约伯记中的上帝Any Place for the God of Job?
作者: Carl Trueman 翻译: 诚之
http://www.alliancenet.org/mos/postcards-from-palookaville/any-place-for-the-god-of-job#.V0b_gpF97IU
约伯在整本书中都不知道他为何会受苦，但是我们知道这是上帝和控告者（撒但）之间的赌局，约伯的受苦其实真正的原因是因为他对上帝的敬虔，而这是撒但想要测验的。约伯在最后的论述（31章）中似乎已经落到忧郁症的地步，而这是非常合理的，毕竟他失去了一切。
Preaching
through Job recently, I was very struck by the Lord's final intervention. Job
has suffered incredibly throughout the book; and we, the readers, know that
none of this is his fault. It is the result of the battle between God and the
Accuser and, if anything, Job's suffering is thus the result of his devotion to
the Lord, which Satan wishes to test. And by the end of Job's last big speech
(Job 31) he is depressed, and with good reason. The man has lost everything.
当神最后出现在这个受了百般苦难的约伯面前时，竟然是在旋风中显现的，而不是以微小的声音临到。你如果查一查圣经中旋风这个字，看它出现的场景是什么样子，你大概会发现，那绝对不是一种很亲切、安祥的画面。此外，耶和华对他说的话，基本的意思就是要他像个男人，振作起来，虽然不是要他认罪悔改，但是也不是给他安慰，而是给他好好地上了一堂神的伟大与神的主权的神学课。而当约伯被说得哑口无言时，耶和华继续无情地对他施压，描述了两只可怕的怪兽，河马和鳄鱼。如果Robert Fyall是对的（我认为他是）【译按：应该是指这本书：Now My Eyes Have
Seen You: Images of Creation and Evil in the Book of Job [New Studies in
Biblical Theology] 提到的http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/1187/nm/】，那么，鳄鱼就是暗指撒但；如此，就是只有在这里，上帝才给了约伯一点真正的帮助，因为祂把后台的布幕稍微拉开一点，让约伯了解到，他的受苦只是比他所可能想象到的宇宙更为复杂的宇宙的一部分而已。而不管我们的经验是怎么说的，耶和华对这个最复杂的宇宙有着最终极、最完全的掌控。
When
God finally comes to Job, to this man who has suffered so much devastation, it
is stunning that he comes in the whirlwind. No still small voice here: he comes
in the whirlwind (and a brief search of 'whirlwind' passages in the Old
Testament indicates that is not indicative of what we might call good bedside
manner). Further, the Lord tells Job to arm himself as a man ('man up', I
guess, would be the modern cliché) and then, rather than telling Job to deal
with his own sin or even expressing the tiniest fragment of sympathy for him in
his suffering, he subjects Job to a blistering lecture about divine greatness
and sovereignty. Then, when Job has been crushed into silence, the Lord pushes
on relentlessly, describing two terrifying beasts, Behemoth and Leviathan. If
Robert Fyall's exegesis is correct (and I believe it is) then Leviathan is
Satan; thus, only at this point does God offer any real help (as we might
understand it) to Job, as he lifts the curtain just a little and allows Job to
grasp that his suffering is a function of a greater and more complicated
universe than he can possibly imagine, and that, whatever the empirical facts,
the Lord has ultimate and overall control.
当我讲这段信息时，我强调一个事实，就是以今日世界的标准来说，甚至是以现代的牧养神学来说，耶和华怎么看都是个失败者。祂太唐突，太严厉，太缺乏同情心。特别是耶和华明知道约伯所受的苦不是因为他犯了什么罪或心里怀着恶念，这会更让人感到惊讶。约伯不必为他所受的苦负任何责任，这是约伯记整本书基本的前提。然而耶和华却在旋风中临到。这不是牧者该有的心肠吧，不是吗？
As I
preached on this passage, I highlighted the fact that, by the criteria of
today's world, even by the criteria of modern pastoral theology, the Lord is a
total failure. Far too abrupt, harsh and unsympathetic. This is even more
striking, given that the Lord knows that Job's suffering is nothing to do with
any specific sin Job has committed or harbours in his heart. Job is not
responsible for his own suffering: that is, after all, the basic premise of the
book.Yet the Lord comes in the whirlwind. Not exactly touchy-feely pastoral, is
it?
