Have You Considered Job?

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Then Job spoke again:  “I have heard all this before.  What miserable comforters you are!  Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?  What makes you keep on talking?  I could say the same things if you were in my place.  I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.  But if it were me, I would encourage you.  I would try to take away your grief.  Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.  “O God, you have ground me down and devastated my family.  As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.  My gaunt flesh testifies against me.  God hates me and angrily tears me apart.  He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes.  People jeer and laugh at me.  They slap my cheek in contempt.  A mob gathers against me.  God has handed me over to sinners.  He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.  “I was living quietly until he shattered me.  He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.  He set me up as his target, and now his archers surround me.  His arrows pierce me without mercy.  The ground is wet with my blood.  Again and again he smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior.  I wear burlap to show my grief.  My pride lies in the dust.  My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes.  Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure.  “O earth, do not conceal my blood.  Let it cry out on my behalf.  Even now my witness is in heaven.  My advocate is there on high.  My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God.  I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.  Job 16:1-21

There is so much pathos and meaning of life in the Book of Job, it could hardly be exhausted in months of study; perhaps years; maybe only when, in Heaven, we have One who can unveil for us the depth of Job’s sorrow, confusion, and grief. 

This chapter is the fifth time Job answers his friends.  They have been trying to get their suffering friend to see how he must have sinned really-big, and really-dark to get God that ticked-off.  Job’s children were all dead, his riches gone, his livestock and goods carried off by robbers and thieves.  The icing on the cake is painful boils covering Job’s body, and his wife has suggested suicide would be better. 

Most studies of Job focus on this calamity of a good man suffering utter loss.  And there’s nothing wrong with picking it apart in the search for meaning, purpose, and order in human existence.  God created us with a brain to figure these things out!  But there is one connection we must never miss.  Given the total unravelling of a good man’s life, what can we say about God’s purpose in allowing all that?  Simply put, all of what happened to Job helps us understand life’s rain, good or horrible, falls on the just and the unjust, and is an example, which Paul writes in   1 Corinthians 10[1] that leads to Job’s conclusion:

I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.  Job 16:1-21

Job was hurting, and he knew God permitted everything that happened to him.  He knew, as good a life as he’d led, and as holy as he tried to be, his efforts just weren’t enough.  Whatever troubles anyone on earth could experience, Job was not exempt; he needed a mediator, an advocate to plead his case before God.

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.  1 John 2:1

For You Today 

You may be on the verge of following Mrs. Job’s advice to her husband, or maybe you’ve suffered little in life…yet!  Whether you are there now, and down to your last shred of hope, or leading a joy-filled, even carefree life, remember this, and count on it…you do have someone who will love you.  His name is Jesus.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Read 1 Corinthians 10

So Many Questions - Only One Answer

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:  “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?  Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.  “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell me, if you know so much.  Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?  What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness?  For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.  I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.  Here your proud waves must stop!  Job 38:1-11

For 37 chapters Job has heard no answers from heaven about why his children died, why his reputation in the community died, and why his wealth crumbled, and why his wife lost faith in him and advised him to curse God for all of it, lie down and just die.  You can certainly believe it; Job had questions…a lot of them.  And from the tone of Job’s voice, while debating with his well-intentioned dragons, the neighbors who feigned deep concern, but had already made up their minds that Job must have had closet sins which were the reason God was punishing him, you can deduce that Job figured he was entitled to some answers! 

Finally, God does give an answer to all those questions.  And they all had the same answer…a question, really; God asked Job:  With so little understanding, my dear child, how did you even manage to lace-up your sandals this morning?

God’s commentary followed, describing for Job how he couldn’t possibly understand God’s thought process for allowing Satan to sift through Job’s life and create such chaos.  That commentary was about the creation, starting with the DNA of the tiniest creature, to the great Leviathan beasts roaming the open seas.  He described assembling the foundation of the earth, and teaching the stars to sing, while arranging all the majestic splendour of life, physical and metaphysical. 

