Year 2, Day 120: Job 26

Mocking

I think that there are three topics about which we can speak today.  The first is quick and easy: Job’s mocking of Bildad (and probably Zophar and Eliphaz).  Job mocks them by saying “Oh, how you have helped him who has no power!”  He then goes on with a few more statements of mocking with respect to his friends.

I think what we can learn out of this passage is just how shallow we appear when we come to people and judge them before we listen to them.  So far, almost the breadth of this book has been an argument between Job and Job’s friends (with neither side being completely right, mind you).  There is no fellowship, companionship, or comfort to be found in this discourse.  What Job really needed was someone to come by and listen to him – and then if necessary to correct him.  What Job got was correction without understanding.

The older I get the more I understand – or at least see – the human impulse to judge.  I even see it in myself and it repulses me.  How quick are we to want to spout advice or criticism without taking time to listen first!  As we see here in Job, the only thing that kind of approach does is bring about arguments and make us appear shallow.

God’s Breadth

The second topic – and a much more positive topic – that I can address is Job’s words about the vastness of God.  When Job speaks these words, I know that he is speaking them with respect to how small we are next to Him.  But as I said yesterday, just because we are small beside Him does not mean that He sees us as small!  We can look to His grandeur and be in awe of it without needing to feel like we are nothing in His sight.  As the old children’s song goes, we are precious in His sight!

Just look at what God can do.  God can hang the planets in their place – even the stars!  God can orchestrate the movements of the heavenly bodies and set them in their course.  God can separate the heaven from the earth and even the water from the dry land.  He can shake the earth, make the earth stand still, calm the weather, settle the restless seas.  He can bring rain or hold it back.  He can even infuse life and sentience into His creation.

God is an impressive God.  For those of us who love Him and humble ourselves before Him, we have plenty about which we can be in awe.  He is literally the master of this universe.  What He can do and what He can keep track of is absolutely incredible.

God’s Nature

The third topic naturally lends itself out of the incredible nature of God.  I was struck by the verses in this chapter about Sheol (the place of the dead, not Hell) being bare before God and Abaddon (the place of destruction) having no covering.  These are really powerful images for me today.

Don’t get me wrong.  I know God sees everything.  I know that in the end all will stand before God and their deeds will be revealed.  Trust me, I get that and I believe it.

But there is something really powerful in thinking about it and pondering it for some time.  Typically we think of death as the point that life ends (or, well, at least is put in some kind of stasis until the resurrection, judgment, and eternal life begins).  We think about death as an ending point.  We are so limited in our perspective that when we think about existence we think only in perspective of our temporal life: birth to death.  In a way, it just goes to show how self-centered we can really be at times!

However, this is not how God sees it.  Job tells us that Sheol is laid bare before God.  God can see into the place of the dead.  There is nothing that is beyond His sight.  I see death as some minor blip on the radar between death and resurrection.  God sees it as a place to gaze upon.  {I don’t know why, and I don’t mean to imply that the dead are actually doing anything.}  I guess I am just awed so much by God and His ability that even the fact that He can look into Sheol is significant – an ability that I cannot grasp because I don’t even know why being able to look into Sheol is significant in the first place!

I guess that’s my third point from this chapter.  God is so awesome that we can be awed by things He can do – even when we don’t understand why it is important that He can do them!  To me that point feels like a really deep learning.  God is so big that not only can we not grasp everything He can do, we can’t even grasp why most of what He does is even necessary in the first place!   

<>< 

Year 2, Day 119: Job 25

Wow.  Job 25 is insanely short.  I don’t know why I felt the need to begin this blog post with a completely non-spiritual comment like that, but I did!  I hope you were surprised to see such a short reading for today! 

Furthermore, you should also know that this little tiny speech is the last we are going to hear from Job’s three friends.  Job will reply to them, then we’ll meet another person in Job’s life, and then we’ll get the ultimate verdict from God.

More of the Same

As we have seen all along with Job’s friends, Bildad speaks out of a true beginning but he ends up in a place that is absolutely not true.  Because his focus is misplaced and his motivation is misguided, he takes truth and ends up teaching untruth. 

Here is Bildad’s first point: compared to God, what is humanity?  From an absolutely human perspective, Bildad has a point.  How can any of us compare when we are placed next to God?  What can I do that has any comparison to the righteousness of God?

Here is Bildad’s second point: how can anyone born of a human being be righteous?  If all are born into sin, how can any of us ever be called righteous?  This is an absolutely logical statement and it is completely rooted in truth.

Yet, both of these points ignore the full breadth of truth.  They begin in a true line of reasoning, but they do not embrace complete truth. Let’s take the first one.  How can anything compare to God?

While the reality is that nothing can compare to God, the full truth is that God still delights in His creation.  As Bildad says, even the sun and the stars may pale in comparison to Him.  But that does not mean that God hasn’t called the light “good.”  {See Genesis 1}  Of course the light is good, even if it pales in comparison to Him.

Yes, none of us can do anything that compares to God.  But that does not mean that He does not rejoice when we turn to Him and follow His ways!  We may be nothing next to God, but that does not mean that God views us as nothing!  In fact, God values us so much that He sent His Son to be like us for our own sake!  We may honestly be nothing compared to God, but God views us as far more than nothing!

With respect to Bildad’s other question about a human being righteous, Job has already declared the full truth.  Job knows that he has an advocate in heaven.  Job’s redeemer lives in heaven and will one day stand upon the earth.  Job has already made both of these points in earlier chapters.  The full truth is that our righteousness comes by God’s own hand!

Bildad’s argument rests upon humanity’s inability to make ourselves righteous.  That is true.  We cannot make ourselves righteous!  But the complete truth rests upon God working outside of what we know to be true in this world.  We cannot be righteous on our own merit, but that does not mean that we cannot be righteous.  It means that we must turn to God and rely upon Him for our righteousness.

