Year 2, Day 121: Job 27

Faith Dominates Poor Theology

This chapter of Job inspires two thoughts within me.  The first thought comes out of the first six verses.  I do think Job is a little harsh in his evaluation of God in the first verse.  Has God taken away his rights?  Has God really made his soul bitter?

Yet, even thought Job shows his humanity in a bit of error, his faithfulness dominates the error.  He will not turn to falsehood as long as there is God.  Job will not leave his integrity – which ultimately is rooted in the identity of God.  Job may make the occasional mistake – and being human he is certainly neither perfect nor righteous.  But he will not abandon God.  As we see in these chapters, Job would rather offend and abandon his friends before abandoning his God.  That is faith.  {I’m not trying to say that we should seek to abandon our friends, just to be clear…}

Where Is The Hope of the Godless?

My other thought this morning comes from the rest of the chapter.  Job asks a very probing question in verse 8.  Where is the hope of the godless should God walk away from them?  Speaking from an ultimate perspective, what do the godless have to hope in?

Look then at what Job says.  Notice that Job uses the words “wicked” and “godless” almost like synonyms … and there’s a lesson in that itself!  When the wicked is under distress, where is their hope?  When the wicked are starving, where is their hope?  When pestilence comes, what is their hope?  When their possessions are stolen, what is their hope?  We can go on and on with Job’s speech in this chapter, but you get my point.

In my own thoughts, I bring this into today’s life.  When someone’s house burns down, where do people turn?  Insurance companies?  Do people genuinely think that the insurance company is there to give them money?  Don’t get me wrong … insurance companies aren’t cruel and heartless and they do pay out in claims.  But they are fundamentally a business based on the science of actuary {examining financial risk}.  Insurance companies are built on a model of making money.  The money coming in for premiums has to be larger than the money going out for claims.  Insurance companies may serve a role, but do we really want to put our hope in insurance?  {After all, look at what happened to the insurance companies when something like Hurricane Katrina hit!}

When someone gets cancer, where do they turn?  Medicine?  Can we cure cancer reliably?  Even if we do put someone’s cancer in remission, can we ultimately stave off death?  Is not death inevitable for us all?  Should we really put our hope in medicine?  Sure, it is one thing to pursue a medicinal treatment, but is that where we should put our ultimate hope?

I’m going to speak pretty bluntly here, but I need to today.  I’ve always been amazed that the godless can go through life happy and cheery.  Please don’t get me wrong.  I know plenty of godless people who do manage to find the way to go through life happily.  But I do have to ask, where is the ultimate source of their hope?  Do they really find joy in the concept that when a person dies existence is terminated forever?  Is that a concept that inspires hope?  Is there hope to be found in the idea that there is nothing after death?  Is there hope to be found in the idea that whether I live righteously or not and whether I die with any dignity or not … it doesn’t even matter?*

As Job asks, what is the hope of the godless?

Many will call me stupid for the claim I am about to make.  But I live for the hope of the eternal.  Call me stupid for believing in something that takes faith, but that’s just how it is with me.  The belief that death is not the end brings me incredible hope.  That is what I need to get out of bed every day.  The belief that I will live with my God in a life that actually is the way He designed it to be does bring me great hope.  The fact that I believe this promised life cannot be taken away from me allows me to look square into life and know that whatever comes my way is endurable.

I might not look forward to it, but I know I can endure life even if it should end with me having cancer, a stroke, or Alzheimer’s.  I know I can endure someone pointing a gun towards me and terminating my life without feeling the need to retaliate because of the hope I have in God.  Should I become poor and homeless, I know I can go on preaching in the homeless shelters about the hope that I have in God.  The hope of the eternal is powerful stuff in my book.  I am glad Job asked about the hope of the godless, because it only serves to remind me about the hope of the godly!  I pray you have this hope as well.

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*I genuinely don’t mean to be making fun of people who choose not to believe in God, so please do not hear my words that way.  I am exploring a fundamental debate in our society.  What is more important in one’s life: control or hope?

I think for the atheist that control is more important than hope.  Control of one’s destiny trumps the despair that comes with thinking that life terminates upon death.  For the faithful one, control is less important than hope.  Hope in the continuation of life trumps the human need for absolute control.

Thus, I don’t mean to be slandering those of an atheist perspective.  Rather, I mean to be drawing out the internal prioritization of people and why they make the choice to believe or not believe.  I hope my words and my questioning do not offend.