God’s Trouble Replying to Questions of Suffering in 2 Esdras (so far…)

AFBR 

I am reading the Apocrypha now, the version found in the Oxford Annotated Revised Standard Version. I had almost decided to skip it and just go back to the Protestant books, but I realized that I was snubbing a vast portion of the present Christian world and the majority of the Christian Church through the ages. I am glad I didn’t ignore this collection, as it is rewarding – so far. 

I am in 2 Esdras right now, through chapter 6, and want to make some observations. But first, a bit of context.

According to the scholarly introduction, the first drafts (or chapter versions) were written during the first century CE by an unknown Jewish author, then added to during the next few centuries by various Christian scribes. The book is presented as visions given to the prophet Ezra, called the Seer, by the Most High via several angels and recounts the suffering and Biblical history of the Jews of Palestine. The text deals with hard questions of theodicy – that is, how to account for the extreme and prolific suffering of the Hebrews (and the question can be expanded, I believe, to humans in general) given that God claims to love them and has made promises to take care of His people, a people that God made the world for (see 2 Esdras 6:55 and 7:11).

Several things strike me at this point, and I want to get them down here before moving on.

First, there is a strong parallel between 2 Esdras and the Book of Job, which I wrote about earlier (see The Tragedy and the Farce of Job). In Job, there is one suffering servant of the Lord, not necessarily a Hebrew, stricken down in myriad ways by both God and Satan to demonstrate both God’s power and Job’s resolve. Here, though, the lone Seer is asking about God’s use or allowance of suffering not so much for himself, as for the Chosen People of the Lord. But the themes are so similar as to reward a parallel reading, I believe.

Second, the questions that both Job and the Seer ask are more prescient and wise than the answers the Lord gives (or his angels submit on His behalf). The questions are deep and penetrating in both books and anger the Lord so much that His answers seem vacant and immature. In short, to both Job and Ezra, God says, ‘You can’t possibly understand the ways of the most powerful! [Oz?]’ and uses a might makes right theme to hold standing in the exchanges. This is, to say the least, unsatisfying, especially coming from a most powerful Creator that I’d assume could explain things like this with more understanding.

Let’s just look at a representative exchange in 2 Esdras.

In 3:28 and following, the Seer asks why the Lord has given His Chosen over to the Babylonians – has allowed Israel to be conquered – if the Babylonians are, 1. No better morally than the Hebrews, and, 2. The Jews are whom God has made promises for salvation to.

‘… Are the deeds of those who in habit Babylon any better? Is that why she has gained dominion over Zion?’ This line of questioning goes on for several verses. In chapter 4, the Lord replies in so many words, that the Seer is not as smart as He is and should just shut up. The Creator answers questions with questions for much of this dialogue. An example in 4:4-5: ‘… If you can solve [one of three problems] for me, I will show you the way… Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me a measure of wind, or call back for me the day that is past’ and presumably the Lord will give coherent answers and not impossible chores as distractions from the questions at hand. This happens many times early in this text. Reminds one of the Book of Job.

Now, to be fair, the Lord, via his angels, does expand a bit in the visions and implies the current suffering of the Jews does have a purpose that is tied to the transition from the ‘old’ age to a ‘new’ age. But this, to my mind, in no way really gets as the WHY of what God is doing and the heart of the questions around theodicy that Ezra raises.

One might jump in here and say that of course the Hebrews have suffered under Babylon and other nations because they broke God’s (really one-sided) Covenant by disobeying the Lord’s laws and that He’d promised to give them over to the other nations. But, again, this does not answer the question of just why He used this method of punishment; why have the evil ones thrived and the Chosen suffered – and do so much of the time even as God slams those who don’t take care of the poor, the widow, the orphan, et al. Why is God not taking care of his orphaned people in a way that makes sense to the Seer?

The perfect God of both Job and 2 Esdras seems ill-equipped to handle the tough questions, at least so far. This former believer will keep reading and see if some better answers arise.