The Lutheran Hour

"A Little Light, Reading"

#92-45
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on July 6, 2025
Speaker: Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Job 1:8

So, I set my carry-on bag down on the conveyor belt at the airport security checkpoint. Inside the bag there were seven books, hardback books, thick books—some of the books were over seven hundred pages long each. On the other side of the checkpoint, I’m waiting, and I notice the TSA agent, he does a double-take. He looks at the bag through the machine, looks over at me, looks back at the bag, then at me again, and says, “You doin’ a little light reading?”

“It’s for an illustration,” I told him.

See, I’d been invited to speak to a group of college students, and I needed an illustration. I’d racked my brain for an example of an epic-length story that illustrated the drama of character development, transformation that occurs through conflict, war, and conspiracy, in which character is tested, and sacrifice required, and things were not what they seem. And it needed to be a story most college students would know.

So, I went down to our basement, to the shelves that housed the stories we’d read to our children over the last 20 years, and pulled from them all seven books of the Harry Potter series, which you may or may not have read, but it definitely connected with the college crowd.

So, at the beginning of this talk, I stacked up all seven books, cover to cover, on a stool up front, to visually give a sense of how long this story is. It’s 4,100 pages long, from start to finish, just over a million words. And if you read it, if you walked through this million-word wilderness that the author, J.K. Rowling paints for us, at the end, after you’ve read 4,099 pages, on the second-to-last page, she has one more surprise in store for you. You learn that Harry, the main character, 19 years later, has named his second child after his former enemy.

You learn that the middle name of his child is “Severus,” after Professor Severus Snape, a character, who, for most of the story seems to be a monster who hates Harry, treats him like an enemy, causes him to suffer, even murders the man who’d become like a father for Harry. You read this penultimate page of the story, and think, “He named his son after Professor Snape?” But then you do a double-take, and it fits. Everything fits.

Because over the quarter-century that the story spans, you’ve suffered the transformation of this man, Professor Snape, who goes from zero to hero in our eyes, from monster to mentor. And now, Harry, 19 years later, sadder, but wiser, tells his son that he’s named after “probably the bravest man I ever knew.”

Now to adequately communicate the transformation, how it happens, it takes a million words. But standing at the end you could say it in just one: love. Self-giving, sacrificial love is what moved the story from beginning to end. Love is what makes us see Professor Snape differently in the end.

Now the point of the illustration for this talk to these college students was to give an account of how Christians can listen to the Old Testament book of Job, because in the book of Job, God can look like a monster.

Job’s story, if you’ve read it, is a story about suffering, and also conflict and spiritual warfare and conspiracy, in which things are not what they seem. But for Job, it’s mostly about suffering. And as far as he can tell, God is the singular cause of it. And yet still somehow through it Job still holds onto his faith in God. Although through the ordeal, Job definitely gives God a piece of his mind—and says some pretty nasty things about God. Job, come to think of it, is basically everything you can say to God’s face and still live.ⁱ And that’s why so many people love the book of Job. They love Job, but God? Not so much.

The book of Job is the part of the Bible in which it proves hardest to be on God’s side.ⁱⁱ Mark Twain could have been referring to Job when he said that the Old Testament’s depiction of God was “perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere.”ⁱⁱⁱ And if all you had to know about God was bad press from the book of Job, love for God would be in short supply. But terror and resentment and rejection of Him would pile up, like old newspapers in a hoarder’s basement.

Job starts his suffering stoically and piously, but eventually, he cracks. Job says God is treating him like an enemy (see Job 13:24, 19:11, 33:10). He says God hates him (see Job16:9). He calls God cruel (see Job 30:21) and pitiless (see Job 16:13). He accuses God of laughing at the innocent as they suffer (see Job 9:23). Job, at his lowest, paints God as some kind of monster.

Maybe you’ve been there with Job, surrounded by piles of damnatory press about God. If you have been there, or you are there now, you’re not alone. Others have been there. I’ve been there. But here’s what I’ve found: rejecting God in that place doesn’t help because you still have to cope with the bad news. None of the suffering goes away. But without God, you have to put yourself in the place of God. And all the bad news gets shipped to your doorstep, piles up out front.

