Year 2, Day 101: Job 7

Job’s Continued Focus on His Loss

Job 7 begins with a continuati0n of Job speaking about his life.  Keep in mind that not only has Job’s children died and his possessions have either been consumed or stolen but his skin has broken out into sores in addition to all sorts of other serious health problems.  With all this taken into account, I don’t think that Job is over exaggerating in these opening verses.  If his health problems continue to exist, Job will have long nights that should be filled with sleeping but will in reality be filled with pain.  He will forever feel as though his skin is filled with dirt, puss, and infectious parasites.  He will have months of emptiness.  Granted, Job cannot know how long the affliction will last.  But let’s face it.  As I’ve said in the past, human beings tend to assume good things will fade quickly and bad times will last forever.

I find nothing inappropriate with Job’s words in these opening 6 verses.  He is faced with a dark future unless something unforeseeable happens.  He isn’t accusing God at this point; he is simply reciting what he believes to be his future.  It may be a little short-sighted since we do know what is going on behind the scenes.  But Job would have no way of knowing either the future restoration or the present reason for his condition.  The most for which we can blame Job is having a little too much despair and perhaps not enough faith.  But given the circumstance, I bet I’d be right there with him.  Maybe it’s a lesson for me to learn just how fickle faith can be.

Lie: Better to Die Than Live In Pain

Job’s perspective on death in verses 7-11 do need a little mitigating.  When Job says that a person who goes down to Sheol (the place of the dead) doesn’t come back again, he isn’t contradicting the plan of God or the resurrection that Christians believe in as evidenced by Jesus Christ.  Rather, he is stating what he knows for the time that he lived.  For Job, when a person died, they went to the place of the dead.  They didn’t come back to life in this world.  Thus, what Job is talking about is that if his life is going to be nothing until he dies, then when he dies he has nothing to look forward to.  He knows that nobody will remember a poor man who lost everything and suffered from horrible diseases. 

Interestingly enough, however, millions of people actually still remember Job!  We remember Job not because he was perfect but because God is perfect.  We remember Job because although he stumbles here and there, he does not lose faith.

Lie: Bad Things Come Only as a Consequence of Sinfulness

As we reach the end of Job’s speech, we do see a place where Job pushes too far in his complaint.  Because Job does not see with the perspective of God, Job falls back to the wisdom of Eliphaz.  Job himself begins to assume that his life is as it is because he has done something against God.  Job assumes that he has become a burden to God.  Job assumes that God refuses to take away his iniquity.  However, as I have said in earlier blogs, Job is actually in this predicament because of his faithfulness. 

It is really easy to see pain and suffering as a badge of dishonor; it is far more difficult to see the pain and suffering as a badge of honor.  When we put Job’s story next to the story of Jesus Christ, it makes far more sense.  God did not spare his own Son.  In fact, Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient into death – even death on a cross. (See Philippians 2:8)  If we are to follow God – and follow Christ – we must open up our perspective to the possibility that suffering can sometimes be a badge of honor rather than a badge of dishonor.

We must not be quick to take this thought to the opposite extreme, either.  Just as not all suffering is a badge of dishonor, not all suffering is a badge of honor, either.  Some people do bring suffering upon themselves out of their sinfulness.  Sometimes we do need to repent when our sinfulness brings about suffering.  The trick is learning how to determine which suffering is pointing us to repentance and which suffering is a badge of honor.  This is in many respects one of the underlying themes of the book of Job.

Summary of the Chapter

In the end, we can’t really fault Job too much.  Sure, he makes an error in judgment and he draws the wrong conclusion.  However, given his predicament I can’t say that I wouldn’t have drawn the same conclusions.  Who doesn’t think that when they are in despair that it is because they’ve done something wrong? 

We can, however, learn from his mistakes.  We can learn that when suffering and trials come our way we should ask if they are to our honor or dishonor before immediately assuming that we are in the predicament because of our error.

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Year 2, Day 100: Job 6

Back to Job and His Humanity

In Job 6, we change from Eliphaz’s speech to Job’s speech.  We also get to see a bit of a misstep in Job’s words.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that Job loses his faith or anything.  But we do see a misstep in his faith.  Job proves his humanity.  But you know what, I’ve been there.  I’ve done that.  I’ve said things out of my pain – or even out of my ignorance! – that were simply wrong. 

I’ve said it a number of times here on the blog and I’ll probably say it more.  God does not demand perfection, he demands humble repentance.  Before this book is over, we’ll see God call Job and the friends into repentance.  So for now, let’s look at how Job also takes a misstep as he tries to understand the world around him and the God who created it.

Lie: God Is An Adversary

Job’s first misstep is to paint God as an adversary.  In Job 6:4 we hear that “the arrows of the Almighty are within me and my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.”  Don’t get me wrong.  If what happened to Job happened to me, then I could see myself saying these very same things.  What Job says is very understandable given his circumstance.  He is not able to be objective or accurate.  I understand that and I am willing to cut him a little slack.  But that doesn’t change the fact that he is still wrong.

In reality, the Lord has not sought to destroy him!  In fact, the Lord has actually presented him with an opportunity to be a witness to the world!  Sure, it might be really hard to see it from Job’s perspective, so I’m not going to lay any fault upon him for that.  But from the perspective of the outsider that we have – that is exactly what God has done.

Think about the story so far.  Satan comes before God and accuses God of being loved solely because He is generous to the people who love Him.  God challenges Satan on this point and Job is selected.  Job is given the honor of being “God’s test-case.”  Job is a sort of “test-case” scenario for all of humanity.  And how does it end?  Job is still faithful!  Job is a witness against Satan’s accusation!  Then Eliphaz comes along.  He puts out some decently shallow theology which is actually all wrong in the end.  Job has the opportunity now be a witness to Eliphaz and be a challenge to his theology.  Just for the record, although he makes a few mistakes of his own along the way he is still a faithful witness.