From the perspective of this temporal age, Bildad is absolutely right.  Mankind is nothing more than a maggot.  But thanks be to God that we do not need to live according to the perspective of this age!  We can live according to God’s perspective which places value upon us in spite of our obvious failings.  We can see ourselves as something more than maggots.  We can see ourselves as treasured and valued beings in God’s eye.

This is the grace of God superimposing itself upon the truth of humanity.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 118: Job 24

Troubling Perception

Job 24 troubles me today – because I know where my thoughts are leading me and I will need to be careful.  You see, Job 24:1 sets the whole tone for this chapter.  Job 24:1 is all about Job not understanding God’s sense of timing.  Job is basically saying, “Why are the unrighteous ones allowed to go on in their unrighteousness when they deserve judgment?” and “Why are the righteous prevented from seeing justification when they deserve to see the presence of God?”

Job has a clear perception of the world.  There are people who readily take advantage of the poor in this world.  There are people that see the poor as easy pickings and defenseless.  So they target the poor.  In today’s day and age, we see this in the media and in advertisements as well as in the business world.  This world is not short on people who will use any means to target the defenseless and convincing them to go into a place that they do not want to go.

Certainly one does not need to only take adv advantage of the poor to be wicked.  There are wicked people who take advantage of each other.  There are power hungry people who trample on everyone in their way – poor or not – to get what they desire.  There are all kinds of wicked self-mongers in the world who only think about their own desires and what they need to do to accomplish their heart’s desire.

As Job asks, why are these people allowed to go on living?  Why are the people in this world who see the defenselessness of the poor allowed to continue to persecute them?  Why are the self-mongers allowed to continue in their wicked ways?  Why does not God see their identity and take care of them?

These are important questions to ask.  These are questions that are true to the compassion found in God and those who know Him.  But these questions need perspective, too.  These questions need to be tempered with another perspective of truth.

Tempering the Human Perspective With God

In the end, I think I need to return to my original restatement of the second half of Job 24:1.  “Why are the righteous prevented from seeing justification when they deserve to see the presence of God?”  The hard answer to that question is that there is nobody who fits into this category on our own.  All of our righteousness is like filthy rags.  None of us deserves to be in the presence of God.  So this second question may be appropriate to ask, but it really has no subject.  There is nobody who deserves to see the presence of God right here and right now.

The reality is that we know grace.  While none of us deserve to be in God’s presence, there is a portion of humanity that has found out that we are invited into such a place anyway.  Thanks be to God!  But the key to this is grace.  By the Law and God’s Word we are found lacking.  By Christ and God’s Word we are found forgiven and justified.  Righteousness is all about grace from our perspective.

Seeking the Judgment of Others

So if we are the beneficiaries of grace, why are we quick to see – and especially seek – the judgment of others?

That’s really the deep point of thought for the day.  When we ask to see God now, we are asking to have the period for God’s grace for others to come to an end.  When we ask to see God now, we are telling God that all those other people in the world who have not come to know Him do not deserve any more time to try and let God reveal Himself to them. 

Think about that last sentence for a while.  When we pray for God to come a settle accounts with this world, we are essentially praying for the period of grace to end for those who have not come to know God.  When we pray, “Come now, Lord Jesus,” we are praying in our hearts, “I don’t care about those who may come to know you in the future but who do not know you now.”  When we pray that prayer, those of us who are in grace are demonstrating our inability to display grace to others!

That is clearly wrong.  We should pray that just as we have found grace that God would be slow and merciful and give them as much time as possible!  As hard as it may be from time to time, we should pray that the period of grace be maximized, not minimized!  We should pray that God stays judgment for as long as possible, not as short as possible.

We should be praying that the wicked are afforded every opportunity to know God.  Yet like Job, our humanity cries out for us to see justice now.  We call out for Christ to return now.  Yes, we should long for our eternal life with Christ and God.  That will come.  It is inevitable, after all.  But for now, we should be focused on the wicked and helping them come to know God.  Why shorten the unknown just to get to the inevitable?  Why call for something that will definitely happen when there is an unknown period of work to be done before it?  Should that not ultimately be God’s call to make?

<>< 

Year 2, Day 117: Job 23

Accessibility to God

Job’s reply today has very little to do with Eliphaz and the last chapter.  It has everything to do with Job’s inability to feel like the throne of God is accessible to him.  Ultimately, I am going to get to the error of Job’s thinking.  But before I do that I want to talk about the reality of Job’s thinking.

God can feel very inaccessible from time to time.  There are days when I feel like my prayers are wafting up into space and may never reach God.  There are days when I feel completely hopeless and lost.  There are days when I really do wonder if God hears me.  {Yes, I know He does.  But that doesn’t mean in my human failing I don’t ever wonder if He does.}

I’ve also wondered why Jesus had to do the whole ascension/return thing.  After all, I know why He had to die – without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.  The crucifixion explains why He had to come.  But once He came and once He died, why did He have to ascend and hang out at the right hand of the Father?  In other words, why did He have to go away?  Now that He has proven Himself to humanity, to death, and to Satan why does He need to go to heaven and wait any longer?  If He has conquered death, why not stick around and be in relationship with humanity?  Why not just start up the kingdom right then and there?  Certainly God would be far more accessible had Jesus stayed here and not ascended, right?

This is the same kind of thinking that Job is doing in this chapter.  Job isn’t telling God that He is wrong.  Neither is Job expressing disbelief in God.  Rather, Job is expressing that because he cannot understand the mind of God, he is having trouble understanding why God has chosen to work in the manner that He has.  It isn’t that Job is saying that God is wrong; it is that Job is saying that God is hard to understand.  That is absolutely very true!  God – and God’s ways – can be very hard to understand from time to time.  That doesn’t make God wrong.  It just shows my own inability to truly feel fully connected to the mind and the will of God.

