Category: Daily Bible Reading Blog

A blog following the daily readings from the Revised Common Lectionary.

Job 4:1-21

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The Christian spiritual classic, The Dark Night of the Soul, was written nearly five hundred years ago by St. John of the Cross.  The basic gist of John’s observation is that God sometimes takes the Christian through dry times of hiding himself from the believer.  The pain of wondering where God is; having no answers to prayer; enduring uncaring and misdirected comments from well-meaning people; all these and more are inevitably part of the Christian spiritual experience.  The dark night of the soul is not to be confused with personal sinfulness.  Its origin is not in self, but God.  When one knows that personal integrity is intact, but trouble abounds, we need not immediately rush to the conclusion that something is wrong with us.  It may be the Spirit tossing us into a desert experience in order to test and approve our faith.
 
            Job’s “friend” Eliphaz offered one of those age-old arguments that bad things happen to bad people.  He asks:  “Who that was innocent ever perished?  Where were the upright cut off?”  His conclusion is: “those who plow iniquity reap the same.”  Certainly, Eliphaz thinks, Job cannot possibly go through such terrible suffering without having done something to anger God.
 
            Today the same notions still endure.  If I had a quarter for every time I heard comments like these I would be a rich man:  “he is poor because he is lazy;” “she has chronic health issues because God is punishing her;” “you are not healed because of your lack of faith;” “they did something evil to be in such trouble;” and on and on the wrong-headed statements continue, ad nauseum.
 
            The Apostle Peter understood how to view trouble in a healthy way:  “It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:17-18).  Jesus suffered; so will the Christian.  There is a big picture that only God sees.  When we suffer, there is something going on behind the spiritual scene.  We must allow God to do his work and trust him for all things.
            Lord God, I entrust myself to you because you know what you are doing.  Thank you for the trials of life which humbles my heart to pray.  Do your work in me so that my faith is fortified for a lifetime of service in the church and the world, through Jesus Christ, my Lord.  Amen.

Daniel 9:15-25a

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
          Today’s Old Testament reading continues Daniel’s prayer of confession from yesterday.  Reading through this prayer is like having a privileged glimpse into one of the most beloved persons in all of Scripture by God.  Indeed, while Daniel was praying the angel Gabriel came and communicated to him that “you are greatly loved.”  Daniel’s prayer is at the same time grand and majestic, yet humble and simple.  It would be a worthy activity to take this prayer and write one’s own confession based upon it.
             Too many times in our lives we feel the misguided notion to hide our sin.  We want to look good to others, so we take pains to make the outward appearance godly and attractive.  We may be careful in only letting another see our good side.  We might even do this with God by failing to pray and confess sin.  In doing so, we inevitably neglect the vast interior life.  But Daniel was greatly loved not because he had it all together, but because he was sensitive to sin and was courageous to bring it before God.
             It is easy to have delusions of grandeur about doing great things for God and being a leader among God’s people.  The hard work is one of prayer, particularly confession.  And the consequences of sin are not always magically erased.  But the mercy of God becomes operative and guides us into truth and grace toward ourselves and others.
             Merciful God, listen to my plea for the gospel of grace to take root in my inner self.  Incline your ear to listen to me and grant me forgiveness that leads to new life in Christ in order that I might stand in the gap and intercede for others.  Be gracious to your church and bring healing to all wounded by her neglect of mercy.  Amen.

Daniel 9:1-14

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
          There is no evidence in Scripture that the prophet Daniel was anything but godly.  He was a wise man with a high level of integrity and spiritual acumen.  Yet, when he prayed he identified himself fully with his people and their sins.  Daniel was not one to exult in his own private faith while railing against the sins of others.  Instead, when sin abounded he practiced lament.  When Judah landed in exile Daniel did not complain about getting a bum rap from God because he himself was not like the others.  Daniel did not try and claim the moral high ground and distance himself from his fellow Jews.  Notice how Daniel’s prayer of confession is a very “we” thing:
“We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.  We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name….  To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you….  All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice.”
             At the beginning of this season of Lent, let us as God’s people realize our mortality, our dependence upon God, our sinfulness, and our desperation for the Lord.  Let us lay aside all pretensions to godliness and confess our sins together.  Grace can only really be received by being profoundly in touch with our private and corporate complicity in the sins and abuses of the world.
             Gracious God, hear our prayer.  We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed in those things we have done and the things we have left undone.  Yet, your mercy is eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Job 19:23-27

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
          There must be suffering before glory.  This is a truth that is difficult to swallow.  Jesus plainly taught his disciples that he must suffer and die before being raised from the dead and glorified.  We follow the same pattern:  suffering before glory.  There cannot be resurrection, new life, and glorious change without first dying to self, becoming a humble servant, and being last not first.
Job is one of the more familiar characters of the Bible.  He suffered like no person before him or since him.  Yet, his glory is like none other, as well.  In the middle of his agony, in the darkness of not understanding what was happening to him, and at the lowest point of his life there was the faintest but clearest glimmer of hope.  Job knew that his Redeemer lives.  Job had the confident expectation that his suffering meant something.  Job held out not a wishful thinking, but a settled hope that he would someday see God and that he would be redeemed from his torment.
As Christians, we may not understand everything about the Scriptures or theology.  Yet, we intuitively know in the shadowy recesses of our present sufferings that it will not always be this way.  We know that our Redeemer lives.  We know that there will be judgment.  We know whether our souls have genuine hope or whether they put up the pretense when asked, “How are you doing?”  “Fine” is the reply while we are dying inside. 
 
If the ancient response to suffering that Job expressed teaches us anything it is:  that we must be real about the raw emotional pain that is within us; and, that we must affirm the hope of redeeming deliverance and new life in order to remain patient and godly.
Suffering Savior, the One who took my place, thank you for dying on my behalf.  Help me through my present sufferings to see the hope of Easter.  Be gracious to me so that I might be gracious to others, even when I think so much of my own troubles.  Amen.