Dominance hierarchy.

It's not likely that

Job gave the idea a moment's thought,

especially not after the suffering began.

But Job's sufferings were exacerbated

by his inability

to understand just what God was up to.

We can't be sure if Job was being deliberately obtuse,

or he was simply a bit dull.

In any case,

his life became a pathography

of bitterness and despair,

and not until we arrive at today's chapter in the story

is there even a glimmer of hope.

In nature,

dominance hierarchy is a fact of life.

Animals live in groups,

and within each group,

one member is dominant

while the others are submissive,

and it is in the best interest of the submissives

to pick up on their role quickly.

There are perks

for those at the top of the pecking order:

they're given priority when it comes to

food, resting places and mates.

Those who are subordinate

express submissive behaviors

by looking away and lowering head, body or tail.

You might want to ponder this

as we approach Thanksgiving...

I believe

this is what makes

family gatherings difficult...

ongoing rivalry to establish

who is the dominant one.

To show dominance,

elk, for example,

butt heads with rivals,

and some species of African fish

turn bright colors.

Porcupines fling a couple hundred quills

of the 30,000 at their disposal

into the snout of their enemy.

Skunks lift their tails.
Some avoid confrontation

by changing their coloration to avoid detection.

A horned lizard

confronts its enemy

by inflating its rear end

to create the illusion of greater size,

and if that doesn't work,

it squirts blood from its eyes

into the face of the attacker.

Cuttlefish spray an inky fluid,

creating an opaque screen

blocking them from view long enough to escape.

Some species of fish

activate the venomous spines

on their dorsal fin.

The Torpedo electric ray

can deliver a shock of up to 200 volts

for about a second.

Most species have defense mechanisms

to protect themselves against a dominant species or predator.

Predators -

whether natural or divine -

were the last thing Job was thinking about

when trouble visited his house like a whirlwind.

He never knew what hit him.

He didn't have time to run and hide,

and when it was clear he was in trouble...

he tried puffing himself up,

throwing up a smoke screen or two,

he tried putting on a face and saying,

"I'm fine."

and running to the protection

of the chattering men

he called his friends.

Whatever the options,

he wasn't about to cower,

roll over and expose his underbelly.

He wasn't even sure who the predator was.

God? Satan?

Or was it simply a case

of extreme bad luck?

Essentially clueless,

he floundered

while others tried to help him

think his way out of the mess he was in.

Fact is,

all humans have trouble

with the dominance hierarchy.

Yet it's present in virtually every social interaction.

A drop-dead gorgeous model

walks into the room

and male heads snap with whiplash force,

spouses at their elbows notwithstanding.

These spouses

will later accuse their mates

of drooling, cowering, groveling

and of -

given the chance -

exposing more than their underbellies.

The dominance factor

also appears in children

even before the age of 3.

It's more than just a case of

"my toy";

it's a yearning,

a tendency that transcends gender,

implanting itself early in the social landscape.

Research shows that

dominant humans typically

stand straighter

and move more expressively and expansively

like the alpha male of a wolf pack,

head and tail erect.

Handwriting may provide more clues.

Eye contact is a factor.

Body language

also bespeaks the dominant/submissive equation:

eyebrows raised, chin up and full eye contact.

Now another study suggests that

every time we open our mouths

we announce our dominance or submissiveness.

Scholars from Kent State University

taped 25 interviews of

Larry King Live,

focusing on vocal frequencies

below 500 hertz.

Researchers had,

in the past,

ignored these low-frequency sounds

as meaningless noise,

a nonverbal hum

that carries the verbal message.

But they noticed that in all these conversations,

these low hums

of the two speakers converged,

suggesting that the speakers needed

on a subconscious level

to be on the same wavelength.

King modulated his voice

to meet that of a high-ranking person,

such as the President,

while in most cases,

his guests modulated their voices

to meet that of the interviewer.

The most submissive guest

of the shows they taped

was Dan Quayle.

It is this paralanguage

that allows someone,

when listening to a friend on the phone

to interpret

by tonal quality alone

whether that person is talking

to a boss, an employee or a friend.

And herein lies Job's problem.

He either had difficulty

modulating his voice

to meet the low humming of the divine,

or he intractably refused to do so.