From the outside, we can see that Job has not actually been God’s target of wrath.  Job is actually God’s target of righteousness.  I know what you might be thinking … if this is how God treats the righteous, then we might not want to be righteous!  But let’s put that in perspective, shall we?  Do we believe in God or not?  Do we submit to God humbly or not?  Do we trust that in the life to come God can demonstrate His righteousness or not?  If so, then why would we not desire to be a demonstration of His righteousness here on earth?  Is not a little temporal pain something worth enduring in order to experience His eternal glory?

Lie: Desiring that God Would Crush One’s Life

This misstep launches into a secondary misstep.  Job honestly begs that God would crush his life.  Then Job asks what strength he has in order to be able to wait.  He wonders what future he has in order that he should be patient.  He then believes that all resource has been driven from him.

This is a classic error of short-sighted human nature.  We simply do not perpetually focus on God and His promises.  Instead we do perpetually focus on our own present circumstances.  Furthermore, humanity has a pessimistic streak within us that assumes that when bad things come upon us that they will linger forever.  We have a much easier time believing things will go from good to bad and stay bad than believing things can go from bad to good and stay good. 

On this point, though, I cannot judge Job.  While I do confess that what he says here is absolutely wrong, I must also confess that I am guilty of the same thing.  I know what it is like to beg and plead that God would crush my life.  I know what it is like to be in so much pain and attack that I desired to be released from both living and having to endure it.  But I also confess that in all circumstances I have been wrong.  God has yet to not provide.  God has yet to not have some further plan for me beyond the turmoil.  I am simply impatient.

Job does have hope.  He is the Lord’s!  We should be mindful of that fact more often.

Truth: We Need Community

The middle part of this chapter speaks to the spiritual bond that should be between people of the faith.  Look at what Job seems to be indicating in his words.  Job looks around and he sees people who look to mistreat him, who look to withhold their presence from him, who actually look to avoid him, who express disappointment in Job, and who are forceful in their correction.  What Job desires is to have people who will be there to help him walk through life.  He wants people who can help him find truth, but not do it in a way that tears him down.  He wants people who will be neighborly in his affliction.

Don’t we all?

Summarizing Job’s Reply

We do see hope and faithfulness in Job – even among his missteps.  Job is open to being taught and he is open to correction, see Job 6:24.  Job believes that he still remains faithful to God, see Job 6:10.  And in the end he has.  Job may have made a few missteps and he may have gotten the wrong perspective a little, but he hasn’t violated God’s dominion and His authority.  He is asserting what he is thinking; yet he still remains open. 

We can learn a good lesson from Job on this point.  It is good to get our thoughts out into the open.  But we need to do so in a way that we continue to be open to the fact that we may be wrong.  Truthfully, in times of turmoil we probably are wrong.

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Year 2, Day 99: Job 5

Deception: Prosperity Gospel

At first, Job 5 reads as very sound advice that Eliphaz gives to Job.  After all, doesn’t it seem like sound advice for a person to say, “As for me, I would seek God?”  Or how about the sensibility in saying, “He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth and from the hand of the mighty?”  Doesn’t it sound hopeful to say that “in famine He will redeem you from death and in war from the power of the sword?”

We want to believe this theology.  We want to sense the truth in it.  We want to believe that God rewards the faithful and God punishes the unfaithful.  We want to believe it, but we know that it just isn’t always true in this world.  If following God’s ways brought about a perfect life in this world, don’t you think more people would be trying it more seriously?  Don’t get me wrong, I do believe following God’s ways is the only way to go.  However, I don’t believe that following God’s ways produces a life in perfect harmony with this world.

As we did with the last chapter, let’s look at how what seems to be good sound advice is actually not all that sound.

There can be no doubt that Eliphaz is aware of Job’s devotion to God.  We know for a fact that Eliphaz is absolutely aware that Job has spent 7 days sitting in ashes trying to discern what is happening to his life.  From this perspective, doesn’t it seem pretty shallow for Eliphaz to tell Job to seek God and commit to God?  Eliphaz’s advice is a bit like telling someone who has been praying to God for a decade about a certain problem that if they just prayed a little harder their problem would be resolved.  Or, it is like telling someone who has a strong faith life that they should try praying in a different way.  There is a time and a place for that kind of advice, but more often than not this kind of advice is simply trite to a genuinely faithful person.  Advice such as this is given by people shallow in their own faith who don’t appreciate the faith of others.

If a person is genuinely not in a relationship with God, then advising them to get into a relationship with God is sound advice.  But to tell someone that God already considers righteous that they need to turn to God is nothing less than a complete misdiagnosis of the problem.  There is no legitimate truth in Eliphaz’s advice to Job.  Job has already turned to God and from God’s perspective Job is already righteous.  To tell someone in Job’s condition that they need to go to God is equal to assuming that their condition is occurring because they aren’t with God.  In Job’s case, this is simply flawed reasoning.  It’s wrong.

Let’s look at another example.  What about this idea that God always saves us from hunger or the sword of the mighty?  Sure, God does demonstrate His ability to do this if it suits His will and it will serve to bring glory to His name.  But the unfortunate reality in our world is that many faithful people have died from starvation throughout history.  Many Christians and faithful Jews have been martyrs for the faith.  The truth is that there are higher agendas at work than the continuation of my human existence.  To think that my continued existence is the thing that will serve God’s agenda the best is actually setting myself and my life up as an idol rather than humbling myself to obedience to God’s call wherever it should lead.

Take the twelve disciples.  How many of their martyrdoms actually helped propel the kingdom forward?  Or what about the martyrdom of Stephen?  Surely Stephen’s death was one of the greatest single steps forward that the church experienced.  Yes, God can indeed save the hungry and free the oppressed.  Sometimes salvation in that manner does come in this life.  In all cases it definitely comes in the life to come.  But to present a theology that God will always save a faithful person from whatever woe they encounter in this life is simply to force God into a box that we have created for Him.  It is prosperity gospel through and through.

Unfortunately, we cannot force God to dwell inside of our box.  It’s bad theology to think that saving us in this present age is at the top of God’s agenda.  History – and God’s Word – simply doesn’t support such a conclusion.  Salvation is at the top of God’s agenda, but it is the salvation in the life to come that God promises, not necessarily salvation from our temporal woes!