It doesn’t make suffering any easier if you reject God. But there is another word from God when you’re suffering. There is good news because the story doesn’t lead to your doorstep, but to Jesus and His cross, to His innocent suffering and death. All the bad press got buried with Jesus. And even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes, you can trust it, because Jesus is risen from the dead. In Him, God is writing a better story for you and with you, because He loves you and wants to give you His Name.

Sometimes, in the darkness, God can look like a monster. But when you stand with Jesus, at the end of this million-word wilderness, then you can trust that love moves the story. Listen for it with me, in that light. Listen to the beginning of the book of Job:

There was a man in the Land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright. And one who feared God and turned away from evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, as well as a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

And his sons, they would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day. And they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And so it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them. He would rise up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came and presented themselves before the LORD. And Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth and walking back and forth on it.” The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job—that there is none like him in all the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil?”

Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, and around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” The LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. But do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Now there was a day when the sons and daughters of Job were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. And a messenger came to Job and said to him, “The oxen were plowing in the field, and the donkeys were feeding alongside them, when the Sabeans came and raided them, took them away. Indeed, they killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans! They formed three bands and raided the camels. Indeed, they killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked I have come from my mother’s womb. And naked shall I return. The LORD gave. And the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the LORD.”

In all this, Job did not sin nor did he charge God with wrong.

Again, there was a day when the sons of GOD came to present themselves before the LORD. And Satan also came to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and walking back and forth on it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job—that there is none like him in all the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you have incited Me against him, to destroy him for no reason. Satan answered the LORD, and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life! But now stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. And he struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And Job took for himself a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself as he sat in the midst of the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.”

Job answered and said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not also accept adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

Now Job’s three friends, when they heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place. For they had made an appointment together, to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. But when they lifted up their eyes from afar and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. And no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

That’s the opening of the book of Job. The rest is mostly a long poem, a series of poems. Job and his friends have a battle of poetry over the causes of Job’s suffering. Job’s friends blame Job. Job blames God. In the end, God answers Job with His own poem. But it wasn’t the answer Job wanted. God asks Job about a hundred rhetorical questions, all of which Job would have to answer no. “No, I’m not the Creator. No, I’m not the author of this story. I spoke of things I did not understand,” Job says. “Things too wonderful for me” (see Job 42:3).

Daniel, a friend of mine, tells me that he went through a Job-like experience when he was in high school. He was living a fairy tale sort of life, when one day the bottom dropped out. Everything fell apart. His guidance counselor at school knew that Daniel was a Christian, and he encouraged Daniel to read the book of Job. But not because he wanted to strengthen Daniel’s faith, but to destroy it. He wanted Daniel to curse God, to slander and reject God. One night, Daniel took his advice. He read the whole book of Job from start to finish, all 42 chapters in one sitting.

There’s an illuminating passage from another part of the Old Testament, from 2 Samuel 22. It says that people will see in God what they bring to God. To the crooked, God looks tortuous. To the proud, God looks like a monster. But to those who need mercy, God shows Himself merciful. To those who are broken, God is Savior (see 2 Samuel 22:26-28).

Daniel came to Job that night, broken. He saw Job’s story from the end of the Bible’s million-word wilderness. Daniel sat in the darkness with Job with just a little light of Christ, and he says that it saved his faith.

Now, I recognize the hazard of bringing out all those Harry Potter books for the talk I did with those college students that day. It’s possible that later in the day when someone asked, “What was the talk about?” They might have said, “Uh … he said God was like Professor Snape?”

But here’s the analogy I hope they made, and I hope you’ll make: If a fictional story can transform the way we see an enemy, how much more can the story of Jesus transform our doubt into faith, even when God’s ways are shrouded in darkness and mystery.

When the Harry Potter books first came out in the early 2000s, I read them all aloud to my wife. A decade later, when our kids were older, we listened to them all over again. But then I read them in light of the end, and saw even more the second and third time around. But it didn’t displace the mystery.

The book of Job is not light reading. But Christians read it in the light of Christ, although, for us the end still remains something of a mystery. Some Christians say that Job’s ending seems cheap, like it doesn’t fix anything. Some Christians say it seems promising, like a glimpse of the end, when Jesus returns to raise the dead and restore our losses. Some say it’s a test, and what you see in it reveals your wisdom.