Of course, that doesn’t make Job right, either.  Much like my exploration of thought regarding the ascension a few paragraphs ago, Job is complaining about feeling distant from God.  Job is feeling like life would be easier if we had a tangible place that we could go and be in the presence of God.  There are days when I really feel like I need to concur with that thought.

However, those thoughts come about because of problem with humanity, not a problem with God.  When Job says that he goes forward and God is not there, is Job right?  There’s no denying that it accurately describes how Job feels.  But is he right?  No, Job is not right.  The truth is that we actually cannot escape God’s presence!  Of course God is there.  The problem isn’t with God’s presence; the problem is with our ability to perceive God!

Take my own paragraph of question that I wrote above.  Would things really be much different had Jesus not ascended and stayed here forever?  In truth, I really doubt it.  Let me explain why.

We do have access to God every moment through the Holy Spirit and through His Word.  Do we utilize those things like we should?  I don’t know about you, but I could stand to pay more attention to the Holy Spirit and to God’s Word.  If I as a human being can find a way to not pay attention to the things to which God has granted me access, why would I think having access to the fleshly person of the resurrected Lord would really make me behave any better?  Would I be in the presence of Christ every moment?  Even if I could, would I be able to keep my mind from wandering in sin? 

It turns out that the problem isn’t that I need more personal access to God.  My problem is that I am human and have an innate desire to not really see what God is doing in life!  I have an inability to see God because my focus tends towards the temporal.

Like me, Job does realize that the problem is within himself, not God.  That doesn’t make it any less frustrating from our perspective!  In fact, it actually makes it more frustrating to realize that the very problem we think we have with God is actually a problem with us!  But that is the truth.  Our problem lies in the fact that when God is at work, we don’t see Him.  See Job 23:9.

I find this to be an absolutely beautiful chapter of examining the human condition.  We don’t see God, so we get angry with God.  But the truth of humanity rests in the fact that we actually don’t see Him because we don’t look for Him rather than because He isn’t there.  He’s there.  He’s always there.  The problem is me and my ability or desire to see Him.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 116: Job 22

Lie: Mankind Is Useless to God

Alright, I’m going to confess that Eliphaz hit a nerve right off of the bat.  Not that this is a surprise.  By now we should be growing tired of Job’s friends.  Job certainly is!  And as we will find out in a dozen or so more chapters, God is certainly growing tired of them!

Eliphaz asks the question: “Can man be profitable to God?”  The answer to this is absolutely yes!  Just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything in translation, I checked the Hebrew word for “profitable” and it says “of use, of service, or of benefit.”  Absolutely man can be of use to God, of service to God, or of benefit for God!  Certainly God doesn’t need us, but a man after God’s heart can absolutely be a great tool in the hand of the master.

And then Eliphaz asks: “Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right?”  Again, the answer here is absolutely.  God takes great delight in those who follow His ways.  In truth, the reality is that Job is actually in this position because God took incredible delight in Job’s righteousness!  God took such great desire in Job’s righteousness that He provoked Satan upon Job.  Absolutely God takes pleasure when we are in the right and when through His power we exemplify righteousness.

Truth: Prosperity Does Come Through Selfish Means

In the verses that follow, I will at least give Eliphaz some credit.  He does acknowledge that the wealthy do sometimes become rich at the expense of other people.  He at least acknowledges that wealth does not have to be a sign of God’s favor; it can be a sign of human greed.  After several speeches, it does seem like Job has made a little headway after all!

Lie: Job Is Wrong Because He’s Being Judged By God

But then Eliphaz does the unthinkable.  Eliphaz then turns on Job and implies that this must be true about Job.  Eliphaz determines that Job must have come into his wealth through dishonest means because God is punishing him!  He concludes that Job must have mistreated the poor, neglected the widows and orphans, and tread upon the helpless.  Eliphaz takes Job’s words and turns them on him in a most aggressive way!

The problem with all of this is that Eliphaz is still chasing the wrong end.  The root of Eliphaz’ misunderstanding is that Job is being punished by God.  From Eliphaz’ perspective, Job has an error that needs repentance.  If Job is being punished, then the task becomes finding out Job’s sin and getting him to repent.

This makes me a bit sad as I read through this chapter.  Earlier I confessed that Job may have been making headway, but now we see that Job hasn’t really made any headway at all.  Job has simply gotten Eliphaz to change tactics while believing the same fundamental premise.  Yes, Eliphaz has conceded that some wealthy people get that way through their wickedness.  But Eliphaz has not at all conceded that Job might be righteous.  Eliphaz still believes that the external signs of punishment can be absolute proof of unrighteousness.

Truth: Only The Willing Change

There is really an important lesson in this passage when dealing with human beings.  We can sometimes get people to change their tactics simply by deploying different tactics ourselves.  But we cannot always get someone to change their fundamental beliefs no matter what tactics we employ.  A person has to be willing and open to examining their own core beliefs before we can have any impact upon them at all.  Knowing that we cannot bring about change in anyone except the willing makes the job all the more difficult.

That is what is so absolutely frustrating about the way that Eliphaz ends his speech in this chapter.  To the right person, Eliphaz’ speech would make perfect sense!  We will be at peace when we agree with God – but not necessarily at peace with the world!  When we return to the Almighty He will indeed build us up!  But just because bad things are happening does not always mean that a person is in the wrong!  God does save the humble and the lowly – but a difficult life is not always a sign that a person isn’t already humble!  To an unrighteous person, Eliphaz’ words would be absolutely spot on.  But to Job, Eliphaz’ words simply show how easy it is to have good advice become bad advice based on the audience and the circumstance.