If you need another example, consider what Eliphaz says in verse 26.  Eliphaz seems to indicate that should Job truly be with God that he will die a death in his old age.  There are indeed many faithful that are allowed to live a long life.  However, there have been many people who died well before their time – people who died because of their faith!  I’ve already mentioned Stephen, and I could add 10 of the 12 original disciples here.  Or perhaps we could talk about important historical figures like Jan Hus or Deitrich Bonhoeffer.  The person who is faithful to God can live a good life into an old age, but just because a person is righteous does not imply that they will live a long life.  The righteous person will live the life that God has called them to live and follow that calling into death whenever it comes.

Summing Up Eliphaz

Consider the true implications of what Eliphaz says.  As we heard yesterday, all of his words seem to be very sound advice on the surface.  Who doesn’t want to say that God will save a person?  Who doesn’t want to paint God out as capable of bringing us out of our woes?  Sure, God can save.  But the reality is that sometimes our strife brings about God’s kingdom more than our ease.

The conclusions that Eliphaz reaches put God in a box that he has created for God.  Eliphaz’s conclusions teach about a God who is hemmed into our understanding.  Eliphaz is teaching that it is alright to limit God to a deity that meets our expectations rather than being a God who is accountable to His own understanding – an understanding that far exceeds our own.

Eliphaz has made God into the God that he wants to serve.  Eliphaz’s words do not come out of a humbleness that seeks after God.  Eliphaz’s words are out of a pride that asserts what he wants to believe is true. 

Who among us don’t struggle with that temptation from time to time?  Wouldn’t we all rather believe in a God that makes sense to us rather than approach His Word knowing that to understand Him means it is we who need to change our understanding?

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Year 2, Day 98: Job 4

Confession

As I read Job 4, I have to confess something.  There is some wisdom in Eliphaz’s counsel.  However, it is not all wise.  This chapter – and most of Eliphaz’s speeches – gives us a great foil against which we can prepare for the world.

Truth: It’s All Good Until Trouble Comes Home

At the beginning, Eliphaz does speak some truth.  Eliphaz does rightly accuse Job of being human in that he can give out sound advice until he is the one in the problem.  Once trouble comes to roost, Job’s advice crumbles.

That is true for most human beings.  When we are strong and stable in life, we can be a very useful voice-piece for God.  However, when trouble comes our way we are far less likely to be a strong voice of God’s wisdom.  It is human nature.  As the self-monger within us builds up those initial protective walls that I spoke of last chapter, we focus on ourselves and our own turmoil.  This inherently makes us less likely to be able to speak of God’s ways to others.

Truth: Sin Is the Leading Cause of Death

Eliphaz also appears to speak some truth when he says that those who sow trouble reap trouble.  In the grand scheme of things he is correct.  As one of my favorite T-shirts says, “Sin is the leading cause of death.”  We all reap what we sow, eventually.

Truth: No One is (Naturally) Righteous Before God

At the end of this chapter Eliphaz does hint at truth once more.  Can a mortal be in the right before God?  Can any of us be pure before God?  Of course the answer to those questions is no.  All of us have sinned.  Every one of us is guilty of our sinfulness before God.

Lie: The Impatience of Grief

However, there are a number of things that Eliphaz gets wrong here.  First, Eliphaz speaks of Job as being impatient.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t know that I would call a man who sat around in ashes for 7 days impatient.  I understand what Eliphaz is trying to say here in that Job cannot possibly know the future and that he needs to be patient to let God reveal Himself.  We do need to realize that God often takes longer to unfold His plan than we have patience to wait.  However, I can only imagine the sheer pain that Job has endured and I think that mourning in silence for 7 days shows a great deal of patience.

Lie: Focus on Yourself

Next, notice that Eliphaz ever-so-subtly directs Job to begin to focus on himself.  What is it that Eliphaz tells Job is his hope in verse 6?  Eliphaz says that Job’s “integrity of his ways” is his hope.  Is that really truth?  Are any of us righteous because of the integrity of our ways?  Sure, Eliphaz may be saying these words to build up Job and to try to remind him of his integrity.  But Eliphaz is wrong with what he says here.  If our hope is in that we are good people, we are all doomed.  Our hope is only in God.  Who among us can save us from disease or even death because we have integrity?

Lie: The Righteous Don’t Perish

Then Eliphaz talks about how nobody who is righteous ever perishes.  On a very shallow level Eliphaz is truthful.  None of us are righteous, and we all die.  However, that isn’t what Eliphaz means when he speaks these words and the words that follow. 

The argument that Eliphaz is making is that Job’s pain implies that he has done something quite seriously wrong.  Eliphaz is arguing that Job’s pain is evidence of some unrighteous act in his past.  This is simply not true.  Bad things happen to good people just as often as good things happen to bad people.  We cannot judge a person’s righteousness by whether or not they are living a good and happy life!  In fact, one might make a case to say that the Bible argues that those who walk closely with God will live a life of friction with the world!

Lie: We Are Untrustworthy In God’s Presence

Now we turn to the end of the chapter.  We’ve already spoken of the truth in what Eliphaz says about all of us being guilty before God.  However, Eliphaz gets something tragically wrong here.  We may not be able to be righteous on our own merit before God, but we can certainly find forgiveness.  If we are repentant and contrite then we can absolutely find forgiveness!  In that case we can absolutely stand righteous before our God.  We stand not on our own righteousness, but on His!

Summing Up Eliphaz

As we look at Eliphaz, we should see the world in his words.  How many times does advice from the world start in what appears to be truth?  How often do we hear people talking about “their experience?”  How many times does what they say seem to be true?  Almost everything that comes from the world seems to be true in the beginning.

However, we cannot gain absolute truth from the world.  As we see here in Job 4, truth that is not founded upon the sanctity and righteousness of God’s Word will eventually fall apart.  When we listen to people speak in this world, we need to learn to become active and look past the shallow truth that seems to be apparent and see if there is genuine truth in what they are saying or not.

