Taking a look at Job 6:1-7 this morning.
Then Job answered and said:
Oh that my vexation were weighed,
and all my calamity laid in the balances!
For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
therefore my words have been rash.
For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass,
or the ox low over his fodder?
Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,
or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow?
My appetite refuses to touch them;
they are as food that is loathsome to me.
Could you be this honest with God?
What is Job saying here?
It is poetic and draws much from the life and times of his world.
How would we say it today?
I'm totally freaking out as all my troubles have piled up so high.
My troubles would be heavier than all the sand on a southern California beach.
I feel as if God is trying to kill me!
A dog who spends a day at Chateau Marmutt will wage his tail.
A dog who gets her Eukanuba will thrive.
So don't mind me if I am too upset to eat. My life feels like bland oatmeal and tastes like flat soda.
A few weeks back, I had the chance to hear Prof. John Goldingay share his perspective on Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes. One interesting point that come up was the whole idea of what can we say to God?
We concluded with this idea: you know the marriage is over when the couple stops talking.
Indeed, a big part of the life of faith is about interacting with God however imperfectly. Whether is it Abraham "bargaining" with God, Jacob wrestling for the blessing, Peter's impulsive statements, Martha scrambling around or doubting Thomas.
Lord, I sometimes have my list of complaints. Thank you that I'm allowed to bring them to you. Lord, you help me to put my situation into perspective with your Scriptures and the peace you often grant to me as I pray. I have friends who have cancer and I pray for them right now. Give them grace to endure. If their life is nearing the end, then give them peace and hope in you. If they are to remain in this world then give them strength to endure for however long and if possible perhaps even remission. By life or by death may they know your love and the love of family and friends. Amen.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Job 5:1-27
Took a little time off from Job but am back to it with Job 5 this morning.
Job had finally spoken in chapter 3 and then Eliphaz replied in chapter 4 and continues here in chapter 5.
Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Surely vexation kills the fool,
and jealousy slays the simple.
I have seen the fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
His children are far from safety;
they are crushed in the gate,
and there is no one to deliver them.
The hungry eat his harvest,
and he takes it even out of thorns,
and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
For affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.
Eliphaz sounds like a realist! People get what they deserve. He believed that fools get what they deserve. Their kids get endangered, people steal their food and trouble just follows them like stuck toilet paper.
The not so subtle implication is: Job you got problems because you deserve them!
Eliphaz continued ...
As for me, I would seek God,
and to God would I commit my cause,
who does great things and unsearchable,
marvelous things without number:
he gives rain on the earth
and sends waters on the fields;
he sets on high those who are lowly,
and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.
He catches the wise in their own craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
They meet with darkness in the daytime
and grope at noonday as in the night.
But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth
and from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts her mouth.
Eliphaz says you got to turn to God and he will set everything right. We all have a sense of the way things are and should be and find the above is generally true. Eliphaz's observations generally hold true: fools usually do get into trouble, the wicked get their just desserts and that God is good to the downtrodden. But ... we see enough exceptions to have out doubts.
I suppose those who don't believe in God might see Eliphaz's positive spin as wishful thinking and that life is just one big dice game and a spin of the roulette wheel.
Eliphaz continues to give correct sounding religious answers ...
Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal.
He will deliver you from six troubles;
in seven no evil shall touch you.
In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.
You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,
and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
You shall know that your tent is at peace,
and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
You shall know also that your offspring shall be many,
and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
Hear, and know it for your good.
Do we disagree with a word spoken here by Eliphaz?
Those who believe God to be fair and just and a helper of people would counsel the same as Eliphaz.
But ...
Job is sitting there sickly and sorrowful as he has lost everything and everyone in his life. The "deviation from the norm" always bugs us. We always need a reason for everything. Why is it that we feel like we got a rock in our shoe when stuff goes wrong?
If the "game" of life is just a hand of poker then you play what you got, bluff or fold 'em. We have no just cause to complain.
But for some reason deep within there is the sense that things aren't the way they are supposed to be. Is this the cost of free will?
And what to do with the silences of God?
Do we need constant reassurance that God is out there?
We live in the era of modern communication. We are never far away from reassurances that we are loved by others. Beloved friends and family are an email away, a phone call away, a hop in the car or a ride in the plane.
