Tag: god’s sovereignty

Accountability Is Real, and It Matters (Ezekiel 14:12-23)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.

“Or if I send wild beasts through that country and they leave it childless and it becomes desolate so that no one can pass through it because of the beasts, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be desolate.

“Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass throughout the land,’ and I kill its people and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if these three men were in it, they could not save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved.

“Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath on it through bloodshed, killing its people and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.

“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals! 

“Yet there will be some survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought on it. You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (New International Version)

Stained glass of the three righteous men: Daniel, Job, and Noah

No person, group, institution, or nation can act unjustly forever. The prophet Ezekiel made it clear that everyone will be held accountable for injustice and wickedness, for crimes against humanity and against God.

Furthermore, there is no nation or group which can rely on a few persons who do right, while the rest of the people swim in injustice and unrighteousness. Righteous persons save only themselves; they cannot make decisions and take over the life of another person.

Ezekiel wanted to make sure his listeners got the message of individuals only saving themselves, and not riding on the coattails of others. The prophet went out of his way to communicate that each individual person will be held responsible for their own actions; they will be judged on what they themselves have done, and not what another has or has not done.

Even the family of a righteous person will not be spared divine judgment because of that individual’s righteousness. One shall be held accountable for what that one has done, period.

Specifically, in the text, God was ready to execute judgment on Jerusalem. War, wild animals, famine, and disease would come upon them because of unfaithfulness, injustice, and unrighteousness.

Just because the city had the temple, this would not save them. Just because there are a few righteous persons in the city, they would not save it. Just because a close loved one is faithful and righteous, will not mean that God would spare the city.

A few good works of a few people, do not cancel out pervasive and consistent evil which is perpetrated by many people. Each person is responsible for their own behavior. No one gets a pass, simply because they know certain people and are well-connected.

Evil is evil, no matter whether it is perpetrated by believers or unbelievers. No nation, and no person, is off the hook; all persons will be held accountable for doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.

Even if three of the most righteous persons show up – Noah, Daniel, and Job, who were famous for their moral integrity – their combined righteousness and faithfulness would not keep away divine judgment from happening in an immoral and unethical society. Only those three alone would be delivered.

There is no such thing as salvation by proxy. Each individual person must work on themselves, without blaming others, inordinately depending on others, nor ignoring God and wishing God did not see, or does not exist at all.

Evil persons do not get any preferential treatment from God, just because they have a prominent position or are famous. The Lord, as Sovereign of the universe, has every right to exact divine retribution. And God will do it without showing favoritism.

Just as God shows mercy without prejudice, so will God extend judgment without any prejudice.

The presence of great light means that there is also the presence of great darkness. If we want a great God of love and mercy, then we must also accept the God of wrath and judgment; and vice versa.

We are made in God’s image, and not the other way around. It is our task to submit to the high, holy, and sovereign Lord of all. It is not God’s job to be the divine Santa Claus who submits to us. The Lord is no divine genie who we can keep in a bottle, and summon whenever we so desire.

No matter one’s theology or spirituality, everyone discerns that they are to be responsible in this life, and are accountable to forces greater than themselves.

This is one of those universal realities that all of us need to sync our lives with – or suffer the consequences.

Almighty God and Sovereign Lord of all, I embrace my accountability to you. Forgive me for when I live as though I need not give an account of what I said and did. I affirm that I am accountable for how I treat others; and I realize that what I do to others, positive or negative, I am doing to you, their Creator. Sustain me in faith and patience, I pray. Amen.

I Concede (Job 42:1-6, 10-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
By Bible Art

Then Job answered the Lord:

“I know that you can do all things
    and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me that I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
    I will question you, and you declare to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

…And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 

Then all his brothers and sisters came to him, and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. 

The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning, and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. 

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years and saw his children and his children’s children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days. (New Revised Standard Version)

Job is restored, by William Blake (1757-1827)

Job was in awful suffering. He contended with God about it. Job’s friends contended with Job. In the end, God never gave a humanly suitable answer to the problem of suffering. Namely, because we cannot understand the answer, even if it is provided.

Indeed, the gap between God and humanity is quite pronounced. God is the Creator. We are creatures. Yet, God did vindicate Job.

That’s right God affirmed Job – and not Job’s companions. Even though Job did what many a believer in God today believes is wrong, perhaps even sacrilegious or sinful.

Job argued, confronted, grappled with, and even opposed God for the terrible troubles he faced in losing his family, his wealth, and his health. He fully engaged God.