From Eliphaz we can learn a very important lesson.  It is important to examine our core values.  If our core values are not in line with God, then we will take great thoughts and constantly deploy them incorrectly.  If our core values are not where God would have them be, we can take truth and twist it to be a lie.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 115: Job 21

Lie: What Goes Around Comes Around

It is now time to turn and seriously attack this constant assertion from Job’s friends that the world eventually catches up to the wicked.  In the last chapter, Zophar gave a long argument that the wicked do eventually get what is due to them.  Remember Zophar’s argument in which he claimed that either another human will put his arrows through the wicked or nature will sink its own venom into the wicked.

Job comes out swinging against this teaching.  Job’s bold claim in verse 7 starts it off.  Job asserts that experience has taught him that the wicked live, reach old age, and even prosper!  Perhaps even worse, Job then goes on to claim that the children of the wicked are more likely to pick up the mantle of wickedness when the wicked do perish in old age and seem to life a good and prosperous life!

Job then claims that not only are the wicked prospering, but their property is safe.  Their animals breed in the fields without concern.  Their cows have calves without worrying about them.  After all, if the wicked are truly prospering and in power, who is going to challenge their property?

After speaking about the property of the wicked, Job again returns to the children of the wicked.  They are happy.  They play songs and dance together.  They continue to prosper in this life and they die seemingly in peace.  They are even so comfortable in life as to look at God and tell God that they don’t even need His ways.

This brings us to verse 17, but I want to stop and talk about what we’ve seen thus far.  From my read on life, I think Job absolutely nails it.  There is no reason to think that the wicked won’t prosper in life.  I can think of numerous unscrupulous people who have prospered.  I can think of plenty of people who prosper while living under the “looking out for number one” mentality.  Sure, I can think of plenty of people who did get caught up in their wicked schemes.  But I do think that there are plenty of wicked people who do prosper as well.

I’m pretty sure that there are many wicked who don’t get what they deserve in this life.  I’m pretty sure that there are plenty of self-centered selfish people who live seemingly happy lives of having it all.  The truth is that what goes around doesn’t often come around – at least not as often as it should, especially the more power and wealth you have.

Truth: Prosperity Brings Distance From God

All that being said, what I think is really true is the theology that Job comes to in the end of that section.  As the wicked do prosper, this is precisely the time when people turn away from God and declare that they really don’t need Him.  For me, that is quite a deeply true statement.  It has to be that the wicked do in fact prosper.  If the wicked did not prosper there would be no reason to turn away from God and be wicked in the first place!

Again, let me illustrate why this has to be true.  If the only people that prosper were the ones who were righteous, then everyone would strive to be righteous.  The wicked would die off, and all the prosperous people would all be the righteous ones.  Those looking to be prosperous would see that the only way to do it is in righteousness, so we would all learn to be righteous.  However, this is clearly not the case at all.  There are scores of people who are choosing to turn away from God and live unrighteous lives.  This indicates that people recognize that one is not mandated to live righteously in order to prosper in this life.  In fact, it likely indicates that it is easier to prosper by not humbling oneself before God.

Truth: People Often Care More About Prosperity Than God

How sad is it that prosperity can lead to a turning away from God?  But it is the epitome of humanity.  Human beings are by nature self-centered and self-serving.  If we get to a point where we don’t need God, many human beings will actually turn from Him.  This fact alone tells me that Job is right.  The wicked do prosper.

Question: Are You Listening?

The rest of Job’s speech is very apropos.  Job confronts his friends and essentially asks them if they are listening.  Job knows that they aren’t listening to him.  But now he comes right out and tells them that they are not really listening to life experience, either.  Were not the ancient roads known for having bandit after bandit?  Does that witness not tell us that Job is right and the wicked do prosper?

Of course, Job gives us plenty of other examples where the trio of friends does not listen to Job or life.  The reason that this is apropos is because it really points to the underlying problem in their speeches.  They are so interested in being right and making theology out the way that they want it to be that they are ignoring real truth.  When we continue to ignore truth, we eventually come out with bad theology based on what we want to see and not what God actually has to teach us.

Today, we really do have reason to examine ourselves as we read Job.  Are we listening to God?  Are we truly taking stock of the world and life around us?  Are we genuinely following God’s truth – or are we like Job’s friends and convinced that we already know the truth?

<>< 

Year 2, Day 114: Job 20

Zophar Is Offended

Zophar’s initial comments in this chapter are really important.  “I hear censure that insults me.”  Zophar’s problem in this chapter is rooted in the fact that Job’s retort is offensive to him.  And what is Job’s retort?  Job’s constant point is that you cannot judge a person’s righteous by what happens to them.  Righteousness is not what decides success or failure.

If we think about it, Zophar’s response really shouldn’t surprise us too much.  The world operates on this principle.  After all, big churches are all big because they’re the most blessed by God, right?  Wealthy people are all wealthy because they follow God’s ways, right?  Countries that are wealthy and have many resources are that way because God loves them more, right?

Now, we know I’m playing a rather provocative devil’s advocate in that last paragraph.  Just because a church is big doesn’t make it close to God and just because a church is small doesn’t mean it isn’t following God’s ways.  Just because a person is wealthy doesn’t mean they are following God’s ways and just because a person is poor doesn’t mean God doesn’t love them.  Just because a country has a bunch of resources doesn’t mean it is following God’s ways and just because a country is small and resource poor doesn’t mean it has abandoned God’s ways.

While we know this to be true, we are actually likely to get offended when people challenge us on this.  How many of us are having a great day when we make a comment like “God is smiling upon me?”  How many of us are having a really bad day when we make a comment like, “God has it out for me today?”  We may be able to talk about not judging a person’s righteousness by what happens externally, but it is really hard-wired into every single one of us.  Each one of us innately practices this belief.  For many of us it is on a very subconscious level!