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Year 2, Day 97: Job 3

The Rest of the Book

As we enter Job 3, we transition to a completely different style of writing than the first two chapters.  The first two chapters set up the cosmic battle between good and evil.  The first two chapters set up the conflict between a loyal God and a very destructive Satan.  The first two chapters show us a God who has confidence in His true believers and a Satan that wishes nothing more than to destroy the relationship between God and His true believers.

The rest of the book takes a look at how humanity deals with this conflict.  And we must be absolutely careful.  We must respect a very fine line as we go through these chapters.  Here’s the essence of the line:

• It is going to be easy to criticize Job and his three friends for their apparent lack of faith in God.  However, we must remember that we are human beings and we do not have an eternal mindset.  Thus, we must take things as they come, process them, deal with them, understand them, and move beyond them.  A great part of this process is talking and thinking things through.  It is human nature to need to process the stuff that happens to us in this world.  After all, if we never processed we would neither learn nor grow.  So we must not be harsh or critical about Job and his friends’ genuine need to process what is happening.
• On the other hand, we should never let any level of processing lead to questioning God’s relationship with us.  It is one thing to question how something can happen; it is entirely another thing to question if God really loves or if God really cares.  The former question is born out of the human need to understand and thus it is a good question to ask; the latter takes our need for understanding and pushes us into the realm of questioning God’s character.  We as human beings have every right to understand the things happening to us as best as we can and then grow from them.  The human being has no right to question the character and nature of God and thus establish himself as judge over God.  That doesn’t mean we don’t do it or can’t do it – it just means that when we do it we cross a line.

Job’s Processing

Keeping these things in mind, let’s go through this chapter of Job.  Here we get a chance to listen to Job speak.  This chapter is the very first essence of his thoughts.  As with most human beings, our first response to tragedy is born of pure emotion – and most of it is self-centered emotion.  Those of you who have read this blog for a while will be familiar with my concept of the self-monger.  This chapter is Job’s self-monger trying to come out and trying to gain control.  All Job can think about is his pain and his suffering.  The pain is so new that it is consuming his thoughts.  The self-monger rages and sets up a self-centered barrier that initially helps him learn to deal with this newfound pain.

At this moment in Job’s life all he wishes is that he would have died before this ever happened.  The new pain is so great that he genuinely believes that it would have been better for him to have never lived than to have to tolerate this present existence. 

You know what?  This is a pretty common human reaction.  Or, at least, it is pretty common within me.  I’ve been there.  I’ve been in a situation where life appeared so bleak that I asked God why I was even born.   In moments like these it seems as though it would have been easier to never have lived than to deal with what is currently happening.  What Job is experiencing here is completely normal for a human being.

Yet, let’s not lose sight of the fact that it is completely selfish.  Is a current experience of pain ever worth losing all the prior moments of joy?  Is there any experience of pain that is so great that it minimizes our relationship with God?  Yes, the suffering and the processing that Job is doing is completely natural and it is often the first step in pain management.  But if carried very far at all it will turn destructive within us.

Job Knows His Limitations

To this end, you will notice what Job does not do in this chapter.  Job does not question God.  Neither does Job give up.  Yes, Job wrestles with the pain.  He wrestles with what the rest of his life is going to be like now that his life has turned to tragedy.  But he does not turn it into questioning God or thinking that he can be a judge over God.  He is not willing to let the raging self-monger take this initial step of dealing with the pain into an unhealthy place.  Job contains the self-monger.

This brings us back to the balance we must remember throughout this book.  Job has to deal with the pain.  Life will be better if he gets the emotional crud that is inside of him out of him.  Ask any counselor or psychologist – they’ll tell you the truth in that sentence.  Job needs a moment of self-centered-barrier-construction in order to get a handle on the new circumstances of his life.  But what he does not need to do is bring about the dissolving of his relationship with God. 

I’d like to believe Job knows that it will be his relationship with God that will get him through the rest of his life.  So Job deals with the pain – admittedly selfishly for the time being.  But Job has done so in a way that leaves the door to God wide open so that eventually he will be able to move beyond the immediate self-centeredness in which he finds himself.

I think this is part of why God’s Word continues to call Job a righteous man.  Even though he is human and even though he does have to begin in a self-centered perspective just to cope with the pain of his new circumstances, he never closes the door on God or brings God’s character into question.  We can learn a lot from Job on this regard.

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Year 2, Day 96: Job 2

God vs. Satan 2.0

Job  2 ends the contest between Satan and God.  I know, it seems like it just began. But halfway through this chapter we have the defeat of Satan’s plan.  Let’s explore this a little.

Satan comes before God and they have a very familiar exchange.  God again points Job out to Satan.  Satan tells God that so long as God keeps up the hedge of protection against Job, Job will praise God.  But if God drops the hedge of protection, Satan is sure Job will curse God. 

Parenthetically, it makes sense for God to keep the hedge around Job’s life.  If Satan kills Job, then Job cannot respond and we wouldn’t be able to know how he would have reacted.  Had Satan killed Job – or been able to – the conversation between God and Satan would have been moot.

Therefore, Job’s life is cursed.  His health is cursed.  His body breaks out in boils.  In other verses within Job we get more of the picture: sleeplessness (7:4), depression (7:16; 30:15), dimmed eyesight (16:16), putrid breath (19:17), rotting teeth (19:20), emaciation (19:20), and exhausting fevers (30:30).  His life has been destroyed and now his health tanks.  Yet in all of this Job does not sin with his mouth.

This is where Satan loses.  Satan says to God that if Job is unprotected he will curse God to his face.  Job doesn’t.  Satan loses.  Satan has been able to afflict Job in every dimension short of killing him, yet Job remains in a positive relationship with God.  Satan has lost the bet, proving that he doesn’t know everything that he thinks that he does.

Keep in mind that all throughout the Bible Satan’s main goal is to destroy the relationship between humanity and God.  In Genesis we are told about Satan’s work in the Garden of Eden.  Here we see Satan willing to toss away a human life to prove his point to God – a point that is false.  In Peter’s letters in the New Testament we are told that Satan is a roaring lion seeking any life that he can devour.  Satan’s thrust of work is to destroy the relationship between humanity and God.  Thanks be to God that he doesn’t win and God is stronger than Satan.