Job’s friends, however, did no such thing. Instead, they argued, confronted, grappled with, and even opposed their friend Job. They fully avoided God.

In the end, Job conceded that he himself knows nothing. Yet, there is still the hint of complaint within him. This is good. Job did not stop engaging God. He remained faithful and devoted.

Let us never believe that faithfulness and devotion to God involves putting up a false front and nice polite piety. Prayer, in truth, is a hard wrestling with God, a struggling and working through all the difficulties of this unfair life.

God is not the least offended by our full, real, and raw engagement of him. But God is offended by avoiding such engagement altogether.

All of us, in reality, speak mostly in ignorance. We talk about things we don’t really understand. The only thing we can be 100% truthful about, however, is ourselves – about how we are really doing, feeling, experiencing, believing, struggling with, etc.

I myself am the true expert on me – and you, the expert on you. And this truth I can bring to God anytime, anywhere. The Book of Job affirms to me that this is the sort of devotion and sacrifice which the Lord is pleased with.

Job gained some knowledge and understanding through personally encountering God. The Lord God almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, actually spoke to Job in a direct revelation of the Divine presence.

This is an affirmation of Job’s integrity. But the godless, disintegrated, and fragmented person cannot see God or expect a personal audience with God.

Through all that Job had been through, he held to his integrity, and held onto God, both at the same time. In the end, he still did not understand why he had to go through such horrible suffering.

English translations of the Hebrew text don’t do it justice. There is always something lost in translation of any language to another. And it seems what is lost here is that Job was perhaps still protesting at the end. Yet, it comes across in English as Job despising and abhorring himself, as if he had done something very wrong.

“I despise myself,” misses the mark. Without getting into some deep grammatical Hebrew waters, I wonder if the phrase might better be rendered, “I protest.” What is meant to be conveyed is that Job still acknowledges what he originally held onto. Namely, that he has done nothing wrong, did not deserve what he went through, yet has never rejected God, nor lost faith in God.

Job did not need to repent of some secret sin, as his friends supposed. Job repenting does not mean because of sin; Job’s repentance was a change of position from mourner and complainer, to accepting the situation as it is, without answers.

So, this brings us back to the beginning of the book. God is God. There are celestial forces and operations in play we know nothing about. Humans are not God. Humans are never going to get most of what is happening in this world. And humans will inevitably experience hard and bad things – and not know why.

No answers given. No change of situation (yet). But Job changed. He changed his mind about how to live with what he was experiencing. He relinquished his complaint, and decided to keep living, even though he did not get answers.

Honestly, this response of Job is more consistent with my own experience of awful suffering, and more faithful to the text of Scripture. Much like Jacob wrestling with the angel, Job had to finally concede and relent, and continue on his life journey, come what may.

Following Job’s intercession for his friends, God restored Job to wealth and family. A significant piece of this restoration was Job’s wider community of friends and family who gathered around him, giving Job the consolation and comfort that the three “friends” in the book did not provide.

The community cared for Job, not through nice theological phrases, but with genuine fellowship. They shared together around the table, the community giving both a meal and contributing monetary gifts for Job’s needs.

The Book of Job ends, perhaps with as many, or more, questions than when it started. Answers, however, are not the point.

Rather, Job’s incredible and awful experience of suffering and redemption becomes an invitation for you and me to have a more expansive view of what a relationship with the living God truly looks like.

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
And turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor. Amen.

Be Honest (Job 42:7-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Job’s Sacrifice, by William Blake (1757-1827)

After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant Job did. Now take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer them as a sacrifice for yourselves. Job will pray for you, and I will answer his prayer and not disgrace you the way you deserve. You did not speak the truth about me as he did.”

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did what the Lord had told them to do, and the Lord answered Job’s prayer. (Good News Translation)

After all of Job’s terrible trouble in losing everything and everyone he cared about; after all of the longwinded speeches of his supposed friends; and after God’s breaking of silence through unanswerable questions; the epilogue of the story brings us God’s verdict concerning Job and his situation.

God finally dispenses his assessment, and renders his judgment. The Lord was not at all happy with Job’s companions; and was pleased with Job. Therefore, God made a decision against the companions, and for Job.

Four times in three verses, God refers to Job as “my servant,” but does not describe the friends as such. It is Job, and not Job’s friends, who spoke truth. Only Job spoke words consistent with reality.

At best, the friends spoke unhelpful words. At the worst, their words were hurtful and full of hubris. In retrospect, they probably should have at least kept their mouths shut. And ideally, they could have been true comforters, and consoled Job in his agony.