This is my gripe with Zophar today.  He is falling into the hard-wired rebellion from truth and he is blind to it happening.  He says several good things – as have all of Job’s friends along the way.  But he doesn’t put them together in a complete telling of truth.  Instead he puts them together in such a way as to sound like he knows what he is talking about, but he is really just rebelling against truth in the end.

Pronouncements Against the Wicked

The rest of the chapter has more pronouncements upon the life of the wicked.  Zophar claims that those who are truly wicked live miserable lives.  He claims that those who are wicked “get what is coming to them.”  Whether it be mankind that does in the wicked with weapons or nature that does in the wicked with its venom, Zophar’s point is that the world has a way of catching up with the wicked.

I don’t agree.  I’ve spoken often on this point already, and Job has much to say about this point in the coming chapter.  So for today I’m going to hold off on my continued rebuttal against this line of thinking from Zophar.  I’m going to let you ponder Zophar’s words for yourself and prepare to respond to Zophar with Job tomorrow.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 113: Job 19

Kick ‘Em While Their Down

Job begins again with a very typical three pronged approach.  Since we’ve seen it quite a lot already in the book of Job, I’ll begin to summarize.

In the first few verses, Job talks again about how his friends are attacking him.  He does make a few good points.  Why do they feel the need to continue to kick him while he is down?  Has Job’s potential error been so egregious that it affects anyone but him?

Those lines of thinking do have me going today.  Why do we as human beings have a “kick ‘em while they are down” mentality?  Why do we like beating a dead horse?  {Why do I continue to like using clichés?  LOL}  Are we really that depraved as a human race that when we see an easy target we circle like vultures until we can safely go in for the kill and prove ourselves superior to the injured victim laying on the ground?  Does that really prove that we are smart, courageous, or even strong?

Yet, it is who we are.  We even have two other sayings along these lines.  We talk about “going in for the kill” or even “going for the jugular.”  Is that really what society is all about?  Is taking advantage of our neighbor the best way to build a society?  I personally don’t think so.

Lie: God Has Walled Me Off From Support

As we move past Job defending himself from his friends, he himself launches back into his own speech against God.  Again we can say that it is here that we find error within Job.  Has God really stripped away the crown from Job’s head?  Has God really pulled up Job’s hope like a tree?  Has God really counted Job as an adversary?

Of course not.  We know that all of this is because God is reveling in Job’s crown and approving of his righteousness.  And as we’ll get to that in the end, we know that Job is aware of this deep down as well.  The words that Job gives us here is out of his short-sighted grief.  So we hear the words, know them to be an exaggeration of his pain, and we hope for him to move beyond them.

Which, he does.  Actually, he does move beyond these words really quickly.  Job moves beyond them and into the realm of hope.  Thus is the way of the true follower of God.  The true follower of God may get down, but there is a resiliency in God that is unsurpassable.

Truth: My Redeemer Lives

Job knows that his redeemer lives.  What a beautiful statement of faith for a person who may well predate Abraham!  Job knows that one day – even after his flesh has decayed and his bones are dried up – he will stand before his God and he will experience righteousness.  Job knows that in the end, it will be his redeemer that stands upon the earth in control of it.

Can any of us have a greater hope?  Yes, we know that judgment will stand between us and the eternal.  Yes, life itself stands in between us and the eternal. But the true follower of God steps through life with eyes focused on the hope of standing before God in the presence of our Redeemer.  The true follower of God steps into death and into judgment with eyes focused on God and our Redeemer.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 112: Job 18

Taking Things Personally

Bildad begins with the classical human defense: make it about me and no longer about you.  I think this is one of the absolutely most frustrating aspects of humanity.  As soon as I get upset with someone else, if I try and talk about it they want to immediately jump to the defensive and try to tell me what the problem is from their perspective.  {And before anyone says it, yes, I do the same to other people…}

So don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying the other person’s perspective is wrong and has no place.  It absolutely does have a place and if I am going to talk to a person about a problem, I had better be willing to listen to their side of the issue.  What I’m objecting to isn’t that they speak their mind; what I am objecting to is that they aren’t willing to listen before speaking their mind.

Take an example of a married couple in which one spouse (let’s say the wife, just to make the conversation easier) is upset with the other person (obviously, the husband).  If the wife goes to the husband and begins to explain why she is upset, the husband has two choices: listen or rebuttal.  What most husbands do is launch into immediate rebuttal.  It goes something like: “Have you ever thought about it from my perspective?” or “No, you’re wrong.  Let me tell you what is really going on.”  If rebuttal is chosen, then an argument ensues and we have the proverbial “butting of heads.”  Another potential growing edge turns into marital strife.

If the husband were instead to devote himself to listening to his wife and allowing herself to explain her position thoroughly, then he could have the opportunity to repent of what he has legitimately done to make her mad (or at the least repent of making her mad even if unintentionally).  The wife would feel resolution and her anger could be dissipated.  Then, having dissipated his wife’s irritation the husband could say, “Now that I’ve listened to you and genuinely repented, can we look at this from my perspective?”  The woman would then need to return the favor, listen completely, and probably repent of how she erred – or at the very least had some part of the problem.  After all, it usually takes two to tango.

Listening to and resolving one problem at a time leads to forgiveness and restored relationships.  Skipping the listening step and immediately trying to force people to see your side of the issue only leads to further argument.  It’s true about spouses.  It’s true about friends.  It’s true about church councils.  It’s true about Job and Bildad throughout this whole book.  It’s true about all human relationships.

It’s actually back to our old friend the self-monger.  The self-monger hears a person laying blame at their feet and immediately wants to toss the blame away and make it someone else’s problem.  The self-monger cannot admit that they have erred.  But the person who is “killing the self-monger within” – the true disciple of Jesus Christ – is willing to listen first and receive what blame genuinely belongs to them.  The true Christian is not afraid of fault and error because the true Christian believes in forgiveness and restored relationships.