耶和华知道约伯的受苦不是约伯的错。因此，祂并没有告诉约伯省察自己，革除他的罪。另外，祂似乎对约伯没有表示任何的同情；祂在旋风中责备约伯，祂没有给他温柔鼓励的话，甚至一直到最后一章，直到约伯献祭，为他的朋友代求之后，上帝才恢复了约伯。我们也应该问，约伯被恢复的程度有多么完全？毕竟他失去的是十个孩子。是的，他又得了十个孩子。但是，孩子不是iPod，每个孩子都是独特的个体，是无可取代的。而且这些都和约伯自己的罪无关。
The
Lord knows Job's suffering is not Job's fault. Thus, he does not tell Job to
examine himself to root out his sin. Further, he seems to show no sympathy for
Job; he berates him from the whirlwind; he offers no kind words of
encouragement; and he does not even restore Job until after the sacrifice and
intercession of the last chapter. We should also ask: how complete was Job's
restoration? This man had lost ten children. Yes, he receives ten more. But
children are not like iPods: they have individual identities, faces, histories,
personalities. The loving father knows that each and every one of his children
is, quite literally, irreplaceable. How many nights in later life would Job
have lain awake, remembering with a broken heart the names and faces and the
stories and the good times of his first children? And none of this was anything
to do with Job's own sins or faults.
约伯记给我们的功课是很明显的：这是一个非常复杂、堕落和邪恶的世界；基督徒一定会受苦——嘿，我们最后都难逃一死，不管我们在其中有多么快活，所以，我们最好赶快适应这种观念；基督徒也会得忧郁症，正如他们也会得癌症和中风一样；而认为这些事情一定是信心不够，是我们个人的罪，和我们对生命的看法，或任何出于我们自己的原因，这样的观念是荒谬的，也是不合圣经的。如果你的教牧神学没有努力解决约伯记最后，在旋风中说话的神的问题，你的神学就是不足的；而你的讲道，若没有考虑到这些事情，就不是合乎圣经的讲道。我们也许可以再加上约伯记里一个重要的功课（这个功课也是诗篇所教导的）：
The
lessons of Job are manifold but it seems that a few rather stand out: this is
aJob family.jpg complicated, fallen, evil world; Christians can expect to
suffer - hey, we all die in the end, no matter how jolly we might feel at
points in the interim, so we had better get used to the idea; Christians are no
more exempt from depression than they are from cancer or strokes; and the idea
that these things are necessarily linked to our lack of faith, to our personal
sin, to our outlook on life, or, indeed, to anything intrinsic to us, is
nonsense and unbiblical. A pastoral theology which has not grappled with the
whirlwind and the speeches of the last part of Job is sub-biblical; and
preaching which does not take these things into account is not biblical
preaching. One might add that perhaps one of the key lessons of Job (and the
Psalms, for that matter) is:
如果你感到心情低沉、感到忧郁，不是什么了不起的事。忧郁会让人感到害怕，恐怖和黑暗。但是这件事未必是你犯了罪，就和癌症和中风未必是你犯了罪一样。最重要的是，这不表示你被上帝遗忘了，即使上帝似乎都总是在旋风中出现在你面前；而最后，这也不表示你不会与荣耀的复活有份，到那时，这个世界所有的劳苦都会如往事云烟，会被我们抛诸脑后。
it is
OK to be depressed. It is horrible and grim and dark. But it may not be your
fault, any more than cancer or a stroke are your fault. Above all, it does not
mean that you are forgotten by God, even if God only ever seems to come to you
in the whirlwind; and, finally, it does not mean that you will not participate
in the glorious resurrection when all the travails of this world will be
definitively left behind.?