This gets at something which I believe we all need to get a firm hold upon: Not extending help, mercy, and consolation to those in dire straits, pisses-off God.

It irks God because it is a misrepresentation of God’s basic character, and distorts God’s true nature.

Being dishonest and pretending to be okay when one is not…

telling someone who is hurting to suck it up and confess their sin…

believing that the world operates according to good guys getting health and wealth, and bad guys getting sickness and poverty…

downright angers the holy and merciful God of the universe.

Job, unlike the Three Stooges he had as friends, affirmed what is right and true:

  • God is the Sovereign of the universe who dispenses both good and bad (Job 2:10)
  • God is the One who gives and who takes away (Job 1:21)
  • God is the Lord to whom we must bow in willing submission (Job 42:5-6)

In the dialogue with his friends, Job rightly insisted that God is sometimes an enemy, and that God’s inexplicable silence and absence is unjust and destructive.

I don’t want you to easily pass over what I just referred to, or to flip-out over it. In truth, God is both present and absent. And God’s absence hurts. Sometimes, it hurts like hell. We must affirm that God is sometimes silent. There are times when it feels like God is on vacation and is paying no attention.

I want you to get ahold of this important dimension to the spiritual life:

Human pretentions and posturing only present a false self to God and the world. That sort of behavior angers God. The Lord wants honest vulnerability.

Whereas Job’s friends insisted on maintaining theological respectability and an ordered theological system, Job essentially said, “To hell with all that!”

And Job was right.

Job contended with God. He cried, yelled, and exposed his innermost thoughts and feelings to God. Job was real. No phoniness existed with him. Yet, Job did not forsake God, curse God, or say there was no God.

The genuine spiritual life is always a tricky and risky combination of devotion and confrontation toward God.

Job presented his true self to God.

Job’s friends presented to God what they believed God wanted to see and hear.

There is a big difference between those two approaches.

God affirmed Job. God was against Job’s friends.

Maybe today it is necessary to rethink what you have always believed it is which gets God’s affirmation, and what raises God’s ire.

If we cannot be honest about what we are really thinking, and about how we are really doing, then we are hopeless people. In that state, no one can help us. And God is not pleased.

The final verdict of God is that only the prayers of one who speaks truth, like Job, will be effectively heard. Less honest prayers, like those of Job’s wife and friends, are foolish and ineffective.

One of the big overall messages of the Book of Job is this: For God’s sake, be honest!

My own culture is one of Midwest nice. That’s a nice way of saying that Midwesterners are mostly dishonest creatures. Every Midwesterner I know, understands being nice and polite to someone’s face, and then speaking gossip and slander to their back.

Ask any Midwestern American how they are doing, and they’ll tell you, “Just fine,” or “Great!” or “The sun is shining,” or some other deflection or blathering lie about how they are really doing. More than once, I have actually heard a depressed person with suicidal ideation tell another person that they are “doing fine today.”

That sort of claptrap gets us nowhere, especially with God. The Lord is okay with you and I telling him what we really think, even if we are extremely upset with God. God isn’t bothered by our anger, yelling, or messed-up thinking. But God is bothered by our pretending, our dishonesty, and our false presentations.

None of this means that we must wear our heart on our sleeve. In fact, I have found that persons who declare to me that they “tell it like it is,” are some of the most false people on the planet. It’s usually a sign that I’m not going to get from them how they are really feeling. It usually means they’re angry, and want to talk smack against someone, without ever examining themselves.

Don’t be a jerk. There are nice jerks, and obnoxious jerks, but in the end, they’re all just jerks. You and I really can speak honest words of truth, without being a jerk about it.

Job was honest, real, raw, hurt, angry, sad, lonely, and grieving out of his mind. And he was no jerk. And God affirmed him.

Personally, I’d rather have God’s affirmation than anyone else’s. How about you?

Almighty God, help us to speak and act truthfully in all situations. May we be honest with ourselves and with others, building trust and integrity in our relationships. Thank you for your example of truth and honesty. Help us to follow in your footsteps and to live with authenticity.

Guide us to be honest even when it is difficult, recognizing that honesty is the foundation of trust and respect. Help us to confront our own falsehoods and to seek the truth in all aspects of our lives. May we create environments where honesty is valued and encouraged, fostering open and transparent communication.

We pray for those who struggle with honesty, asking for your guidance and support in their journey towards truthfulness. Thank you for the clarity and peace that comes from living honestly. Help us to embrace and uphold this value every day. Amen.

