Then Job answered the Lord:
“Indeed, I am completely unworthy – how could I reply to you?
I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself.
I have spoken once, but I cannot answer;
twice, but I will say no more.” (Job 40:3-5, NET2)
 
Then Job answered the Lord:
“I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted;
you asked,
‘Who is this who darkens counsel
without knowledge?’
But I have declared without understanding
things too wonderful for me to know.
You said,
‘Pay attention, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you will answer me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye has seen you.
Therefore I despise myself,
and I repent in dust and ashes! (Job 42:1-6)
 
Job responds to Satan’s first overture with “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!” (Job 1:21). But by the end of a second overture and thirty-eight chapters, Job turns to accusation—“How unjust is my suffering!” (31:35-40)—and wants nothing less than to say it to God’s face. But then God shows up.
 
I also am a man of accusation. Insomnia kills my productivity. I can’t decide on a career. When my daughter asks to play, I decline. My weaknesses overwhelm me, fear overpowers me, and I obsess, standing shoulder to shoulder with Job: “If God won’t save me, I’ll do it myself.”

But God has already showed up:
“Who though he existed in the form of God
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself
by taking on the form of a slave,
by looking like other men,
and by sharing in human nature.
He humbled himself,
by becoming obedient to the point of death
– even death on a cross!
As a result God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow
– in heaven and on earth and under the earth –
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:6-11)
 
Is he unjust? Uncaring? Impotent? Has he not sacrificed for us even himself?

Arrogance alone informs the accusation in my fear. As if God fudges (2 Cor 12:1-10).
 
God is God, we are wrong, and in and through Christ, he loves us. And as Lent accompanies us toward the celebration of his love, perhaps no posture better suits us than with hands over our mouths.