So now let’s return to the opening of this chapter.  Where Bildad makes a huge error in this chapter is in his opening 4 verses.  Basically, he turns to Job and says, “Who are you to call us ‘cattle’ and stupid?’  Have you even considered that it might be you who is wrong?”  

Bildad doesn’t give any credence to what Job is saying.  Rather than listen, Bildad jumps immediately to rebuttal.  It has actually been the whole pattern of Job so far!  When has any of Job’s friends said anything other than, “If your life stinks, you must have sinned.  So repent before it’s too late.”

The Book Of Job: How Not To Communicate

As I read through Job, I see so many examples of bad communication happening.  I see so many examples of people lining up like two battleships on the ocean and they plan on just leveling broadside after broadside at each other.  They only listen deeply enough to be able to make a rebuttal and make their point.  They aren’t listening in order to actually understand and resolve issues.  They are convinced their point is right and they will continue to fire broadside after broadside until the other capitulates from the weariness of the fight.  Unfortunately, I think that is true about many of our human interactions.  It is a condition for which we all deserve to be pitied.

More About “Bad Things Happen To Bad People” Theology

If we actually talk about Bildad’s response in the short space that remains, I do think we can see a repeat of bad theology here.  Bildad’s response to Job is centered on a “bad things happen to bad people” theology.  Or let me phrase it another way.  What goes around comes around.  I don’t find either of those clichés to be true.  The devious person gets away with far more than they get caught.  The manipulative person gets their way far more than they get called on the carpet for being manipulative.  The dominator dominates far more than they get called out.  The kind-natured person doesn’t receive near as much kindness from humanity as they give out.  The gentle person doesn’t see too much human gentleness returned.  What goes around doesn’t usually come back nearly as much as it should.

To be honest, I think a better phrase would be “if you dish out good, be prepared to get more selfishness back than good.”  I know that’s rather pessimistic, but I think it is true.  We live in a sinful and selfish world.  When I choose to be different, I can’t honestly expect everyone else to be different, too.

I just can’t agree with the thrust of Bildad’s words – at least not from the perspective of this life.  Sure, in the end God will set the record straight.  But in this life, we cannot judge a person’s righteousness by the amount of good and the amount of bad that comes his way.  Just because a person is crushed by life, rejected by others, scorned, mocked, and given a rough go isn’t proof that they are evil and deserve it.  Just look at what happened to Jesus, after all.  Jesus was the most righteous person who ever lived.  He got crucified.

Bildad wants to evaluate people by what happens to them.  But in order to determine righteousness, we must look within, not without.  We must gaze internally, not externally.  We must know a person’s spirit, not their circumstances.  We must know them, not know about them.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 111: Job 17

Theology of Hope

I’m going to spend half of this blog post talking about the theology of hope that Job ends with before moving on to a bit of an excursion that has been running through my mind of late.

I absolutely love the way that Job ends this section.  “If I make Sheol my house,” Job says, “then where is my hope?”  He adds, “If I make my bed in darkness, who will see my hope?”  These are deeply profound and personally reflective of the spirit of a true follower of God.

Job has every reason to quit.  It appears the universe has conspired against him.  It appears that the maker of the universe seems to have it out for him.  His friends even think that he has done something wrong.  His wife tells him to just curse his God and die.  There is no earthly reason to go on.  Period.

The only reason left is the only actual real reason for anything: God.  Is giving up on life ever an option when God is still out there?  Is it ever too late in the ninth inning when you know that God will still get a chance to bat?  Or for those of you who prefer a football analogy, can the field ever be too long if you are down by 2 with only seconds to play but God is your field-goal kicker?

You see, there is no point in hoping for anything but God.  There is no point in hoping in anything but God.  Job knows this.  This hope in God is the one thing that keeps him from rolling over and dying.  There is no hope in surrender.  There is no hope in rolling over.  There is no hope in giving up one’s faith.  So long as there is yet room for God to work – there is hope.

For Job, he knows he is not the cause of this.  Only God can vindicate him.  If he forfeits God, he forfeits hope.  If he forfeits God, he forfeits truth.

This is the same spirit that drives the true believer as well.  The true believer may get knocked down. They might even make a few mistakes along the way and say a few things that need some correction.  But they will always be able to muster up the strength to continue to look to heaven and look for God.  Even in our darkest hour, there is God.  That is what it means to be a Christian.

I love the analogy that my mind formed as I wrote that last paragraph.  I pictured Christ as he breathed His last breath upon the cross.  He breathed.  He cried out “Eli, eli, lema sabacthani” towards heaven.  He tasted the sour wine.  He died.  In Jesus’ darkest hour, He still mustered enough strength to look to heaven for the hope of the Father.  It is the example of our Lord to look to God in our darkest hours.

As I said in my opening paragraph, I planned to say more … but having arrived here I think not, actually.  This is a good place to leave us today.  In our darkest hour, the true follower of God turns to the Father.  Nothing else can be said to bring us to a more holy place than that today.  So turn.  Look.  Yearn for the hope that is in God.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 110: Job 16

Repentance And Grace

As we begin Job 16, we get a large dose of what good Christian fellowship should be all about.  As with most things, there are two extremes to Christian fellowship – and I believe that true fellowship needs to ride the path right down the center.

Let me explain.  There are some people that live out their faith believing that the best Christian is the person who comes over and just makes the other person feel better.  This is the coddling Christian.  This is the person who only says, “I know how you feel” or “I can really understand how you can feel that way.”