You Can’t Leverage a Leviathan (Job 41:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
    or press down its tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in its nose
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?
Will it make many supplications to you?
    Will it speak soft words to you?
Will it make a covenant with you
    to be taken as your servant forever?
Will you play with it as with a bird
    or put it on a leash for your young women?
Will traders bargain over it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
Can you fill its skin with harpoons
    or its head with fishing spears?
Lay hands on it;
    think of the battle; you will not do it again!
Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed;
    one is overwhelmed even at the sight of it.
No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
    Who can stand before it?
Who can confront it and be safe?
    —under the whole heaven, who?” (New Revised Standard Version)

Just as “Behemoth” is an English transliteration of the Hebrew word (Job 40:15), so is the word “Leviathan” (לִוְיָתָן). The reason for merely transliterating the words is that we don’t really know what sort of creatures they are with any certainty.

Yet, what we do know, is that both of them are strong and ferocious creatures, described by God as beyond the control of humans. They cannot be domesticated, or serve as pets. That’s because no human could ever hunt or capture one of them. Just to look at a Leviathan would cause a person to flee in fear.

The biblical character of Job had been through a lot. Back in the beginning of the Book of Job, he is described as a man who is upright and blameless. Because of this, Satan entered the picture, going to God and accusing Job of only being faithful because he was blessed. So, God allowed Satan to afflict Job, but not kill him.

Yet, Job knew nothing about this celestial conversation. All he knew was that he lost everything and everyone he cared about. On top of it all, Job experienced painful sores which left his health ravaged and his body unable to do much of anything.

Job’s three “friends” came to comfort him. But they did just the opposite by arguing with him and accusing him of secret sinning. All Job wanted was some vindication, some answers to his questions, and some sort of sense to all the senseless suffering.

After long speeches of both Job and his companions, God’s agonizing silence was finally broken. For several chapters (Job 38-41) God gives no answers, but instead, asks his own questions. The gist of God’s confrontational response comes down to this:

You are wondering about things that are way above your ability to know and understand. But what you need to know is that life consists in relationships, in dialogue and interaction with me, and especially with honesty and vulnerability which goes along with those relations.

Life cannot be boiled down to a nice, neat system of good people getting good stuff, and bad people getting bad stuff. Yell at me, and rage at me, if you must. Then you will be honest, real, and relating to me. But I have no tolerance for anyone who tries to be Me, and thinks they know how things actually are, and how they work.

There is no “The Universe For Dummies” by God on the way things operate in the universe. That’s because it cannot be dumbed-down enough for any human to grasp. All we have is relational interaction and connection.

We can’t even figure out what in the world creatures like Behemoth and Leviathan are, let alone understand how to deal with them. Methinks that despair has a much more prominent place for us humans than we realize. But that is a bigger discussion than Behemoth, and so, is for another time.

It could be that God talking of Leviathan – this big uncontrollable and unpredictable creature – is one way of helping us come to grips with our divine/human relationship.

You and I have absolutely no control over God. It’s not remotely possible, at all. And if nobody can domesticate, let alone capture, a Leviathan, then there is no possibility of ever using God as a personal pet for our own purposes.

Far too many of us humans, demand God to show up and explain himself; or we do all sorts of genuflections and pray volumes of words to try and leverage God into answering us and giving us what we want. But there is no leveraging a Leviathan.

Precious few persons on this earth simply let God be God; and choose to focus on being a real, vulnerable human who needs and wants God. Such persons do not try and capture God, because they have already been captured by God.

We are all at the mercy of God, and in no way can manipulate or cajole God toward our agenda for how we think things ought to go. We might as well try and catch a Leviathan.

Humanity does not hold onto God; God holds onto us. God is not obliged to serve us and do our bidding; but we are very much obliged to God in service and fidelity.

God, I believe, rightly seems perturbed by all of longwinded speeches, only because he was being treated as some sort of divine vending machine who dispenses the proper candy bar with an obligatory monetary oblation.

Do we actually believe that we can do a sort of spiritual credit card slide, and get a belly full of goodies? If you want good from God, then do good and be a good person, right?…

Um, no. Frankly, that kind of spirituality irks God. Good people sometimes get bad stuff. And that reality bothers some of us humans to no end.

There is a reason for all that occurs, but it’s way above our human pay grade to know and understand what it’s really all about. So, treat God as God, as the Sovereign of the universe, as the Holy One whom we must relate to in truth, honesty, realness, and vulnerability.

This is another day, O Lord. I don’t really know what it will bring forth. Regardless, make me ready for whatever this day may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and please give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.