Gods’ answer continues for another chapter and a half, but it’s still one answer, a description of God’s majesty, displayed in creation, and how Job, a latecomer to time and eternity, really doesn’t have enough brain power to even begin understanding God’s ways, let alone instructing God in His responsibilities.  Here’s how the conversation finishes…God says to Job:

“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?  You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” 

Then Job replied to the Lord, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers?  I will cover my mouth with my hand.  I have said too much already.  I have nothing more to say.”  Job 40:2-5

Finally…Job lays-hold of an intelligent thing to say to an Almighty, Sovereign God!

For You Today 

There exists in our world an arrogance which is as old as Satan prancing into heaven and challenging God to this battle with Job’s soul as the prize.  It is the arrogance that we humans have judging God for the bad stuff that happens.  We charge God as scapegoat for all the misery we have created by ignoring His love and righteousness.  We choose destruction over the plan of God for good and holy living.  And then, in our pride, we blame him for our choices.

Approach God in your day today…listen much, say less…let Him love you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Wondering About the Big Stuff Series:  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  and We Mortals

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

God is Good

 

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

“What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people—the shepherds of my sheep—for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for,” says the Lord.  Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to these shepherds:  “Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction.  Now I will pour out judgment on you for the evil you have done to them.  But I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the countries where I have driven them.  I will bring them back to their own sheepfold, and they will be fruitful and increase in number.  Then I will appoint responsible shepherds who will care for them, and they will never be afraid again.  Not a single one will be lost or missing.  I, the Lord, have spoken!  “For the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line.  He will be a King who rules with wisdom.  He will do what is just and right throughout the land.  And this will be his name:  ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’  In that day Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety.  Jeremiah 23:1-6

For the Lord is good.  His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.  Psalm 100:5

From a human perspective it seems a reckless thing to say God is good.  Amid the terror and tragedy with which we live every day, murder, mayhem, darkness, and loss, how can one possibly think a benevolent God would allow such?  Another log on that fire is something I hear from time to time:  If God is good, why would He even think about crucifying His own son?

The goodness of God is seen in both of those questions, the one about God allowing harmful stuff, and the other one about God causing harmful stuff.  The questions are more about us…individually…we know ourselves to be so much lower than God, and the evil of which we are all capable.  Reframe (more accurately) the questions and they become:  Why do WE do such awful stuff, and How can WE do all that to ourselves?  The answer to both questions is found in nailing Christ to the cross.  It isn’t God who crucified Jesus, it was each of us who was pounding those nails.

Jeremiah recounted what God said about man’s sinful misleading of others.  Instead of walking with God, humankind has always walked in selfishness, and we lead others to do so as well.  That’s what led to the cross.  And as for why God would “participate” in the evil of the cross…how else would God identify with us, love us enough to take our place on that cross, but to willingly give Himself, a sacrifice for our sins?

The bottom line to those age-old questions is that God IS indeed good!  He displayed that for all to see just how much He loved us in all that goodness.  Such are the words penned by Isaac Watts:

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?[1]

For You Today 

It’s easy to blame God for what happens to us, or the darkness and pain of this world’s evil.  It’s easy, but not right.  Nail scars and a thorn-pierced brow make that point…always, and eternally.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Flat Tire Worship  and  Regaining Perspective   

Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Isaac Watts, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, 1707

Where is God?

Friday, September 23, 2022

Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord.  “No, I am far away at the same time.  Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?  Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.  Jeremiah 23:23-24

There are at least two different ways to interpret the question:  Where is God?  You can be asking about location, in the sense that you want to find God’s presence, either out of curiosity, or, more profoundly, out of need to know you’re not alone in this universe.  The second, and more publicly common way to ask, is the defiance motive…you’re asking about God’s location, or more accurately, his absence during an event that could have been prevented from becoming a tragedy.  It’s asking:  Where was God when my child died?  The first kind of interpretation is a seeker of God; the second is a judge of God.  Truth be told, it could always be both.

Some would deny ever being angry with God.  I’m not one of them…now!  I could never quite bring myself to admit it, but there have been those times.  One of those was when my grandmother died.  I loved Grandma Carrie.  She had a kind face, and was not above slipping a cookie in your hand, even just before dinnertime.  She was a patient sort; married to an alcoholic, she had to have the patience of Job.  When cancer took her from us, I cried for weeks.  As a pre-teen, anger was my emotional response to the grief that told me I would never see her again.  A lot older now, and, hopefully, a little wiser, I realize Russell, the child, was asking the defiant kind of question born of pain:  God…where were you when cancer took my Grandma? 

