Comic Relief in the Bible

Often times, we view the Bible as a book that is difficult to read and so rooted in ancient history that it is almost impossible to understand except for a few passages here and there.  But the more we read the bible, the more we realize that some things never change!  The bible is a masterful literary book, inspired by God to help us continue to grow in our faith journey.

A case in point is my daily devotional reading from Job chapter 32 this morning.  You probably know the story of Job.  He is a righteous man who is set up to see if he will give up his faith if bad things happen to him for no reason.  Job is actually a book to explore the theme of trying to understand why bad things happen to people who didn't do anything wrong.

In the course of this story, some friends of Job offer him so not so helpful advice and opinions as to what he needs to do or understand regarding his suffering and how to make sense of it.  Again, the book of Job reminds us that some things never change since people, including close friends will often use worn out cliches to explain away complicated problems and deep theological questions.  If you have ever struggled with why bad things happen to you and have found the shallow advice of well meaning acquaintances to not be helpful, this story of Job becomes your story.

In the midst of this long story of Job, another of his friends, the youngest of them, Elihu finally gets the courage to speak up and offer his two cents beginning in chapter 32.  Before he offers his thoughts, he makes a big deal about why he hasn't already spoken.  It's because people who are older are usually far more wise and have more helpful things to say (which is generally true, but in the case of the story of Job, they have only offered shallow answers to this point.)

So, it appears that there might be a breakthrough in this long story.  Perhaps the answer to this complicated question as to why bad things happen to the righteous will come from an unlikely source, a young adult who doesn't have a lot of life experience.

Wrong!  Enter the comic relief of this young buck who thinks he has the answer and he basically says that Job should accept the fact that he'll never figure this out and that God will not speak to him anyway.  Imagine this guy's surprise when immediately after he offers his long speech to Job, which wasn't helpful anyway, God actually does speak to Job!   God's timing is perfect!  When God started speaking to Job, I would have loved to have seen the facial expression of this young man.  Priceless!

The point of Job is that instead of settling for easy answers as to why bad things happen, we need to continue to trust in God in the midst of our questions.  And we need to remember that it's often our presence that is most helpful for people who are going through difficult times.  Sure, our words can be important, especially words of comfort, but we need to be cautious about relying on shallow answers.

This is an example of how the bible isn't so difficult to read after all.  It even uses comic relief to speak a relevant word to us living in the 21st century just as it did for people over two thousand years ago who were wondering about the same difficult and complicated questions that we continue to face today.