, and, yes, sometimes anger. And we hold it in and at some point, like Jesus, we enter the Garden.
This Garden is the opposite of Eden. Eden was the Garden of Life, and Gethsemane is the Garden of Death. Eden was the Garden where God gave, and Gethsemane is where God taketh away. Eden was where two walked with God in the cool of the evening and Gethsemane is where it feels like you walk alone in the dark of the night.
However, in Eden, paradise was lost when Adam said, “My will be done.” And that decision unleashed the whirlwind upon us all. In Gethsemane, even though it feels like hell, we will be met by God and held together, when we, like Jesus, the second Adam, say, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
In Jesus, we find the anchor for our souls. His struggle is ours and ours is his. Like Job and like Jesus, we may not get the answers or the outcomes we seek, but we can trust that God is with us in the whirlwind, and we can know that God, our Redeemer lives, and therefore, pain and loss will never have the last word.
You are free to ask questions, to lament, and to protest. Most of all, you are invited to give yourself in faith to the one who holds those answers and will hold you, even in the whirlwind.
