The Face of God
In the face of suffering, seeing the face of God
Published in International Christian Response magazine, Volume 3, Number 2, Spring 2004.
by Stephen Bau, April 30, 2004
As I reflect on the people I met and the stories I heard during my trip to Beijing and Seoul in January 2004. I realize the life-changing impact that they have had on me. Meeting face to face these living heroes of our faith, I experienced a stunning realization as I read once again the story of Job. This book has been called the oldest book in the Bible, yet its message of redemption and restoration from the depths of suffering and despair may have more relevance today than ever.
Job had lost everything: his family, his wealth and possessions, and his health. Three friends sought to comfort and console him, but instead each man took turns maligning his reputation. In trying to defend his character, Job was able to silence his critics. Yet another individual, Elihu, enters the story to give an answer to Job’s sufferings.
One passage in particular struck me as I read Elihu’s speech. I had always read this text wondering why Job must sit through the ramblings of yet one more person, this time a brash, young know-it-all, spouting trite human wisdom for one of life’s most perplexing and daunting problems: the problem of pain and suffering. But this time, I saw something different; I saw the face of God.
Elihu claimed to possess wisdom and understanding and to have within him the spirit and breath of the Almighty. This spirit, he asserts, compels him to speak. Elihu explains how God speaks: in a dream (33:15); through pain and suffering (33:19); by a messenger of God (33:23).
Yet if there is an angel at their side, a messenger, one out of a thousand, sent to tell them how to be upright, and he is gracious to that person and says to God, ‘Spare them from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for them — let their flesh be renewed like a child’s; let them be restored as in the days of their youth’ — then that person can pray to God and find favor with him, they will see God’s face and shout for joy; he will restore them to full well-being. And they will go to others and say, ‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right, but I did not get what I deserved. God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’
The words, “he sees God’s face,” leapt off the page. These are the words Job uses to answer God after he has spoken out of the storm:
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job claimed he had seen God. Did he see him in the storm? What would there have been to see?
No, Job saw the face of God in Elihu. God never said the words, “Listen now, and I will speak.” These are the words of Elihu (see 32:10; 33:1; 33:31; 34:2; 34:10; 34:18). God, speaking out of the storm, begins by saying, “Who is this who darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” (38:2) In saying this, God is agreeing with the words of Elihu: “So Job opens his mouth with empty talk; without knowledge he multiplies words.” (35:16) Only Elihu, of the four who spoke to Job, was not reprimanded for the things he spoke of God. The name Elihu means He is my God Himself.
Here in the book of Job, the oldest book of the Bible, is God’s message of redemption for a world in pain and suffering. Jesus has come to be the angel that Elihu spoke of, our mediator, to show us how to live a righteous life, to show us grace and to spare us from the judgment we deserve by dying in our place and being our ransom. Through Jesus, we can find favour with God, we see God’s face and we are restored.
When thinking about persecution and suffering, I find that Jesus is the only one who has experienced it most undeservedly. The Creator of the universe became a man to experience persecution, suffering and death that he might be our comforter and saviour. How can we consider it all joy when we face trials of many kinds? Because it is in the face of suffering that we see the face of God. In suffering, we understand his grace and his love — he who came to be our ransom and sacrifice.
As I think about the people I have met during my brief travels in China and South Korea, I realize that I have looked into the face of God. These servants of Jesus bear the image of God as they sacrifice their lives to bring the good news of God’s salvation. One woman left South Korea to be the face of God to Chinese children. One man was the face of God to orphans from North Korea. These orphans in turn desire to return to their country to be the face of God to their own people. Another woman risks her safety by entering North Korea to be the face of God to those she meets.
In the faces of the people I met, I have seen the face of God. My ears had heard of them, but now I have seen them. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. I can do no more but to offer this jar of clay, for he understands that we are but dust. Yet, out of the dust, God has created mankind in his own image. To everyone we meet, we have the opportunity to bear the image of God as we imitate the life of Christ, who came to forgive, to serve and to love the world by giving his life.
Fifteen years later, my perspective on life is a little different than it was all those years ago. Christians have proven themselves to be Job’s comforters. There are people who are suffering because of the world that Christians have made in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Doctrine of Discovery, and Manifest Destiny. The White American Evangelical answer to their suffering is the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. The saviour has been recast as an old, white reality television celebrity, because the followers of Christ do not recognize the face of God in the strangers on the other side of the borders and walls and the widows, orphans, and aliens in their midst. The indigenous peoples who have lost everything continue to be under the threat of corporate industrial expansion to appropriate land, destroy ecosystems, and extract resources to generate capital, because corporations are more valuable than humans.
Arctic
In August of 2019, Michael Gungor, Science Mike, William Matthews, and Jamie Lee Finch embarked on a trip to the Arctic circle to experience some of the last untouched wilderness on the planet and hear from the Gwich’in people. The Gwich’in are Athabaskan-speaking Indigenous peoples who lives in the Arctic region of Alaska and Canada. Their sacred lands include areas within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In September 2019, the Trump Administration said it would “seek to open up the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, picking the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling” to cite The Washington Post. The violence and destruction caused by the removal of long standing protections by the United States is difficult to overstate. This episode is the story of our trip to that area, and what we learned from the people there.
Change
How we experience it, and how we can navigate change in our lives
Some changes are normal and happen every day, while others are higher stakes and affect every area of our lives. Whether they took place in our childhood or occurred later in life, changes often make us feel scared or anxious because of the unknowns they bring with them.
In this episode, William, Hillary, and Vishnu have a conversation about change, how we experience it, and how we can navigate change in our lives.
Cultural Imperialism
I came across this book on Friday.
We tend to look at technology as the subject of our concerns, and human society—human beings ourselves—as the objects being acted upon. In part this is because we no longer use our technologies so much as our technologies use us. With every swipe of our fingers, our smart phone gets smarter about us, even as we get dumber about it.
Indeed, as long as we attempt to understand technology by the content pouring through its many screens, we will remain clueless about its real impact on our cultural, economic, and planetary environment. We simply become part of a feedback loop between people and a media landscape that is programmed to keep us distracted, atomized, and powerless.
Douglas Rushkoff, Foreword to Beyond the Valley by Ramash Srinivasan.
The Generational Divide
Speaking at the beginning of the UN’s Climate Action Summit on Monday, the 16-year-old acclaimed climate activist Greta Thunberg, was unsparing in her criticism of world leaders, telling them that they are still “not mature enough to tell it like it is”.
“The eyes of all future generations are upon you, and if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you.” Greta Thunberg, Climate Activist
She added, bluntly, “you are failing us, But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you, and if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you.”