Then there is the other kind of Christian.  This is the Christian who doesn’t believe in any kind of comfort but only believes in telling the truth.  This is the tactless Christian.  This is the Christian who always has advice on every subject and the advice usually sounds like, “Well, if you would turn to God more…” or “If you would have less sin in your life…”

The reality in life is that repentance must come before grace.  Repentance must even come before forgiveness!  So there is a correct time and place for being upfront with other people.  However, we cannot often get a person to the point of understanding - or welcoming – a perspective of needing to repent without first establishing rapport! 

Yet, if we get too comfortable in the “rapport” stage, we never move beyond it into accountability.  If we do get to accountability, we must learn to not dwell there constantly or else we will never move into grace.  True Christian fellowship is a balance between rapport, accountability, and grace.  Remove any one stage completely and the productiveness of fellowship breaks down completely.

I think this is what I am hearing Job say in reflection to his friends as we open this chapter.  They have skipped the rapport stage completely.  They have dug in their heels in the accountability stage and are convinced that Job has to change his mind and see himself as the problem and repent.  Because of this, they will also not move into the grace phase of fellowship.  Not only have they ignored one of the levels, they’ve ignored two of them!  As we can read in the opening of this passage, Job is not responding well to their approach.  As Christians, we should take note of this and realize that when we ignore any one stage we will experience similar results.

Lie: God Is At Fault

I do need to take issue with the middle portion of Job’s speech in this chapter.  Job points a number of accusations against God here, and I don’t believe that God deserves to be the brunt of most of them.  Sure, it is God who does bring Satan’s attention upon Job initially.  But I don’t believe that having a perspective of God as one who hates people or who tears them up with His wrath is really a legitimate perspective.  I could have used more examples from this chapter, but these suffice. 

Yes, God has set up Job and pointed Satan in Job’s general direction.  But I think that picturing God as a divine being who enjoys seeing His creation suffer is not a correct picture of God.  God knows we suffer – often at our own hands or the hands of others – but He does not enjoy it.

Never Lose The Faith

Yet, I will give Job credit.  Although Job does speak in a fairly adversarial manner against God, he never does lose his faith.  He never denounces God nor denies Him.  He wrestles with God – he wrestles hard, even!  While Job may go astray a bit in His perspective of God, he never loses His faith.  He never does denounce his faith and die as his wife advised him to do so many chapters prior.

Truth: We Need A Witness Before God

I do want to pay a bit of attention to the last few verses in this chapter.  Here again we find the same beautiful foreshadowing of Christ that we found seven chapters ago.  Here we have a very clear perspective on how Job envisions justification actually occurring.  It is in these verses that we have proof that Job has not turned his back on God but is actually just wrestling with what is going on and how God is involved.

Here we have evidence of Job’s belief that his advocate is already in heaven before God.  Job has a belief that there is already someone testifying on his behalf before God.  And I’ve got to tell you. For a man who likely lived a millennia and a half before Jesus Christ, I find more faith in these few verses that end this chapter than I find in many who live a few millennia after Jesus Christ.  I am completely blown away by Job’s faith here as this chapter ends.

After His resurrection, Jesus tells Thomas, “You believe because you have seen?  Blessed is the one who believes while not seeing!”  So often we hear that expression and think Jesus is speaking about those of us who never got a chance to see Jesus in the flesh.  But today I have to sit back in awe at Job.  We at least have the benefit of being able to hear about Jesus.  If the one who believes without seeing are blessed then the one like Job who believes without seeing or hearing should be blessed even more!

I am forced to once again be humbled by Job’s witness.  Yes, he stumbles occasionally and speaks unfairly in God’s direction.  We all stumble and fall.  But here is a man who believes in God and also believes in a personal advocate before God before he had any real reason to believe at all.  Here is a true believer.  To quote the title of a pretty cool song from Thousand Foot Krutch: “Make me a believer.”  After hearing those inspiring words from Job, this is my humble prayer today.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 109: Job 15

Human Beings With Much to Say

I think that we need to take an honest look at Eliphaz’ retort to Job as chapter 15 opens.  On one hand, he does very much have a point.  Human beings – especially human beings that feel they have been wronged – usually have a lot to say.  If you want to see this, all that you have to do is get a Facebook account and get yourself a few friends.  Quite often one little glitch comes in someone’s life and immediately the Facebook posts are up vociferously complaining about what has gone wrong. 

Most of the time, those kind of reactions are rather futile and quite pointless.  All they are is some kind of self-mongerish attempt to get other people to see our way.  You know what they say … misery loves company.  When life is horrible, most of us can’t help but open our mouth about it.

Eliphaz’ Error

On the other hand, I don’t think at this point it is fair to call Job someone who is making a gut reaction to an immediate problem.  Job has sat around for at least a week contemplating what is going on.  He has processed a good bit about life and whether or not he is at fault in any way.  I don’t think at this point Job is talking unprofitably.  I don’t know about you, but I have certainly been challenged by his words!

How Much Can You Take?

I also think there is another dynamic at play here.  There are some people who can tolerate a good deal of questioning about God without feeling like they are being impious.  There are other people who seem to live as though any question about God’s sovereignty is an abomination.  I don’t happen to be one of those people.  I think honest questioning will usually lead to truth if we are willing to accept it and take it to its natural conclusion. 

By saying what he has said thus far, Job has not done away with the fear of God.  Job has struggled to understand why what has happened did in fact happen to him.  That’s completely different than being impious.  Job is searching for truth through his questions, not demanding that he be more right than God.

God’s Trust

I do wrestle with Eliphaz’ perspective on God in Job 15:15-16.  I think it is fairly absurd to say that God does not put any trust in either His holy ones or sinners like us.  I can see some truth in what Eliphaz might be trying to say.  God does know that we are not perfect and He does know that we will be unable to follow Him completely and perfectly.  That is absolutely true. 

