The Bible in a Year – 17 August

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17 August. Job chapters 40-42

In these final chapters, God continues his proof of being greater than man’s understanding, by describing in detail two awesome creatures called Behemoth and Leviathan (sometimes identified as the rhinoceros and the crocodile) that only he can deal with. How can man think of himself as master of creation when he cannot even tame these animals?  That is enough to bring Job to a level of humility where he can acknowledge that he has understood the nature of God.  He is pardoned, as are his companions, and in the ultimate “happy aver after ending” Job lives another 140 years, through four generations of a new family. We hear no more of Satan, who obviously lost his bet that he could cause Job to curse God.

 

Fairy-tale endings apart, what has the book of Job got to teach us?  It has covered many themes such as God’s discipline shown through suffering, but not as a punishment for our sins; the impossibility of being morally perfect; the finality of death and reality of judgement; the emptiness of atheism; the dangers of criticising other people, for judgement must be left to God; the impossibility of knowing God, yet the importance of accepting the righteousness that he offers.  It is a work of moral philosophy, of theology, and of practical wisdom, an attempt to explain the elusive “meaning of life”.  Having some grasp of the meaning of life may be the only way that a person can be prepared for the sort of disaster that befell Job.

The Bible in a Year – 16 August

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16 August. Job chapters 38-39

Most of this book has covered the arguments between Job and his companions, and of course God would have been aware of their sometimes heated philosophical discussions about the nature of the relationship between God and men.  But now God intervenes.  He answers them “out of the whirlwind”, maybe metaphorically “in their confusion” or “in the heat of the argument”.  In a wonderful series of poetic images we are taken through all the aspects of creation – stars, sun, light and darkness, the sea and land, rain and snow, living creatures of all kinds.  How can any human understand their workings? Only God does, who created them, and so these men have no right to talk about God as if they understood him.

 

Here is one of the basic difficulties of religion, and whoever wrote this part of the Bible – a master storyteller, but anonymous – was not afraid to tackle it.  For if one believes in a creative power, by definition it (or he or she, for all these pronouns are inadequate) must be beyond the understanding of the created, else we would be equal in knowledge and power.  So how can anyone claim to know anything about God?  That, essentially, was the basis of what Job’s companions have been saying. Even prophets usually start by acknowledging that they are only human, and merely passing on what limited understanding they have been given beyond what they could naturally have known.   The Jews (and Muslims) have always taken seriously the commandments not to make any image of God, because any image is inevitably partial, inadequate and misleading.

 

This is what makes Jesus’ statement so shocking when he says in John 14:9 “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (i.e. God the Creator). Was he claiming to be an image of God and therefore breaking the commandment by his mere existence?  How can a mere man claim to represent the maker of all things, the one beyond time and space?  Christian writers and preachers have tried grappling with this in many ways over the centuries and I can’t offer to add to their consideration. I would commend C S Lewis’s book “Mere Christianity” if you have not read it before.  But briefly, Jesus must have known that he had within him something that others did not, an understanding of the world that came from outside it. He knew as a good Jew that to claim equality with God in any way was blasphemy under the law that God was said to have given, yet in breaking that law he also fulfilled it. In giving us an image of God by the way he loved, healed, accepted and taught, he put an end, in one sense at least,  to arguments about what God is like.

 

The Bible in a Year – 15 August.

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15 August. Job chapters 35-37

Elihu continues his speech uninterrupted. Now he turns his attention to the nature of God, who was considered in those days to dwell above the clouds and to be directly responsible for phenomena such as thunder, lightning, rain and the hot south wind.  How could such a remote God be interested in humans? Elihu does claim that God “teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air” (35:11), but considers that what people do – right or wrong – has no effect on God (“Your wickedness affects others like you, and your righteousness, other human beings”, 35:8).

It is wrong, therefore, (says Elihu) for Job to be so bothered about whether other people, have kept God’s commandments or not (“you are obsessed with the case of the wicked; judgement and justice seize you”, 36:17).  However, that does not mean that God is unobservant of human activity. Elihu accepts that God brings judgement on those who do wrong.  But we humans have no part in Gods judgement. All that matters is one’s own relationship with God.

Nowadays no-one (presumably) believes in this God-in-the-clouds. Partly because of the progress of science in explaining the way the world works, but also because Jesus established himself as “one of us” and preached that “the Kingdom” [the presence of God] “is within you”.  Whatever concept of God we have has to begin with ourselves, our place firmly within the rest of Creation, by no means “wiser” than the birds of the air, and God as somehow within our universe, not outside it.    Such an understanding helps us to realise that “no man is an island” – every thought as well as action is connected in some way with everything else, and all we do has consequences.