Not so long ago, loved ones could be separated for various reasons and the only link between them would be pen and paper and mail service that could take weeks. Did loved ones doubt the solidity of their beloved's love? I'm sure they did on occasion and how much joy there must have been with each communication!
We might shout, God has the best technology after all, God is God, so why doesn't God send a daily or even an hourly message to us to let us know God cares?
I don't know.
Why did it matter to God that Job was a righteous man? Why did God believe that Job would demonstrate trust in God even amidst loss and suffering?
I don't know.
Lord, Job's trust in you meant something to you. By extension, my trusting you and living my life rightly matters to you. I do often wish for a burning bush or an angelic visitation or a booming voice from the sky. I haven't gotten any of those things. But I have Jesus. You have preserved his teachings and deeds. His life, death and resurrection is exhibit A pointing to your concern for the affairs of this world. And you have found other ways to let me know you are out there paying attention. And you have asked me to join you in doing work in this world. Help me to be faithful in that even if at times I have doubt. Amen.
Job had finally spoken in chapter 3 and then Eliphaz replied in chapter 4 and continues here in chapter 5.
Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Surely vexation kills the fool,
and jealousy slays the simple.
I have seen the fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
His children are far from safety;
they are crushed in the gate,
and there is no one to deliver them.
The hungry eat his harvest,
and he takes it even out of thorns,
and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
For affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.
Eliphaz sounds like a realist! People get what they deserve. He believed that fools get what they deserve. Their kids get endangered, people steal their food and trouble just follows them like stuck toilet paper.
The not so subtle implication is: Job you got problems because you deserve them!
Eliphaz continued ...
As for me, I would seek God,
and to God would I commit my cause,
who does great things and unsearchable,
marvelous things without number:
he gives rain on the earth
and sends waters on the fields;
he sets on high those who are lowly,
and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.
He catches the wise in their own craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
They meet with darkness in the daytime
and grope at noonday as in the night.
But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth
and from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts her mouth.
Eliphaz says you got to turn to God and he will set everything right. We all have a sense of the way things are and should be and find the above is generally true. Eliphaz's observations generally hold true: fools usually do get into trouble, the wicked get their just desserts and that God is good to the downtrodden. But ... we see enough exceptions to have out doubts.
I suppose those who don't believe in God might see Eliphaz's positive spin as wishful thinking and that life is just one big dice game and a spin of the roulette wheel.
Eliphaz continues to give correct sounding religious answers ...
Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal.
He will deliver you from six troubles;
in seven no evil shall touch you.
In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.
You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,
and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
You shall know that your tent is at peace,
and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
You shall know also that your offspring shall be many,
and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
Hear, and know it for your good.
Do we disagree with a word spoken here by Eliphaz?
Those who believe God to be fair and just and a helper of people would counsel the same as Eliphaz.
But ...
Job is sitting there sickly and sorrowful as he has lost everything and everyone in his life. The "deviation from the norm" always bugs us. We always need a reason for everything. Why is it that we feel like we got a rock in our shoe when stuff goes wrong?
If the "game" of life is just a hand of poker then you play what you got, bluff or fold 'em. We have no just cause to complain.
But for some reason deep within there is the sense that things aren't the way they are supposed to be. Is this the cost of free will?
And what to do with the silences of God?
Do we need constant reassurance that God is out there?
We live in the era of modern communication. We are never far away from reassurances that we are loved by others. Beloved friends and family are an email away, a phone call away, a hop in the car or a ride in the plane.
Not so long ago, loved ones could be separated for various reasons and the only link between them would be pen and paper and mail service that could take weeks. Did loved ones doubt the solidity of their beloved's love? I'm sure they did on occasion and how much joy there must have been with each communication!
We might shout, God has the best technology after all, God is God, so why doesn't God send a daily or even an hourly message to us to let us know God cares?
I don't know.
Why did it matter to God that Job was a righteous man? Why did God believe that Job would demonstrate trust in God even amidst loss and suffering?
I don't know.
Lord, Job's trust in you meant something to you. By extension, my trusting you and living my life rightly matters to you. I do often wish for a burning bush or an angelic visitation or a booming voice from the sky. I haven't gotten any of those things. But I have Jesus. You have preserved his teachings and deeds. His life, death and resurrection is exhibit A pointing to your concern for the affairs of this world. And you have found other ways to let me know you are out there paying attention. And you have asked me to join you in doing work in this world. Help me to be faithful in that even if at times I have doubt. Amen.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Job 4:1-21
Checking out Job chapter four this evening.
