AMLWCH METHODIST CHURCH
Wesley Street, Amlwch

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It is unlikely that this book is other than fictional, but it is well worth reading.   It was probably written between 530 and 340 BCE.  It begins with a heavenly board meeting that includes Satan.   Satan says to God that it is easy for Job to be a good man when God has gifted him a huge stock of animals and a great family.   So God agrees to denude Job of all he has given him and make his body full of sores.  Then the story begins.   Job’s three so-called friends talk a great deal to him about how he has come to be brought down so low.   They feel it must relate to something he has done, in other words a sin, but Job protests that he has trodden a straight line all through.   We need to see here that, although Job is not best pleased with God, nevertheless he remains pious.

After long conversations between Job and his friends God enters the scene in a dramatic way, speaking out of a storm: “Who is this who darkens counsel with words devoid of knowledge?   Brace yourself and stand up like a man; I shall put questions to you, and you must answer.   If you have read these two chapters of the book you will have read some beautiful poetry.   The words are pure gold.   God puts many questions to Job that must make Job realise he is out of line and unaware of the work of God in creation.  

I love words like “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?” and “In all your life have you ever called up the dawn?”   This second question really appeals to me.   Some years ago I travelled to Kinmel Bay in North Wales to speak at a Men’s Breakfast.   I had to set off very early to be there for breakfast time.   As I travelled along the A55 I witnessed the beauty of the dawn breaking and slowly giving the sky an amazing beauty I had never seen before.   Being interested in astronomy I am captivated by another of God’s questions, “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose Orion’s belt?”  

We often wonder about how the universe was created and Earth in particular.   I have no doubt that it was all God’s handiwork, even if it took billions of years.   This Creator is the very person who is putting Job in his place in this narrative.   Many times, God challenges Job for thinking below his creative work.   Had you or I been on the receiving end of such a tirade we can be sure we would be flattened by such a great argument, one that we could never win.

Living in such a beautiful setting as I do in Anglesey, I see daily the magnificent work of God around me.  In all seasons there is an incredible sensation of awe.   On still days the sea is like a mirror and on stormy days the sea breaks over the rocks in a most dramatic fashion.   Nature is a force that amazes us and God is behind it all.

Job eventually realises in full how far he is out of line.   He says to God, “You ask: who is this obscuring counsel yet lacking knowledge?   But I have spoken of things which I have not understood, things too wonderful for me to know. Listen, and let me speak. You said: I shall put questions to you, and you must answer. I knew of you then only by report, but now I see you with my own eyes. Therefore, I yield, repenting in dust and ashes.”

There are moments in our lives when we forget ourselves and speak or act as if we were on the same level as God.   This was how it was for Job.   God made him realise how lacking in knowledge he was by speaking as he did of the detail and greatness of creation.   We are on the same level as Job and must accept our position.   But remember that God’s love for us is incredible.   It is our constant support, and we should accept it.   The grace of God is something in which we find ourselves cradled.   We shall make it through!