But to take such logic to extremes is to make God redundant, and play into the hands of humanists and atheists.  Human experience is that there is a spiritual realm which science cannot explain; God may be ever-present, but he is yet separate from space and time. God is not so remote that our actions are of no consequence to him, but neither is he changed by our actions – Elihu is right there. Our actions, and attitudes, affect ourselves, other people and our relationship with God.  Job is about to find this out for himself.

 

The Bible in a Year. 14 August.

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14 August. Job chapters 32-34

A new voice now enters the argument, that of the young man Elihu, who criticises the three elders for not having come up with a strong argument against Job.  He explains that he sees himself as an equal to Job, not a superior (33:6,7). But that does not mean he is taking Job’s side, rather he too seeks to prove that Job’s protestations of innocence are in themselves sinful.

 

In chapter 33 Elihu argues that God uses dreams, visions and angels to try and warn people of the error of their ways and bring them back into right paths.  It is through penitence and prayer that one is forgiven.  In the following chapter he also asserts, as others did, that suffering must be the result of sin, and that Job, in presenting himself as righteous, is “speaking without knowledge or insight”.

 

The idea that there is a causal connection between sin and suffering is one that does not go away easily.  Even after 2000 years of Christianity, the gospel message is still shocking – that God does not count our sins against us, and is always willing to accept our repentance. Suffering, far from being a punishment for sin, is something in which God himself, through the incarnation of Jesus, has shared with us.

The Bible in a Year – 13 August

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13 August. Job chapters 29-31

A couple of days ago I considered whether the charge laid against Job by Eliphaz in chapter 22 might hold some truth: was he in fact a heartless capitalist who had become rich at the expense of others?  It is always difficult to be criticised, whether in private or in public, and harder still to hold up one’s head and remain confident of being right, however unreasonable the charges being brought. There is always a tendency – at least among ‘reasonable’ people – to wonder whether in fact the fault might be your own.  Standing up to your accuser and insisting that you are innocent not only in your own eyes and under human laws, but also in the eyes of God and under his divine law, is a bold stance that tends to sound like boasting.

 

Chapter 29 may give an understanding of how Job could manage, in chapter 31, to utterly refute Eliphaz.  In the former, he recalls how before the start of his affliction, he was not only wealthy but respected by all the important people of his city.  In the latter he uses that positive recollection to support his case. In the latter he lists his virtues – caring for the stranger, orphan, widow and poor – and also the sins that he has avoided – lust, adultery, violence, discrimination, greed.  At the end of the arguments with his so-called comforters, Job is quite sure that he has done nothing to deserve God’s punishment, and everything that he can to remain right with his maker.

 

The Bible in a Year – 12 August

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12 August. Job chapters 24-28

Nearly all of today’s long reading is attributed to the mouth of Job. Bildad only gets a quick word in! Bildad (in chapter 25) and Job (in 26/27) agree on one thing: God’s majesty is unknowable, he is high above mankind (metaphorically speaking) and we have now way of ever understanding all his purposes.  But they draw different conclusions: Bildad thinks that humans therefore can never be right with God, and must suffer the consequences.  Job, on the other hand, sees God’s majesty as all the more reason to seek to find righteousness in him, and know him as best we can.

Before this exchange, Job paints a clear picture in chapter 24 of the harsh injustices of the world, the suffering of the oppressed and the apparent impunity of the wicked. Afterwards, in chapter 28, he contrasts wisdom with the metals and precious minerals that miners seek: with great difficulty they find riches in the earth, but no-one can find wisdom on earth, for it comes only from God.  It is with these worldviews – God as the only source of wisdom, and the injustice of life on earth – that Job can insist that people can find their righteousness in God, even though we can never know him fully. It is better to be on his side, even though we suffer in this life, than to give up the struggle to be good, and end up being wiped out of God’s memory like the wicked.

The Bible in a Year – 11 August

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11 August. Job chapters 21-23

In the first of these chapters, Job responds to Zophar’s charge that his suffering must be the result of sin. His argument boils down to the fact that many wicked people live safe and prosperous lives, therefore there is no causal connection between the two.  That was an insight ahead of its time.

 

Eliphaz takes his turn next, arguing that Job has in fact “exacted pledges from [his] family for no reason, stripped the naked of their clothing, given no water to the weary to drink, withheld bread from the hungry, sent widows away empty-handed,  and crushed the arms of orphans” (22:6-9).  These are serious charges, with no evidence provided, and Job refutes them in the next chapter by reaffirming that he has kept all God’s commandments.

 

But we do know from the opening of the book that Job was very rich. Had he in fact become rich at the expense of others?  Was he in reality a hard-headed businessman profiting from impoverishing others? In modern capitalist societies that is often the case – it is difficult for a business to be both ethical and profitable.  So maybe there is some truth to the charges of his accusers, and his protestations of innocence do not hold up. Jesus condemned those who thought they were righteous because they obeyed the letter of the Jewish law yet actually broke it in spirit by exploiting others; maybe Job was like them.  Not the hero he appeared to be at the start of the story.

 

The Bible in a Year – 10 August

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10 August. Job chapters 17-20

We now observe perhaps Job’s lowest point. In chapter 17 he feels not only punished by God but forsaken by other people, and ready for the welcome darkness of death.  Bildad (who in chapter 8 had accused Job of impurity before God) claims in chapter 18 that it is only the wicked who suffer sudden calamity, disease and homelessness, as Job has experienced.  Zophar makes a similar point in chapter 20. Job’s reply to Bildad in chapter 19 is essentially that even if it is true, even if he is being punished for wrongdoing, then it is God’s judgement and not man’s, and so there is no excuse for his friends to criticise him.  That is an important lesson for everyone – being critical of someone’s wrong actions is one thing, but being critical of the suffering that results from it (whether ‘natural law’ such as cancer resulting from smoking tobacco), or the judgement of human courts, or punishment by God as Job’s friends understood his troubles) is another matter, and should be avoided. Job’s rejection by his family, servants and friends is worse for him than the physical torment of his sores.

 

In 19:25-26 we have what seems like a ray of sunshine amid the gloom. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God”. These words are familiar to anyone who knows Handel’s Messiah, as they start part 3 of the oratorio, following the triumphant Hallelujah chorus at the end of part 2.  They appear to refer to the general resurrection of the dead at the end of time, at least that is the context within Handel’s arrangement of Scripture.   In this original context they probably mean, rather, that unlike the false accusations of men, after death Job himself will at least meet with God and receive a fair judgement of his life.

The Bible in a Year – 9 August

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9 August. Job chapters 14-16

Job continues his rant against God, though now it becomes more of a grumble. Unlike trees that can sprout new growth after being cut down, he says, humans will not live again on this earth after they die. So he asks God not to look on us in our imperfections, but instead allow us to enjoy this life in peace (14:6), and for himself to be sent to Sheol (in other words, to be allowed to die) so that he will not feel God’s gaze on him.  That is the position of the agnostic, who believes in the possibility of God’s existence but prefers to ignore it and get on with life, while recognising death as the finality it is, bodily speaking.

Eliphaz then speaks again, and his charge is one to be taken seriously: “But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God” (15:4).  For those of us who do believe in an actively loving God, it is sad to see people turning away from him, letting the circumstances of life draw them away from the same God who also wants them to enjoy his love and compassion even in bad times.  But unfairly, Eliphaz then goes on to compare Job with those who do not believe in God at all, who “trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves; for emptiness will be their recompense” (15:31). Emptiness – maybe a similar concept to the “vanity” of Ecclesiastes –  is the faith of the atheist, the very opposite of the idea of a world created by a loving God and filled with meaning.

Eliphaz calls Job’s speeches “windy” and Job returns the jibe.  How can he and his friends understand Job’s position when they are not sharing his experience?  He feels to have been “set up as a target” by God – an accurate assessment of the spiritual battle that was revealed in chapter 1 – yet he still does not lose faith in the God whom he can still describe as his witness in heaven, who will vouch for him (16:14).  That is the difference between the atheist or agnostic and the true believer – one who will never cease to trust in God’s essential goodness, even when it seems one is on the receiving end of God’s anger.

The Bible in a Year – 8 August

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8 August. Job chapters 10-13

Job’s outcry at God continues, not merely wishing he had died in infancy but now that he had ever been born at all. He considers his physical suffering and grief as proof that there must be some sin in his life. God is seen as remote, uncaring, even inhuman – “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as humans see? Are your days like the days of mortals, or your years like human years?” (10:4-5) – of course, in the light of the revelation of Jesus, we can now answer those questions in the affirmative – in him God did have human eyes, and a human lifespan.  But Job (or whoever wrote this story) did not have the benefit of hindsight.

After a brief speech by the third of his companions, Zophar, which again assumes that Job must have sinned, Job turns on his companions with astonishing courage.  Despite his suffering (or maybe because of it) he throws back at them their accusations of sin, reaffirming his innocence before God and accusing them of sinning by having too limited an understanding of God’s ways.  Then towards the end of chapter 13 he turns from them to God, and with equal boldness charges God with hiding his face, and challenges the Almighty to reveal if he has, in fact, sinned.

This shows what a strong character Job has. Few people, suffering financial loss, bereavement and incurable illness, would be in a position to argue with other people, let alone with God himself. But Job represents those who have built up a good relationship with God over the years, so that in times of trouble they are like the deep-rooted tree of Psalm 1 which can continue to flourish in a drought.  Those who know that they are in a right relationship with God can cope with anything.