So here it is—listen, and see how you respond. In Job 42, in the end, we learn that God accepted Job. God accepted Job even though Job had said all that nasty stuff about God. And God defended Job. God was angry with Job’s friends who had blamed Job. God told them they were wrong—they didn’t speak the truth about God like Job did. Then God tells Job to pray for his friends. And even though they said all that nasty stuff about him, Job did pray. And God accepted them, too.

Then God restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, God gave Job double from what he had before. And all of Job’s brothers and all his sisters and all who had been his acquaintances from before came to him and ate food with him in his house. And they comforted him and consoled him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one brought him a piece of silver, and each one a ring of gold. And God blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning, for Job had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. And also he had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter, Jemimah. And he called the name of the second daughter Keziah. And he called the name of the third daughter Keren-Happuch. And in all the land, there were no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

After this, Job lived 140 years. And he saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So, Job died, old and full of days” (see Job 42:10-17).

i Thanks to Greg Cohoon and John Fortner for this insight. See https://greg.cohoon.name/seekers/notes/job/overview.html
ii Thanks to Benjamin Prado for this insight. See his essay, “Job or, The Pain With No Solution,” in Revelations: Personal Responses to the Bible, New York: Canongate (2005), 113.
iii Quoted by Charles Frazier in ibid., 99-100.

Reflections for July 6, 2025
Title: Reflections on Job

Mark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Once again, here’s Dr. Mike Zeigler.

Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today I am visiting again with Dr. Tim Saleska, a professor at Concordia Seminary. Thanks for being back here with us, Tim.

Tim Saleska: Really happy to be here, Michael. Thanks.

Mike Zeigler: So we’re talking about Job still. You and I recently got to be a part of this live dramatic reading of Job at Concordia Seminary. Tim, I wanted to ask you, what was your response to hearing that?

Tim Saleska: Well, first of all, yeah, I was thankful just to have that, my really small part, my introduction. But I thought it was amazing, and I was totally shocked and surprised by how powerful it was.

Mike Zeigler: If you wanted to listen to that or watch the video, just search “Book of Job, dramatic reading, Concordia Seminary” on any search engine, and it should pop up. Just look for the website that ends in csl.edu. Job’s a complex book, but one thing at least is clear, is that Job isn’t happy with his friends, and we learn at the end, neither is God.

Tim Saleska: The beginning of the book, remember when Job is sitting in ashes, scraping his boils, his friends sit with him in silence. Wonderful friends, seven days!

Mike Zeigler: Yeah.

Tim Saleska: It’s only when they start opening their mouths that they have problems. Because rather than trying to empathize with Job, they try to get God off the hook and explain God’s ways to him and give him advice, basically, to put it bluntly, how to get God off his back or how to get on God’s good side again.

Mike Zeigler: Again, you hear him say that in chapter 6, verse 14. To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. So what is Job asking for there?

Tim Saleska: It says really an interesting thing, that when people are in pain and suffering, the most important thing is that you sit kindly with them, no matter what their state of mind is or their mood or what they’re saying. Be able to put yourself in their shoes a little bit and minister to them from that perspective, rather than this need we sometimes have, often have, to say the right things and appear good to God.

Mike Zeigler: The person who voiced Job in this reading that we were talking about, the way he spoke that line, that even though he’s kind of saying, “Look, I know I’m talking probably above my pay grade here, but just bear with me here, suffer with me.”

Tim Saleska: Yes. So he had stopped talking like “wise men talk,” and that concerned his friends, because they’re used to working within this piety.

Mike Zeigler: Later then, Job actually gives some advice to his friends about how they could have been better friends. If we could imagine being better friends to someone like Job, what would that look like?

Tim Saleska: That one of the lessons you get with Job is that the friends, in spite of their terrible speech, were willing to sit with Job. They didn’t react well, but they never left him. So I think that it’s really important with a friend that [we] sometimes have to walk a long way with them. As they begin to speak from their hearts, then that gives you an opportunity to respond in a way that will be helpful to them.

Mike Zeigler: What I hear you saying is that we are in that way embodying the Gospel. We are God’s person present in the moment to speak that love for them. Well, would you be that embodied voice for our listeners and give them the blessing after I lead us in praying the Lord’s Prayer?

Tim Saleska: Of course. I’d be happy to.

Mike Zeigler: Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Tim Saleska: The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.

Music Selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.