He had lost

his sons and daughters,

his house, his flocks, his health

and was estranged from his wife

who presumably had never uttered the words

"for better or for worse,
for richer or for poorer,
in sickness and in health."

Undeterred,

and convinced of the rectitude of his position,

Job kept a power hum going as best he could,

chin up, body straight,

tail erect and full eye contact,

beating his chest

in the face of God.

We're hardly in a position to blame him.

There is nothing to suggest

that he deserved the treatment he was getting.

By all accounts,

he was a righteous man.

And the best account we have

is from God....

"Have you considered my servant Job?"

God says.

"There is no one like him on the earth,

a blameless and upright man who fears God

and turns away from evil" (Job 1:8).

Isn't this all that God asks of anyone,

to be a blameless, upright God-fearing person

who turns away from evil?

What more could be required of a person

than to "do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

Yet, Satan cast aspersions

on his piety

by suggesting that Job was merely

raiding the storeroom of religion

for his personal benefit,

and that his faithfulness

was merely the product of his prosperity.

Satan says,

"Take away the prosperity,

and the faithfulness will die quickly."

Both God and Satan had a point.

Job was certainly

the man God saw him to be,

but he was also someone

whose experience of God

was completely framed by his perception that

God's favor was contingent

upon his good behavior.

His consistent defense

as he sits in the ashes of despair

is that he is undeserving of this treatment:

"I have done nothing wrong,

and in fact have done everything right."

He continues:

"I delivered the poor who cried

and the orphan who had no helper" (Job 29:12).

The apostle James calls that

"pure and undefiled" religion (James 1:27).

Clearly,

Job wasn't like those who,

rather than seeing the problems of people,

see people as problems.

In this high state of annoyance,

Job continues the litany,

making himself sound like

an early version of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mother Teresa:

"I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

I put on righteousness and it clothed me;

my justice was like a robe and a turban.

I was eyes to the blind,

and feet to the lame.

I was a father to the needy,

and I championed the cause of the stranger" (Job 29:13-16).

These facts are not in dispute.

What Job did not understand is that

it was not his concept of himself

that was faulty;

it was his concept of God

that begged for revision.

In the face of inconsolable grief,

Job,

like us,

could do no more than ask the questions,

"Why?" and "Why me?"

Although he had extravagant evidence

of the greatness and dominance of God,

he could not grasp the dominance hierarchy

as it related to him.

He understood his relationship with God as an

"I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." deal.

When the verbal hoohah dies down,

God intervenes,

and immediately points to the problem of the low hum:

"Who is this that darkens counsel

by words without knowledge?" (Job 38:2).

Job is utterly incapable

of modulating his tone, his life,

to match that of the Almighty.

God then lashes at Job saying that

for all his righteous behavior,

he's been acting like a wuss:

"Gird up your loins like a man" (Job 38:3)

and men,

whenever testosterone is at stake,

tend to sit up and listen.

God is direct:

"Where were you

when I laid the foundation of the earth?" (Job 38:4).

The subsequent interrogation

is utterly withering.

And when God is through,

Job is rolling in submission, exposing his underbelly:

"See, I am of small account;

what shall I answer you?" (Job 40:4).

But fawning and groveling

is not what God wants either.

God again says,

"Gird up your loins like a man" (Job 40:7)

and goes after him.

When the dust settles,

Job understands

the dominance hierarchy,

and has a different response:

"I know ...

that no purpose of yours can be thwarted ...

I have uttered

what I did not understand ...

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees you;

therefore I ...

repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:2-6).

Now God and Job are humming.

Now they're talking.

God appreciates

the faithfulness of Job,

and Job "sees" God for the first time

as one who relates to his people as God -

not as an employer

who rewards his employees

with stock options, car toys and a cattle ranch.

And he sees himself

as a faithful servant

who renders his service

not to place God in his debt,

but because it is right and fitting to do so.

The lesson is all about

living by faith,

not by works -

not to mention that

in our conversations with God,

it is always best

to watch our tone of voice.

Sources:

Conniff, Richard. "Want to be boss?" Discover. May, 2000. 73-81.

"Dominance and reproductive success among nonhuman animals: A cross species comparison." Ethology and Sociology, July 1995.

Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.