However, the God that I see making a covenant with Abraham is a God who puts trust in humanity.  I realize Eliphaz didn’t even remotely have access to the story of Christ because Eliphaz likely predated Christ by 1,500 years or more, but the Christ that I see puts trust in human beings to accomplish His will.  Jesus Christ puts all of His trust in the Holy Spirit and those 11 faithful disciples - and probably a few dozen other folks. 

That is trust.  God entrusted His plan of salvation into the hands of Abraham.  God entrusted the message of salvation to a very small group of human beings.  To me, God is a God who honestly gives us more trust than we deserve!

Eliphaz Doesn’t Paint the Whole Picture

Looking at the rest of the chapter, it appears that our old friend – the telling of “incomplete truth” – rears its ugly head in Eliphaz’ speech once more.  Look at the words that he says.  It isn’t that he says anything wrong per say.  The problem is that he has not painted a full picture.

Take a look at verse 20.  Yes, there will come a day when the wicked will writhe in pain all day long.  Christ speaks often of a place where there will be “weeping and a gnashing of teeth.”  Certainly what Eliphaz says has some truth value to it.  But it is not the whole truth.  Reality tells me that the wicked are just as likely to prosper in this life as the good – perhaps even more likely to prosper if they are really skilled at being wicked.  From an eternal perspective, Eliphaz’ words have a point.  But Eliphaz isn’t speaking about the eternal when he says those words.  Therefore he ends up painting an incomplete picture.  We dare not assume that only those who prosper in this life are good!

Or look at verses 31-32.  Eliphaz seems to indicate that the wicked person will find himself living an empty life before his time on earth is over.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that all wicked people realize that their life is empty and I certainly don’t believe that good people never have periods of emptiness in their life! 

Again, if Eliphaz was talking about an eternal perspective, he would be absolutely spot on.  From an eternal perspective the righteous will be fulfilled in God and the wicked will be emptied of their presence without God.  But Eliphaz is not talking about the eternal here.  Eliphaz is talking about this life, and because of that I find his advice not telling the whole truth.

The lesson here for the followers of God is to make sure we paint a genuine picture of faith and life rather than painting the picture of faith that we want to believe.  Of course, that implies that we have to take the time to learn and understand the genuine picture of faith before we can paint it.  When we go to others and try to help them understand their life, we need to paint a genuine picture, not some picture that makes sense in this or that special case scenario.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 108: Job 14

Trouble Is Our Middle Name

There is much wisdom in Job’s opening lines.  What human being does not cause more trouble in this earth than there would have been had the person not been born?  So not each of us cause trouble for ourselves and others in this life?

Now I admit, that’s a rather negative perspective on life.  Hopefully we do also bring some good into life as well!  But honestly, who among us would even dare to claim that we bring more good in life than evil?  Who among us can claim that our day-in-day-out interactions with people genuinely bring about more good than bad?

Death

Then Job talks about death of a human.  When a human dies, it dies completely.  In this life, there is no rebirth as we see in other organisms that can regenerate lost parts.  Job gives us the example of a tree.  I’ll use the example of a dandelion.  Even if I go out every morning and pluck off every one of those dandelion heads while they are yellow – the plant will continue to just put up more heads. 

Or take many lizards.  Even if they should be in trouble and lose their tail, they can just grow a new one.  But this is not so with human beings.  When we die, we die.  When we lose an appendage, we do not grow one back.  Life is measured differently for humans than for many of the other forms of life upon this earth.

Now, we must be careful and not take Job’s words too far.  When Job speaks about a person dying and not coming to life again, Job is not talking about the resurrection of the dead.  Job is strictly speaking about time here on this earth.  When we die on this earth, we die.

This concept is very important for human beings to understand.  It is called “finitude.”  We must understand our human limitations.  We must understand that at some point our bodies will wear out and we will die.  We must understand that for a time this world will go on without us.  It is life.  It is also one of the hardest things to accept about life.

Yet, it is precisely our wrestling with finitude that sets us up for a proper understanding about eternal life.  We are not what drives life in this world.  We are a mere participant in life.  We have been blessed to be allowed to even live!  So it will be with respect to the resurrection of the dead as well.  We will not be the center of eternal life – God is.  We will simply be a glorious participant in eternal life.  We will be blessed to even be a part of it!

We are Self-Centered First

The end of this chapter paints a grim picture of the human.  In the end, we are all self-mongers.  Even the best parent will not be able to truly determine whether their children have come into honor or dishonor.  Because of our short life spans, this is even truer about the generations that will follow each of us!  Who among us will honestly know whether our grandchildren will be honorable or dishonorable?  What of their children?  No, in the end the only thing that we as human beings can genuinely know is ourselves.  The only person I can genuinely know with respect to honor or dishonor is myself.

As a human being, I will likely go on focusing on my own pain and my own joys.  I will yearn to be involved in the lives of others, but in reality I will only be a part of what the other person and I choose to come together on.  Since I will be a part of my own life all the time, my own life will naturally always take precedence.  Except by the grace of God, my pain will always trump the pain of others with respect to my attention.  Except by the grace of God, my life will always trump the lives of the other.

I think these final verses really bring Job’s pain to a great head.  Job feels hopeless in his current situation.  He also feels that because of the greatness of his pain, he cannot think of anything other than his own pain.  Remember, he has just lost all of his sons and daughters, too!  Unfortunately, it is when we are in great pain or turmoil that our selfishness truly comes out the strongest.

I hear the challenge of Job, but I wonder if any of us are strong enough to actually do anything about it.  Can any of us draw so close to God that even when great pain or turmoil should come our way we would not focus upon ourselves?  Can any of us be so close to God that even in the midst of unendurable pain and suffering we can still “love God and love our neighbor?”  After all, those are the first two commandments and as Jesus says upon those rest the entire law.  Can any of us hope to be so close to God as to still obey those even in spite of great pain?

Only by the grace of God, that’s for sure.

<><