John Calvin comments, "There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divin­ity. To prevent anyone from taking refuge in the pretence of ignorance, God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine na­ture" (Institutes 1.3.1). The an­guished questions which have accompanied the obscenity that was perpetrated in Dunblane illustrate this truth. If God is good and almighty, where was he in Dunblane? And why did he allow it to happen?

I don't want to exploit that terrible event, but to suggest an approach to the questions pro­voked by the experience of suffering and evil so shockingly illustrated by Dunblane.

Job⤒🔗

Job was a righteous man, a servant of the Lord. He was fabulously wealthy, and well respected in his community. But because Satan did not accept that men and women can serve God because they love and trust him, the Lord gave him permission to test Job. He was tested griev­ously. Initially he expressed resignation to God's will, but later rejected the misguided explanations and exhortations of his friends and complained: "All was well with me, but he (God) shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target..." (16:12). After much dispute with and honest complaint to God, his quiet trust was restored and strengthened and he experienced greater blessing than he had previously known.

Mystery←⤒🔗

Towards the end of the book, the Lord responds to Job, but in a surprising way. He does not, for example, challenge Job's claim to be righteous. Indeed he ad­dresses him as "my servant" (42:7). Neither does he answer directly Job's questions regard­ing his suffering, though we know the reason, for we have the advantage of the narrator's ex­planation. This detail is impor­tant. It reminds us that there are mysteries that we cannot pene­trate and should not presume to try to explain. But it also reminds us that, notwithstanding our ignorance, there are reasons known only to God.

The Caring Creator←⤒🔗

The Lord's response consists of a magnificent series of rhe­torical questions. He directs Job to consider the creation in all its grandeur and mystery. He asks him if he was involved in the process of creation. He chal­lenges him to identify the storehouses of the snow and hail and to trace the paths of the torrents of rain and the thun­derstorms. He enquires whether he knew who fed the ravens, whether he knew when the mountain goats gave birth and whether the wild oxen would serve him (Job 38-39). Job's reply emphasises both his own ignorance and, by implication, the Lord's wisdom, care and power: "I am unworthy — how can I reply to you? ... I spoke once, but have no answer — twice, but I will say no more" (40:4f).

But the Lord was not fin­ished, and focuses Job's atten­tion upon the Behemoth (pos­sibly the hippopotamus) and Leviathan (possibly the croco­dile). The language used to describe both of these creatures is poetic, and in the case of leviathan echoes the description of the ancient chaos monster (Lotan) of Canaanite mytho­logy. The formidable Behemoth is not alarmed when the raging Jordan surges against him. In­deed none can capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose (Job 40). With respect to the violent and unpredictable Leviathan Job is asked (with mild ridicule): "can you make a pet of him like a bird, or put him on a leash for your girls?" (42:5), and warned that "if you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again" (41:8). The purpose of this focus is to emphasise the Lord's intimate understanding and government of creation and to indicate the contrast between Job's rela­tionship to the creation and its government, and the Lord's. Further, the deliberate echo of the Canaanite mythology emphasises the Lord's govern­ment of all that is unpredictable and apparently senseless. Noth­ing is beyond the wisdom and government of God, not even unexpected and apparently meaningless suffering.

Humble Trust←⤒🔗

Job's response is again to confess his humble trust in the Lord whom he knows, but whose purposes are beyond him. He acknowledges the Lord's might, wisdom and care (42:2), his own ignorance of much of the Lord's will (42:3), his new (first hand) experience of the Lord's blessing (42:5), and he humbles himself in faith and with a changed understanding (the significance in this context of the verb to repent) of the Lord (42:6). He has learned to trust God with a new confidence and to recognise the reality of mys­tery in his providence.

Complete Revelation←⤒🔗

Job's trust in God was in response to God's revelation. Our faith is also in response to his self revelation. But we live in the age of God's complete revelation in the person and ministry of Christ, so that in Christ we have the clearest demonstration of his power, wisdom and care. In him we can be assured of the sympathy of the Triune God in all our suf­fering. The Father knows the cost and pain of, for example, the death of a Son. The Son knows the distress of bereave­ment and suffering. And the Holy Spirit ministers the Lord's rich comfort to those who are desolate. Similarly, in Christ we have the clearest demonstration that from terrible suffering great blessing can flow, for he is the servant of the Lord who "died for sins once for all, the right­eous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).

There is much we do not and cannot know. But we do know him in whom we trust. We also know that he does all things well, for our good and his glory.