Job’s Wife

This brings us to Job’s wife.  I mourn for Job in this respect.  When Job is down, what character does his wife prove?  She says, “Curse God and die.”  She shows that her perspective is in the world, not above.  She doesn’t understand what Job understands.  She doesn’t understand that nothing is worth compromising the eternal.  No amount of hardship in this life is worth cursing God.

This makes me think about the world.  How many times do we hear of human beings cursing God for the events in our lives?  How many times have I come to the brink of being angry with God and making false accusations against God because of the way that my life was unfolding for a time?  Yet, in the end, is any event in this life worth risking the eternal?  Is any circumstance in this life so big that God cannot redeem it in the life to come?  Is there any condition in this world that is so offensive that we cannot put up with it or tolerate it for the sake of God?  I know.  That’s a really high bar to set.  Trust me, I get it.  But it is the bar that is set by the story of Job here.  Nothing is so big that it is worth going against God.

Job’s Friends

Then we get Job’s friends.  When they see Job, they don’t recognize him.  They mourn and wail for him.  But they don’t have anything to say.  They spend seven days with Job without having a thing to say to him.

There is great wisdom in this.  They have nothing to say to him, so they don’t say anything.  They simply are present with him.  How many times do human beings feel like they don’t have something to say and thus they say anything just to say something – usually with disastrous results?  In fact, keep this in mind as we read through the rest of the book.  How might the lives of the friends been better if they had just kept their mouth shut in order to learn rather than trying to solve Job’s problems and speak out against God’s wisdom?

There is a time and a place for speaking.  But trying to incorrectly explain God’s ways is not good.  Neither is speaking out against God.  I don’t know about you, but I could stand to learn a bit better when to open my mouth and when to keep it shut and simply minister in presence.

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Year 2, Day 95: Job 1

Blessings and Curses of Job

Ah, the book of Job.  It starts with such a promising two chapters of action and intrigue.  Then it turns into 40-some chapters of conversation, debate, and dialogue.  It’s not the easiest book to read.  But there is a ton we can learn from this book in terms of perspective.  If we are patient with the book and approach it humbly, we can learn from this book of the Bible about how God views the world as much or more than any other book.  I guess that makes sense considering that most people believe that the story of Job predates the Hebrew enslavement in Egypt.  That means that Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible.  It makes sense that the oldest book in the Bible would contain a tremendous wealth of knowledge on the perspective of God.

A Model of the Godly Life

Job 1 opens with a comment about his life.  God had blessed him.  He was the wealthiest man in the east.  In spite of his wealth, he remained loyal and faithful to God – no easy task.

But we also hear that his sons and daughters did not.  They could not handle faith with life being handed to them on a silver platter.  They feasted and celebrated and drank and partied.  They did not honor God. 

They had the model of godly life in Job.  They even had the model of godly life and how to deal with wealth in Job.  But they gave him no heed.  Life was more important to them than God.  Period.

To his credit, Job never stopped caring about his kids.  He offered up sacrifices for them in hopes that they might turn to God.  He prayed for them.  But they did not turn from their ways.  No amount of one person’s faith can guarantee that their children will have faith.  It helps, but none of us can control the faith found in another.

The Tragedy of the Sons of God

Scene change: the throne room of God.  The “sons of God” come before Him.  I find it absolutely interesting to hear that Satan comes among the presence of God.  Let me tell you why.  The word used here for “sons” is the same word that is used earlier to describe Job’s “sons.”  Just as Job’s sons could not be counted on as being faithful to God, it appears that the Hebrew text would say that the same is true about God.  Not even “God’s sons” would all be faithful.

Theologically, we know this.  We are told by Jesus that he saw Satan fall from heaven.  (See Luke 10:17-20)  We are told in the book of Revelation that a great dragon appeared in heaven and swept a third of the stars to the earth.  (Revelation 12:1-6)  Many people interpret that passage as a reflection upon the fall of Satan from heaven.  The fall of Satan from heaven is strong in Christian tradition.  But how many of us think about it in the terms presented here in Job?  How many of us think of Satan as the tragic story of a “son of God” who refuses to follow God? 

This passage is a word of peace to those parents who have children who do not choose to follow God.  God knows how you feel.  Not even all of “His sons” have followed Him.  Some – perhaps even as many as a third! – have chosen rebellion against God.

God vs. Satan

God and Satan talk.  God asks Satan what he has been doing, and Satan is upfront and confesses that he’s been roaming about the world.  Notice that God seems to show no fear or even irritation about this fact.  It is no surprise to God that Satan has been roaming the earth looking to cause trouble. 

In fact, not only does God not show any irritation, he seems to give Satan someone to focus upon!  It is God who suggests that Satan spend some time looking at Job.  God goes so far as to give Satan authority to do his worst to Job so long as Job’s health is spared.  Don’t miss this point.  It is God who tells Satan about Job.

Theodicy on Trial

Okay, we need to stop for a second and deal with the usual complaint that is brought up against God at this point.  Is God being fair by focusing Satan upon Job?  Is God being loving or just?  Is it possible that God is going against His character?  How does it make you feel to know that when Satan comes looking for trouble God directs him to consider the righteousness of Job?

This process of analyzing how good interacts with evil and is vindicated over evil is called Theodicy … and the book of Job is often re-dubbed Theodicy on Trial.  The vast majority of words in this book are about considering this very question.

I don’t think the accusations against God are fair at all, and I’ll present my case here:

1. God knows Job.  God knows that Job doesn’t care about the stuff nearly as much as Job cares for his relationship with God.  So God is not putting anything that Job truly cares for in jeopardy.  From our human worldly and fleshly perspective God is allowing great harm to come to Job.  But from God’s perspective, God won’t allow that which is of preeminent importance to be touched.  This point should really cause us to focus on our own priorities.  Would we get mad at God for allowing something of ours to be destroyed?  Isn’t that actually more of an indication that something is a little too important to us than it is reason to call God’s character into question?
2. God knows the outcome.  God knows that Job will prove himself to be loyal to God – even if he does stumble occasionally along the way, as we all do.  God knows that Job will make it to the end and all will be set right.  Who are we to judge the way things unfold so long as God genuinely has our best interests in mind?
3. God never promises that following Him will be painless.  Look at the prophets.  Look at the Lord’s disciples.  Look at the Lord’s Son.  When we follow God, we should expect the world to hate us and we should expect Satan to want to knock us off of our pedestal.  If we are afraid of that or subject to being angry at God for what Satan and the world will do to us, then it is we who have the problem, not God.  God never once says that following Him will be easy in this world.  If we want things to be easy in this life, we need to follow the world, not God.

God knows in the end that Job will be a stronger and more faithful person.  Shall we accuse God of working against His character when the end result is that the relationship between Himself and Job is actually strengthened?

The truth is that the only reason that we can bring God’s character into perspective is because we can only see through human eyes.  We can only think through a human mind.  We cannot possibly see all that God sees.  So we are able to accuse God only because of the shortness of our own perspective.

As you can see, this book is going to be a challenge for us.  It will challenge us to put aside our human way of thinking and ask ourselves if we are genuinely willing to embrace God’s way of thinking.

Tragedy Strikes

We now turn to the last section of this chapter.  As expected, great tragedy comes upon Job’s family.  His children die.  Their houses are destroyed.  Job’s oxen are stolen.  The sheep are consumed by fire from heaven.  His servants are killed.  Utter destruction happens.  This is the ultimate worst case scenario.

What does Job do in response to all of this?  He worships.  Yes, he mourns.  He tears his robe and shaves his head.  But he worships God.  He does not turn in his sinfulness and abandon his faith.  He does not long after the ways of the world once it appears that God’s hedge of protection around him has failed.  Job is God’s servant.  He may struggle to understand why this is happening, but that does not change the fact that from Job’s perspective he belongs to God.

Nothing interferes with the worship of God from the true follower of God.  The fake followers find excuses to not worship.  The semi-loyal followers find reasons to worship the way they want and on their own terms.  The true follower of God worships according to God’s ways and puts God before themselves in all circumstances.

This should cause all of us a gut check moment.  When life gets tough, do I fall away from God?  Did Job fall away?  Have we ever encountered anything to the level that Job did? 

We know Job is a true follower.  So if I fall away when life gets tough, then perhaps it is I who have the problem, not God.  Perhaps it is me who should go under the microscope rather than God.  Life is not about me and my ways.  Life is about humbling myself before God and doing God’s ways.

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Year 2, Day 94: 2 Corinthians 12 & 13

I Know a Man…

I’m going to avoid the age old question about whether or not Paul is talking about himself when he talks about “some man.”  We know Paul had a number of visions during his ministry.  We also know that other people had them as well.  Paul may be talking about himself, he might not be.  To focus on that issue misses the much deeper point of this passage.

Paradise

Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the background theology in this passage.  Let’s start with the concept of “paradise” found in verse 3.  This is the same word that Jesus uses on the cross when speaking to one of the thieves.  The word in the Greek is actually a word that the Greeks borrowed from Persians, who used the word to describe a walled and enclosed garden that one could not access unless the way was opened for you from the inside.  Paradise – in the original Persian context – was something that one was invited into.  Paradise was a place to which having entrance was an honor bestowed by the owner of the paradise.  Thus, when Paul talks about being caught up into paradise, Paul is talking about a man being honored to go someplace that he could not have gotten without someone else bestowing the honor upon him.  This is first and foremost a passage about grace.  This is a passage about God acting and a man being the beficiary of God’s action.

In fact, take a glance back at the last verse of the prior chapter.  Paul speaks of his life being a demonstration of weakness by being spared in Damascus by grace in the act of being lowered down the wall in a basket.  This only happened because others did it for Paul.  Now here in this passage Paul is talking about the glory and honor that comes from Christ by being caught up into paradise – a place owned by God and to which only God can grant access.  This could only happen because God did it to the man.  Paul’s point is subtle, but one to which we should pay attention.  In God, we are strong and He will lavish upon us glory upon glory.  We cannot attain it ourselves.  It is done for us.

The Need for the Mysterious Thorn

Before we get to the next section, we also need to take a look at “thorn in his side.”  We don’t have too much of a clue as to what the thorn actually happens to be, but we know that it was bad enough that he genuinely prayed to God to be released from the pain.  However, we also know that the thorn in his side helped to keep him grounded.  Imagine how large Paul’s ego would have been if the only thing that he experienced was the high mountaintop spiritual experiences.  If Paul was only experiencing visions, only experiencing the “paradise moments” of life, or only reaping positive moments in ministry he would have had an incredible ego and would have likely been of little use to any of us back in the real world.  Had Paul only experienced success, what would have kept the human ego in check?

Paul was able to keep balance in his life because he had both the joys and the thorns.  Because of his weaknesses, Paul was reminded that the joys and glory in his life only come because of the presence of Christ in His life.  He is not any greater than another human being; what makes him great is his willingness to let Christ be great in him in spite of the thorns in his life.

Shame

As Paul gets ready to close the letter, he speaks to the Corinthians in terms of shame.  He reminds them that the signs of a true apostle were performed in their midst, yet they were uninspired to respond faithfully.  He then shames the Corinthians because even after leaving he has continued to pour himself out for them and they have remained spiritually uninspired.  Finally, Paul shames them in that he tells them that he suspects that when he does come that he will find them more interested in quarrelling and arguing rather than being interested in doing the work of the Lord.

As Christians, we should take these words seriously.  God has lavished grace upon us.  God has sent spiritual people into our lives.  God has graciously given us His Word and in our modern culture He has given us unimpeded access to it.  Yet so often we still remain uninspired.  We are more prone to argue about our faith and what keeps us separate than we are willing to get down to doing the actual work of the Lord.

Paul concludes this letter by reminding them that he is planning to come to them for a third time.  His final piece of advice is about testing themselves.  They need to spend some time genuinely asking themselves if Christ is within them.  They need to look at their actions and words and ask if Christ is genuinely present in what they say and do.  They need to aim for restoration and seek to live in God.  This is sound advice and I know that I can benefit from listening to Paul’s advice.