As a child I had to lay the blame for what was wrong in my life on someone.  Just as Adam passed along his guilt onto Eve, making God the culprit of Adam’s sin and failure for giving him that dangerous play toy, God was also to be my whipping boy.  He should have been there…and He wasn’t. 

Now, as an adult, with the blessing of a rearview mirror, the guidance of God’s Spirit through God’s Word, plus a whole lifetime of experience, the question I have no longer focuses on the whereabouts of God.  Life and God’s gentle guidance have taught me of His omnipresence in every moment and place I’ve ever walked.  Now the question is more appropriate:  Where is Russell?  Where is Russell’s mind and heart, in relationship to the God who is everywhere, sees everything, and understands every DNA molecule He used to fashion my body, and stamped on my invisible soul?  Mr. Wesley’s question:  How is it with your soul…is the question I now ask in the mirror every day.

For You Today

If you’ve been through some tough living, and you’re tempted to ask the judging question, it would be better to stand facing the mirror.  But if the pain is too great, go ahead and ask God where He’s been…He’s got big shoulders.  My experience is that He will gently remind you that He’s where He’s always been, right next to you, waiting for you to turn….so He can wrap His arms around you.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

In That Day and The Doily

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Turn Back ... and Live!

[1]

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord.  Of course not!  I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.  However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live?  No, of course not!  All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.  “Yet you say, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’  Listen to me, O people of Israel.  Am I the one not doing what’s right, or is it you?  Ezekiel 18:23-25(NLT)

I’ve heard it so often, and I expect to hear it again whenever the news reports:

·      some financial ruin, or a gruesome diagnosis, or …

·      some violent act like a mugging or hate crime, like last week’s shooting.

It goes something like:  How could God let this happen to innocent people?

There are a myriad of responses we could trot-out, but there are two ringing loudly in my bones today on the heels of another deranged man killing eleven people, and the ensuing accusations and counter-blame attempts:

1.      There are no totally innocent people.

2.      While God appears to be passively standing-by and passively letting it all happen, nothing could be farther from the truth.

About innocence in the human family

The apostle Paul, quoting the Old Testament prophets said that, among humans, there are none righteous.[2]  Paul, as well as traditional Christian theology (not to mention common sense) tell us we have inherited, and respond to Adam’s sinful nature.  That is why God’s acceptance of penitent sinners is based on mercy through His grace and mercy[3] not on our behavior.  Thank God for that!  It is our behavior which gets us into trouble; Christ’s behavior of sacrifice on the cross is what gets us out!

About God being a passive by-stander

It’s exactly the opposite; sovereign God is not only our Creator, He is the sustainer of all life and active in all that happens.  Just consider these few verses:

…“O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!  2 Chronicles 20:6(NLT)

Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:  “Praise the Lord!  For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.  Revelation 19:6(NLT)

To reign as a sovereign means you’re actively orchestrating the life and order of your subjects.  God, omniscient, understanding and aware of everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen is the very definition of supervising His Creation … and with a very detailed hand!  When the early stages of man’s development took a wrong turn, God turned things around.  Nimrod, King of Babel, decided to succeed from the union of God with man, and built him a monument…God did not stand passively by:

But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building …  Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages.  Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”  Genesis 11:5-7(NLT)

Ultimately God, Sovereign ruler of the universe and all that exists is orchestrating life and the times and events of mankind to suit His plans for what is His!  Like it or not we must be ready to cooperate with that plan. 

To do otherwise is beyond foolish.

For You Today

Do you have plans for today?  What in those plans convinces you that you are cooperating with God’s sovereign will?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Romans 3

[3] Ephesians 2:8-9

The Creation That Groans

[i]

Monday, June 5, 2017

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.  For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.  Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse.  But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.  For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.  We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.  Romans 8:18-23^(NLT)

As an apostle Paul was asked a lot of questions about God’s purposes.  People who suffered cruelty, disease, poverty and a host of other human ills wanted to know why life had to be so hard.  Paul’s letter to the Roman church contains much of Paul’s systematic theology, and therein we find many of the answers to life’s tough questions.

