Today’s Scripture Reading (May 15,
2015): Job 30
I recently watched the 2007 movie “Into the Wild.” The movie is the story
of the life and death of Chris McCandless. McCandless was a young adventurer
who dreamed of living for a few months off of the land in Alaska. But McCandless
was unprepared for the experience. While he desired to live off of the land,
the evidence seems to lead us to the conclusion that McCandless just couldn’t
find enough to eat to keep him alive during his stay in the Alaskan wild. At
one point, realizing that he was in trouble, McCandless attempted to walk out,
but his way was blocked by a fast moving river that had been nothing more than a
slow moving creek when his journey began. McCandless then returned to the bus
that he had been using as his home since he entered the wilderness. The movie
argues that McCandless death was due to unintentional poisoning – he ate plants
that should never have been ingested. But when McCandless body was found by
hunters a couple of weeks after his tragic death, he weighed only 66 pounds.
The cause of death on his death certificate was simple – starvation.
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| Chris McCandless and his "Magic Bus" |
At some
point near the end of his life, McCandless wrote a note intended for anyone who
might happen along the Stampede Trail and stop by his “magic bus.” The note
read:
Attention Possible Visitors. S.O.S. I need your help. I am
injured, near death, and too weak to hike out. I am all alone, this is no joke.
In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close
by and shall return this evening. Thank you, Chris McCandless. August?
McCandless
journal indicates that he was scared and quickly losing hope. His last journal
entry was written on August 12, 1992. His lifeless body was found by hunters on
September 6, 1992. He had been in the Alaskan bush for four months.
Scholars
have argued that this passage in Job is unintelligible. Their argument seems to
be that it simply can’t mean what is seems to mean, that Job is accusing God of
assaulting him at the time in his life when he was most helpless and asking for
help. But the question that naturally seems to grow out of that argument is “why
is that impossible?” It seems to be the one of the most natural of our
reaction. We often seem to be disturbed by God’s silence. One of the cries that
I hear frequently from suffering people is in the form of a question – what have
I done to anger God in this way? And if that is our reaction, why is it
impossible that it might be Job’s – that Job might misinterpret the silence of
God for the anger of God. Again, we have the advantage of knowing the heavenly
argument in the beginning and the God blessed end of the story. But at this
point neither of these things are known to Job. And in the presence of his
friends and what we might call their worldly wisdom, Job’s faith is beginning to
falter. Maybe God is not who Job believed God to be.
The tragedy
of McCandless’ death is that it simply did not have to be that way. If he could
have hung on for just a little longer he could have been found. On his attempt
to escape the Alaskan Wild, there was a hand drawn trolley that would have
taken him safely across the river less than a mile from where he confronted the
raging water. McCandless simply didn’t know it was there. If he had a map with
him he could have found his way out. If he was better prepared for the Alaskan
wilderness he could have survived. But the silence that greeted his S.O.S. note
was not because no one cared – even though in those dying moments in the bus I
am sure that is the way that McCandless felt. And I am sure of that because it
is the way that we all feel when our suffering meets with silence – and it is
in those moments that we need to remind ourselves that we are loved by God, and
by others, in spite of the silence. To argue that that type of a reaction was
impossible for Job is to deny Job’s humanity – to say that he was not like us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 31
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