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When I watched the highly acclaimed film, "The Queen", which dealt mainly with the Queen's reaction to Princess Diana's death and its aftermath, I was struck by the difference between the agenda of the Royal family and the agenda of the public. Tony Blair had only recently become Prime Minister and was portrayed as very much a man of the people, with a clear insight of the way forward for the country. The Queen was portrayed as bemused and incredulous at the public reaction to Diana's death. But as Prince Charles astutely observed in the film, the public Diana was quite a different person from the private Diana known by the royal family.

This meant that the public and the Queen were approaching Diana's death from entirely different points of view, with neither understanding the other point of view. Prince Charles was portrayed as the only royal who had a glimmering perception of what Diana's death meant to the public, and his hands were effectively tied because he was not the head of state. The Queen Mother and the Duke of Edinburgh were shown as very much "old school", but the Queen was deeply troubled, anxious to do the best she possibly could both for her grandsons and for the country but not quite knowing how she should do that. She was also deeply hurt by some of the hostility shown towards her by people who had failed to understand her dilemma.

Misunderstandings and hostility so often occur when people have different agendas but assume that everyone else has the same agenda as them.

Job was a wealthy and upright man who was suddenly struck down by all kinds of misfortune. He lost his wealth and his family and became seriously ill himself wih some kind of unpleasant skin disease.

Three of his friends came to comfort him and give him advice, which basically suggested that Job's misfortune was the result of sin. God, they said, was clearly punishing Job for some sin which might be unrealised by Job. What Job needed to do was to repent and beg God's forgiveness, then all would be well. But Job refused to do this, because he denied that he was a sinner. He had been a good man all his life and he wasn't about to grovel to God for something he hadn't done. In Job's eyes, what had happened to him was unfair and he demanded a meeting face to face with God so that he could challenge God direct.

Meanwhile, a fourth friend suddenly appeared to chat with Job. This friend, Elihu, claimed that God has spoken directly to him, telling him what to say to Job. Elihu believed that he knew how God relates to human beings and he suggested to Job that God had been speaking to him but that Job had been unable to hear or see because of his own anger. Like the other three friends, Elihu believed that Job should accept God's discipline without complaint, confessing his sin of pride.

But still Job refused, maintaining his belief that he was a good man and had done nothing to anger God or to bring shame upon himself. But by now, Job's attitude has changed. At the beginning of the book when his misfortunes start, Job is portrayed as quite passive and accepting of his position even though he claims that it is unfair and that he has done nothing to deserve it. But now much later, after possibly months or years of suffering, Job is potrayed as angry and bitter and hostile towards God. His questions and demands become increasingly vehement and it seems as though his anger and hostility are increased by his friends rather than helped by them.

At last, in today's reading, God answers Job. Surprisingly, God doesn't berate Job for his anger or his hostility or his demands, but begins to point out to Job the glory and the wonder and the vastness of creation, through a series of rhetorical questions. So God responds to Job as an equal, whilst clearly showing Job that Job is far from equal with God and can never understand God's ways.

So God accedes to Job's demands for a meeting, but comes to the meeting from God's own angle. God's agenda is quite different from Job's agenda and God makes it clear who sets the agenda. God never answers Job's questions about why the righteous sometimes suffer, but in several chapters of wonderful imagery displays the universe which God has created.

Job has an experience of the living God which leaves him humble and breathless with a new knowledge of God and eventually Job receives God's final answer, an answer which utterly satisifies him.

God's agenda is not our agenda and God will not be manipulated into responding to our agenda. If' like Job, we wish to meet with God, we must be prepared to meet on God's terms and face the might of the living God.