As a pastor, I have also been asked a lot of questions; one of the toughest ones is about how it can be fair that we are born into a sinful world with a sinful nature that gets us in trouble; after all, we didn’t ask for that! 

There is a single phrase here in Paul’s Roman treatise on God’s design for all creation, which may give us tools to unlock that question’s mystery:  Against its will.

When God finished creating everything on the sixth day he looked around and proclaimed that it was all very good.  That means there wasn’t anything wrong with what He had created; no pain, no anger, no death, and nothing over which we would have to shed tears.  We (the human race) were given the keys to a perfect existence!  The phrase against its will is Paul’s way of describing how the good creation of God became subject to the curse which made life really difficult – full of death and decay.  To this moment the entire creation groans waiting for the day God will restore Eden. 

The simple straight line drawn from this to our question about being born into this mess of a world is that, just as the earth suffered because of the curse brought on by Adam and Eve’s rebellion, we too are born into an existence soiled by sin.  We suffer living in a world catastrophized by our ancestors; we didn’t ask for it, but, then neither did the children who will be born in the next century ask to live in a world polluted and left to disintegrate by our generation.  The lone self-righteousness caveat here is that, had we been first, we would have been first in sin just as certainly as the first couple.  Whether Adam and Eve are two actual people or just representative figureheads to describe all of humanity, every one of us is born/created in innocence, but we choose to sin.

The underlying lesson learned about the sin of our ancestors and this generation, and the generation to come is that God did not create it or its resultant decay; we humans are the ones who all participate and pass it on to infect the next generation.

Paul ended this passage with reference to the eager anticipation of being released from the groaning of our sin and suffering.  This is the blessed hope of people who live under the grace and mercy of a forgiving God.

For You Today

To claim innocence, to say I didn’t ask to be born, is to deny all evidence that you are human.  To place yourself at the foot of the cross, a convicted felon of sin is to place yourself in the merciful hand of Father God.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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 ^I Title image: By Coconino National Forest [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Unconvinced

[i]

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question:  “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him.  “Only God is truly good.  But to answer your question, you know the commandments:  ‘You must not commit adultery.  You must not murder.  You must not steal.  You must not testify falsely.  Honor your father and mother.’”  The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”  When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done.  Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich.   Luke 18:18-23^(NLT)

We have the center of the reason for this story when we hear Jesus ask the rich young man WHY he called Jesus “good”.  The young man was not looking for information, he wanted rationalization!  He wanted back-up for that which he already believed, that he was a good man, who did good stuff, and therefore he could relax from all his worry that it wasn’t enough.  He wanted some assurance that God was on his side, but He believed what he wanted to believe, and challenged Jesus (or anybody else) to say otherwise.

There’s another story Jesus didn’t tell, but it makes the same point.  A man believed he was dead.  He drove his co-workers, neighbors and family crazy with this idea, but nobody could shake his belief; unconvinced, he knew was dead!

The man’s wife took him to a psychiatrist, who used every technique he knew to convince the man he was still alive…but to no avail…the man considered himself dead!

Finally the psychiatrist asked the man, do dead men bleed? 

The patient looked at him and said, of course not; they’re dead! 

With that the shrink took a needle and pricked the man’s arm, which started to bleed profusely.  Smiling, the doc asked the cornered patient, well, then, if you’re dead, how do you explain that?

Totally surprised, staring at his profusely bleeding arm, the man answered:

Well, I’ll be; a dead man really does bleed!

People ask lots of questions without really wanting an answer that goes against their preconceived beliefs:

How could a loving God send people to Hell?

If God really loves me, why did He let this bad thing happen to me?

Why doesn’t God do something about all the hungry people?

For the most part that kind of question doesn’t look for an answer that will straighten-out our thinking; it’s more like the question the rich young ruler asked – the question of unbelief looking for a comfortable corner from which to criticize or escape responsibility.

The questions are a little worse than foolish; they’re attempts to put God on the hook for our responsibility.  After all, He did do something about all the hungry people – he gave us food, and he gave us hands to offer that food.  And he gave us a conscience to let us know what we’re supposed to do.

For You Today

You won’t be able to save everybody in the world today.  But you can start with saving yourself from asking WHY God does or doesn’t, and start asking WHAT I can and must do.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

[i]  Title image: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons