the wisdom mine

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0310Job 28

Job’s therapists had claimed to be sharing great wisdom.  They thought they knew his situation and what caused it.  They thought they were helping him by their wisdom.  But Job speaks of wisdom as illusive.  He knows where gold and silver and precious stones come from.  But wisdom can only be found with God.  The book of Job challenges us to rethink our assumptions about how the world works. 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”  James 1:5 ESV

LORD, we pray for wisdom.  Forgive us for looking for it in the wrong place.

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the hand of God

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0309Job 27

We have to be careful that we do not read Job as if he is now agreeing with his therapists.  He has all along argued that his misfortune was not God’s doing.  What he says now sounds a lot like what his therapists have been saying, except Job is arguing that people can live their whole lives in peace and riches before they see judgment.  Job offers to teach his therapists about the hand of God.  God’s hand corrects the wicked, but it may be a lifetime before that correction comes.  That is no problem from God’s perspective, since he is immortal.  Job is arguing that we cannot tell if a person is suffering whether it is God’s judgment or some other cause. 

LORD, when bad things happen, help us to trust you, but not to blame you.

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above it all

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0308Job 25-26

Job allows Bildad only six verses before he cuts him off.  He has had enough.  Zophar will not even have another turn.  Job’s response is like saying  “do you really think God needs you to defend him?”  You see, Job was not on trial, and neither was God.  The three therapists and their presuppositions is what this is all about.  Their conventional wisdom was making God the author of all the misfortune that Job suffered.  We (the readers) know differently.  We know about Satan, and his insistence on attacking Job to get him to renounce his faith.  There is evil here, but it is not in God or his faithful servant.  The evil is brought on by Satan, and helped by the prideful and their condemnation of the innocent.  Job argues that God is above it all, and he is.

LORD, forgive us for blaming you for the evil that befalls us.

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the time of judgment

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0307Job 23-24

Job’s therapists insist that he is going through a time of judgment, but Job argues that people usually do not see that kind of judgment.  Job wants to have his time before God, and is assured that his righteousness will be vindicated.  Instead most of the innocent will have to wait until the resurrection to see vindication.  From God’s standpoint, judgment day is not far off.  But most of us will have times where we wish it were here already.  We see the helpless being exploited, and we cry out for vindication. 

“he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).

LORD, give us patience to wait for the time of judgment.

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agreeing with God

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0306Job 22

Eliphaz urges Job to “agree with God and be at peace.”  Behind the advice is the presumption that Eliphaz is arguing God’s position.  He really does no such thing.  God is not after repentance from Job.  God wants Job’s therapists to shut up and leave him alone.  But the very fact that Job is suffering misfortune speaks so loudly to them makes the therapists incapable of seeing the truth. 

What do you know?  is it the truth, or is it just what you have been taught.  This very ancient book teaches us to rethink our presuppositions – even our religious ones.  Before we dare to proclaim that we are defending God’s position, we had better study his word.  We do not want to go our whole lives defending a wrong worldview.

LORD, give us the discernment to know your will from your word.

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not fair

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0305Job 21

Job’s therapists had been charging him with sin, and taking the calamity that had fallen upon him as evidence.  Job replies – essentially – “what world do you live in?”  In the world that Job knows about, justice does not happen mechanistically.  Good men suffer, while the wicked are often spared any consequences to their depravity.  They go to Sheol (where everyone goes at death to await resurrection and judgment) in peace.  Justice is delayed until judgment day.  This life is not a machine, dispensing out justice to those who need it.  If it were, then people in Job’s condition would obviously be guilty of something to deserve their fate.

LORD, this world is not fair, but you are. You promise hope beyond this world. Thank you.

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reversal of fortune

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0304Job 20

Zophar argues that reversal of fortune is always God’s doing. 

  1. Those who are exalted (6) he brings down to the depths.
  2. Those experiencing sweetness (12) he poisons.
  3. The full he devours (22,26).

A world in which our condition is always the result of our past actions is comforting to the rich, and sometimes the poor prefer it as well, because it challenges them to take command of their own destiny.  No one is comfortable being a pawn in the game of life.  But the book of Job reminds us that there are more players than just ourselves.  Sometimes our best efforts are trumped by those with better hands.  In the end, the purpose of the game is not to win.  It is to walk away still being friends with all the players.  Job knew that. His therapists did not.

LORD, no matter what happens to us, help us to hold on to our relationship with you.

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Jesus standing on the dust

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0376Job 19

Moses, describing the creation of Adam, says that God formed him or “of dust from the ground.”  (Gen. 2:7).  The good news of the resurrection is described by Job using the same term that details what we are made of.  Job proclaims “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” But that word “earth” is not the word used in Genesis 1:1.  It is the same word translated dust in Genesis 2:7.  The dust that the Messiah will stand on at the last day will be the dust of Job’s body.  But then something amazing happens. Job continues “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes shall see and not another.” The Messiah stands over the dust of Job’s dead body and brings it back to life!

This is the hope that the Bible gives humanity.  It is not survival after death but rescue from death.  It is not being “found naked” (without a body) in the intermediate state but being “further clothed” with a resurrection body. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ returns “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”  The nature of that change is made clear as well: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” We are dust: that is what we are made of, but our destiny is to be more.

LORD, thank you for the hope of resurrection.

(adapted from my article Formed from the dust – Snips and Snails.)

 

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losers

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0302Job 18

Bildad is irritated with Job’s insistence that he is suffering innocently.  To Bildad, Job is a loser.  He has lost both house and household: everything that he could rely on.  Bildad’s worldview has only one answer for such tragedy. It has to be the judgment of God.  If you and I did not have access to the secret information shared earlier in this book, we would probably be cheering Bildad on.  Can we learn from this ancient book? Can we dare to look beyond the obvious and have compassion on the losers we know?

LORD, give us the compassion to stop branding people, and actually help the needy.

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Job’s hope

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0301Job 16-17

Job knew that he was going to die.  If he did not die of his present illness, at least in a few years he would succumb to the inevitable (Job 16:22).  So, he asks a very important question, a question that much of the world still gets wrong.  He asks where his hope is.  Is it in death?  No, death is going to Sheol and darkness and decay (the worm).  Death is not Job’s hope.  Job’s hope is the LORD. 

Martha told Jesus that she knew her dead brother would rise on resurrection day.

“Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”” John 11:24 

Jesus told Martha that he would be the one to raise Lazarus (and every other believer)from the dead on that day:

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.1 Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”” John 11:25-26

Job, by faith looked beyond the reality of his own death, and held to a hope in God.  He did not know Jesus’ name, but he trusted him just the same.

LORD, give us the wisdom to – like Job –put our hope not in death, but in your resurrection.

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