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Year 2, Day 93: 2 Corinthians 11

For Whom Are You Working?

Paul gets really blunt here in this chapter.  If we look at his opening section, he basically levels two significant booms upon the people in Corinth and the people who have come to fill the void once he left Corinth.  He claims that there are people that are proclaiming a different Gospel than Jesus Christ crucified.  Then, he makes sure that the Corinthians understand that such people are the agents of Satan, who “even disguises himself as an angel of light.”

I’m going to get up on my soap box today, and I’m doing it unapologetically.  I am so tired of people who want to make religion difficult.  There are all kinds of people in the word who live and breathe that church has to be “done their way.”  I do think it is good to have places of worship and even different varieties of it.  I don’t mind the fact that we have contemporary services, traditional services, liturgical services, prayer services, healing services, whatever.  Do you know what I am tired of doing?  I am tired of defending the work that God is doing within me because it doesn’t fit “someone else’s expectations.”  Is faith about meeting my expectations or is faith about my willingness to give up my expectations and being where God needs me to be?

What does Paul say in the opening verses of this chapter?  “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (ESV, 2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

We are saved by one thing and one thing only: Jesus’ death on the cross.  We are to be purely devoted to Christ.  Of course there are many ways to worship God!  What makes a place of worship right or wrong is not the means of practice but the preaching and teaching done within! 

Does anyone tell you that you need anything besides the cross of Christ to be saved?  Run away!  Nothing we do – prayer, baptism, worship, tithing, etc – can earn salvation from God.  Yes, we should absolutely do those things as a response to our salvation as Christ has commanded us to do them.  But nothing I do can cause me to be saved.  God gave me salvation as a free gift.  I can only respond.

I feel Paul’s pain as he writes here.  There were people coming into Corinth and telling them that if they were really going to be Christians they had to be circumcised.  There were people coming in and saying they had to be baptized by emersion according to John’s baptism.  There were people coming in and telling them that they had to follow the kosher rules for eating or all sorts of other things.  Paul’s pain comes because the Corinthians were believing them.  They were listening!  The Corinthians believed these other people and they were trading in the free gift of grace from God for some compromise.  They were accepting a compromise that boils down to the claim that the cross must not be enough.  That is a dangerous place to be.

Now, please don’t hear me preaching universalism, either.  There are truths out there, and we must stand up strong for God’s truth.  But whether I take communion once a month or every week or every quarter is of no impact upon salvation and as such it is no reason to not associate with people who may practice differently in that matter.  The same goes for whether a church uses grape juice or wine,  leavened or unleavened bread, practice baptism by sprinkling or by emersion, use some version of the Bible other than the KJV or the NRSV, worship on Saturday night or Sunday morning, or … well, you get the idea.

Is the means of baptism more important than the baptism being done in God’s name and by His power?  Is the type of bread more important than the promise that Jesus will make Himself known to us through it?  Is the name on the Sunday School curriculum more important than whether or not people are coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ in the first place?

Agents of the Devil

At the end of this introductory section, Paul is bold and harsh to denounce people who would desire to make such distinctions.  People who preach any gospel other than the cross of Christ being the only means to justification are “false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.”  He goes all the way to remind us that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 

We must be careful when we draw lines in the sand.  When we draw a line in the sand that is not appropriate and actually drawn by God, we might just end up doing the work of Satan rather than doing the work of the Lord.

Wrapping Up the Chapter

In the end, what will save me is Christ’s death on the cross.  Whether I drink grape juice or wine will not save me.  Whether I lift up my hands as I praise God or not will not save me.  Whether I speak in tongues or not will not save me.  It is the cross of Christ to which I must cling.  It is the cross of Christ of which I must boast.  Yes, Christ does expect me to respond and to let the Holy Spirit work within me and make me a new creation.  But it is the cross of Christ that has justified me.  It is time that we start taking that point seriously and only allow divisions among us when people proclaim that salvation is through some other means or even some other additional means.

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Year 2, Day 92, 2 Corinthians 10

Walking vs. Waging War

2 Corinthians 10 makes a bold statement right up front.  “Though we are walking in the flesh, we are not waging war in the flesh.”  There are two interesting dynamics to this verse: walking in the flesh and waging war.

We are all walking in the flesh – regardless of the fact that we are hopefully also walking in the Spirit.  As long as we draw breath, we will walk in the flesh and there is nothing that we can do about it.

Martin Luther writes of a wonderful dynamic that he ultimately gets from reading through many of Paul’s letters in the Bible.  He calls it the Two Kingdoms.  There is the kingdom of this world: the kingdom of flesh and sin.  It is a kingdom that is ruled by the prince and power of this world: Satan.  (See Mark 3:22-27, John 12:31, John 14:30, John 16:11)  There is also the kingdom that Christ establishes.  It is not a flesh and bone kingdom but a kingdom of Spirit.  It is a kingdom ruled by Christ.  No matter how much we long to be in the kingdom of the Spirit, we are in both kingdoms until we stop drawing breath and stand before our God.

That leads us into the second interesting dynamic here in this verse.  Paul sees himself as waging war.  Yet, Paul is not waging war as we think about in terms of the world.  Paul is not out creating an army so that he can march on Rome and establish some sort of Christian theocracy (although, historically speaking that is what we get after several more hundreds of years).  Neither is Paul slinging hurtful words towards those with whom he disagrees.  Rather, Paul is fighting a spiritual war as he tries to help people understand the two kingdoms.  Paul is fighting a war that is at its very heart a spiritual battle.

Paul is also fighting an intellectual battle and an emotional battle, but he is fighting them on a spiritual plane.  He is making argument after argument regarding the choices people make and the spiritual alignments that people create out of their choices.  Actually, Paul is fighting the same battle that Jesus fought when He came to this earth.  People wanted Jesus to take on Rome, but Jesus was far more interested in the spiritual kingdom than the kingdom of this world.  But make no bones about it.  It is war.