Previously, unknown to Job, Satan and God discussed Job's faithfulness. Satan believed if Job's health, family and possession are taken away, Job would turn against God. God doesn't think that will happen. Job is left in sack clothes and ashes. Three of his friends show up and they don't say anything for 7 days. Job finally speaks in chapter 3 lamenting his situation.
In chapter four, Eliphaz responded to Job ...
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
This sounds a lot like, physician heal thyself!
I suppose there are times when you tell someone, snap out of it! I don't know if Job's situation is one of them. In the scale of loss one can experience, he has pinned the needle. These kinds of changes are difficult on anyone. Check here to see how much life change you are facing.
Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Today, we look at the animal kingdom and think, oh, the warm fuzzy nice animals. But the reality is that lions either eat somebody or they starve to death!
And so we look at our lives and figure, the innocent will be vindicated and the bad guys punished. This is true often enough that we expect it. But it is not true often enough that we feel outrage!
Nonetheless, Eliphaz felt the need to emphasize that the innocent don't perish.
He continues with the corollary thought ...
Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received the whisper of it.
Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard a voice:
"Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like the moth.
Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
do they not die, and that without wisdom?"
So what is the answer to Eliphaz?
Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Eliphaz is arguing:
(1) If the innocent don't perish
(2) If no one can be right and pure before God
Then ...
(3) Job you aren't innocent which makes sense because no one is right and pure before God anyway!
Eliphaz is right up to a point. But Job did offer sacrifices for the sins of his children. I would assume he would offer sacrifices for his own sins too. Thus, to the extent possible, he sought to be right with God and pure before God.
But the fact remains: Job has lost everything. When bad things happen, we assume it is sin. It might be - when one drinks and drives terrible things can happen. But then again, sometimes bad things happen to people through no fault of their own.
Its an existential question we all face. We like a tidy explanation and it bugs us when there isn't one.
Lord, help me to seek you. Help me to be discerning about the things that happen in my life. Some of the things, I really do need to take responsibility for. But some of them ... it might really be that it isn't my fault. So for the things I can do something about, please give me the strength, the will and the wisdom to correct. And for the rest, help me to give it over to you. Amen.
Previously, unknown to Job, Satan and God discussed Job's faithfulness. Satan believed if Job's health, family and possession are taken away, Job would turn against God. God doesn't think that will happen. Job is left in sack clothes and ashes. Three of his friends show up and they don't say anything for 7 days. Job finally speaks in chapter 3 lamenting his situation.
In chapter four, Eliphaz responded to Job ...
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
This sounds a lot like, physician heal thyself!
I suppose there are times when you tell someone, snap out of it! I don't know if Job's situation is one of them. In the scale of loss one can experience, he has pinned the needle. These kinds of changes are difficult on anyone. Check here to see how much life change you are facing.
Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Today, we look at the animal kingdom and think, oh, the warm fuzzy nice animals. But the reality is that lions either eat somebody or they starve to death!
And so we look at our lives and figure, the innocent will be vindicated and the bad guys punished. This is true often enough that we expect it. But it is not true often enough that we feel outrage!
Nonetheless, Eliphaz felt the need to emphasize that the innocent don't perish.
He continues with the corollary thought ...
Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received the whisper of it.
Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard a voice:
"Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like the moth.
Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
do they not die, and that without wisdom?"
So what is the answer to Eliphaz?
Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Eliphaz is arguing:
(1) If the innocent don't perish
(2) If no one can be right and pure before God
Then ...
(3) Job you aren't innocent which makes sense because no one is right and pure before God anyway!
Eliphaz is right up to a point. But Job did offer sacrifices for the sins of his children. I would assume he would offer sacrifices for his own sins too. Thus, to the extent possible, he sought to be right with God and pure before God.
But the fact remains: Job has lost everything. When bad things happen, we assume it is sin. It might be - when one drinks and drives terrible things can happen. But then again, sometimes bad things happen to people through no fault of their own.
Its an existential question we all face. We like a tidy explanation and it bugs us when there isn't one.
Lord, help me to seek you. Help me to be discerning about the things that happen in my life. Some of the things, I really do need to take responsibility for. But some of them ... it might really be that it isn't my fault. So for the things I can do something about, please give me the strength, the will and the wisdom to correct. And for the rest, help me to give it over to you. Amen.
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