Pushing The Envelope

That leads us into the next section of Paul’s letter.  You can get a sense of Paul’s fear as he writes the next several verses.  Paul is afraid that in his spiritual fight he has had to be offensive.  He is afraid that as he has battled that he has been heavy handed or strong in his arguments.  He is afraid that as he pushes the envelope that he pushes a little too far and a little too hard.  But he must push.  He cannot back off, because as soon as he gives a gap and lets up on the resistance against the ways of this world then Satan will swoop in to fill the gap.

The purpose of spiritual authority is for the building up of someone, not their destruction.  Now it is true that sometimes in order to build up strongly one must tear down a few things.  In order for me to become spiritual, I must let go of those things within me that are not spiritual.  I must experience conviction and a tearing down.  But I do not need to experience destruction.  I do not need to experience a complete and utter worthlessness.  It is one thing to point out how another person needs to examine their life and be careful of sin and then be there to help rebuild in a spiritual context.  It is another thing to simply tear someone else down for the sake of destroying them and reducing them to rubble.

Working Beyond the Church

At the end of this chapter Paul puts his work into a really neat perspective.  Do you hear the thrust of Paul’s message?  Paul tells the Corinthians that the goal of his work does not stop with the Corinthians.  I think this is a huge dynamic to “church ministry” that we all really need to think about more deeply than we do.  After all, how many churches would respond well to their pastor telling them that they are doing ministry within them so that they can actually reach people who aren’t in the church?

But this is spot on true.  A pastor does not work for the sake of the “church.”  The pastor works so that as the church grows the community around the church is reached for Christ.  If the focus of the church is on the church, we’ve already lost the spiritual battle.  The focus of the church is spiritual growth for the sake of the community to which God has called us to reach.  In other words, the focus of the church is mission.  When put that way, it sounds so correct!

Think about it.  Why did Jesus Christ work with His disciples?  Was Jesus really concerned only for those 12 individuals?  No, Jesus was concerned for the whole world.  Jesus made disciples so that once they were trained they could go out and make more disciples.  Jesus worked with His disciples while being focused beyond His disciples.  That is the nature of Christ.  That is exactly what Paul is talking about here in this chapter.

The next time you talk to your pastor, discuss this idea with your pastor.  Discuss how the church can learn to stop focusing on itself and start focusing out into the world.  The work that the pastor – or any of us – does within the church should be so that as the people in the church grow in their spirituality they go out into the community and begin to reach other people for Christ.  It was Jesus’ plan.  It is what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 10:15-16.

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Year 2, Day 91: 2 Corinthians 8 & 9

Beginning With Money

Today we get to look at two chapters that on the surface seem to be about money.  And they are – at least on the surface they are!  You see, Paul is making a collection for the orphans and widows in Jerusalem who are unable to provide for themselves.  There were several regional famines in the Roman Empire, and at the time Paul is writing this there is a famine going on in the eastern part of the Empire (Jerusalem and the surrounding areas).  As you can guess, when the demand of grain goes up because the supply of grain goes down, then the price of grain goes up as well.  Without grain – and with meat being expensive already – we have people in Jerusalem who literally cannot buy the food that they need to survive.  Paul has taken upon himself to make a collection to bring back to Jerusalem and give to the poor and the needy.

Furthermore, Paul has a general belief that if he can bring a big collection of support back to Jerusalem to help carry the widows and the orphans through the famine, then the Jerusalem Christians will have a much easier time accepting that Gentiles have been added to their number.  After all, if Gentiles that have converted to Christ care enough about the orphans and widows starving in Jerusalem, then the Spirit of God must be at work within them, right?  Well, that’s Paul’s thinking at least.  Furthermore, Paul is hoping that as word spreads among the Jews in Jerusalem about the compassion of the Christians that more Jews might be willing to consider believing in the power of God at work in Jesus Christ.

This is what Paul means when he mentions his collection.  This is what Paul is talking about when he speaks of the Christians in Macedonia giving themselves fully to God and out of that being led to give to Paul’s collection.  Paul isn’t beating the bushes to make money for his own coffers; he is beating the bushes to collect money for the poor in Jerusalem.

This brings us back to the beginning of chapter 8 as well as the whole of chapter 9.  God loves a cheerful giver.  God loves a person who gives because they hear of a need and desire to help.  God loves a person who sees what they have as a shareable gift that they have first received from God.  This is why so many of our church liturgies have a prayer over our offerings that contain words like “we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given to us.”  God loves the person who joyfully gives out of what they recognize as having first com from God.

You Reap What You Sow

Paul also gives another great piece of advice here.  To the person who sows generously, they will reap generously.  This doesn’t mean that if I give a lot of money to the church that God will find a way to have even more money come back my way.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work like that.  If it did, I’m sure financial planners would have figured it out by now and it would be a part of our financial portfolios!  Rather, what Paul is talking about here is that if we give generously of our time, talents, and treasures that we will gain things back that are far more valuable that what we give away.  We will gain back relationships, experience changed lives, and see the Holy Spirit at work in the people around us.  We will store up in heaven treasures where moth and rust cannot destroy.  We will receive the blessing of the Almighty – and honestly, what’s worth more than that?

Giving of the Holy Spirit

I think this passage also speaks not just of the giving of our time and talents, but also of the giving of the Holy Spirit.  The person who sees everything in their life in spiritual terms will be able to identify and spread the work of the Spirit everywhere.  These people will be identified easily by other Christians.  These people will be able to speak to other people who need God in their life at that moment.  These people are the ones that God will use most vibrantly in propelling the kingdom forward.

On the other hand, there are some people that keep the Spirit locked up tightly within themselves.  They genuinely have the Holy Spirit within them, but they are very timid about letting it all out.  These people will not spread the message of God’s work very far.  They will be harder to identify by other Christians.  They will be used less frequently by God in propelling the kingdom forward.

Paul commends those who give freely of themselves.  Paul commends the person who dedicates their life to God first and works in this world out of that dedication.  Paul commends the person who after commending their life to God they find out where God is working and join in the work with their whole being.

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