Tag: help

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.

There Is a Behemoth In the Room (Job 40:1-24)

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

And the Lord said to Job:

“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
    Anyone who argues with God must respond.”

Then Job answered the Lord:

“See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
    I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer,
    twice but will proceed no further.”

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Gird up your loins like a man;
    I will question you, and you declare to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong?
    Will you condemn me that you may be justified?
Have you an arm like God,
    and can you thunder with a voice like his?

“Deck yourself with majesty and dignity;
    clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
Pour out the overflowing of your anger,
    and look on all who are proud and humble them.
Look on all who are proud and bring them low;
    tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them all in the dust together;
    bind their faces in the world below.
Then I will also acknowledge to you
    that your own right hand can give you victory.

“Look at Behemoth,
    which I made just as I made you;
    it eats grass like an ox.
Its strength is in its loins
    and its power in the muscles of its belly.
It makes its tail stiff like a cedar;
    the sinews of its thighs are knit together.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
    its limbs like bars of iron.

“It is the first of the great acts of God;
    only its Maker can approach it with the sword.
For the mountains yield food for it
    where all the wild animals play.
Under the lotus plants it lies,
    in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
The lotus trees cover it for shade;
    the willows of the wadi surround it.
Even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened;
    it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth.
Can one take it with hooks
    or pierce its nose with a snare? (New Revised Standard Version)

At various times throughout my life, and the life of my dear family, we have been referred to by others as “the family of Job.” Believe me, it’s not really a moniker you’d like to have.

It can be good to know that there are others who see you and affirm your undeserved suffering. Yet, suffering is not something I have ever asked for or wanted.

Suffering is like an uninvited guest who crashes life’s party. And there is no bouncer I can turn to in order to get this unwanted behemoth out of my life.

Speaking of behemoths, it just so happens that “Behemoth” is mentioned by God in today’s Old Testament lesson.

The word “behemoth” is simply an English transliteration (bəhēmōṯ) of the Hebrew word (בְּהֵמוֹת). This is because nobody really knows what the Behemoth is, or was.

This, however, didn’t stop some English translations from interpreting Behemoth, e.g. “hippopotamus” in the Contemporary English Version; and, the Easy-to-Read Version uses “behemoth” but inserts the footnote that “This might be a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros, or possibly an elephant.”

Whatever Behemoth actually was, it was very big and strong. And the fact that God can have one as a pet is meant to speak of how immense and powerful God is.

A big old Behemoth is something we may be awe-inspired by, or even admire from afar. But I don’t think any of us would want one in our living room, especially if the Behemoth is bigger than the room.

But that’s exactly where I too often find myself. I come home, and there is this great big behemoth that I cannot get around nor ignore. I have to deal with it.

The Behemoth makes me realize that I am rather puny and weak; I am therefore very limited in how I can deal with it. Compared to this Behemoth, I am nothing. My human limitations come annoyingly to the forefront as a pathetic display of ineffectiveness.

And that is precisely what I don’t like. I absolutely despise being limited. I keep holding to the ridiculous notion that in any and every situation, I feel that I should be able to handle it. I should be the smartest person in the room. I ought to be the best person for the job. I should be up to whatever job is in front of me.

I can easily “should” myself to death, believing that because I look like Clark Kent, I am really Superman. But the truth is that I am vulnerable, limited, and don’t have all the answers.

I have no problem whatsoever affirming God’s power, size, and ability. I have plenty of faith to believe that God’s plans and purposes will be accomplished in this world. And I have all kinds of trust that God is good for divine promises made.

But I have some serious problems with my own limitations. I hate having a lack of knowledge, awareness, and strength. I despise not being able to help. I want nothing to do with what my late aged parents described as “being a burden to my family.”

Yet, here I am. A human, with all the weaknesses, limitations, and ignorance that goes with it.

And this is the core of my problem: I cannot help God, be more like Jesus, and have the strength of the Holy Spirit. In other words, I am not God. I’m about as close to being like God as both ends of the universe are.

As big as that huge Behemoth is in my life – which for me, is actually my insipid and frustrating limitations – God is infinitely bigger than the biggest Behemoth there ever was.

It turns out that my not wanting to submit to anything but God, is really a lack of submission to God. The Lord wants to use my wife, my children, my colleagues, my neighbors, and even people I don’t know and/or don’t like to help me in my limitations.

When God shows up, it usually isn’t in a dramatic whirlwind; God typically comes in the form of the person right in front of me.

Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, you have no limits. Yet, I am quite limited. My body cannot do everything. My mind cannot know all things. My ability to feel and express emotion is too often suppressed and purposely limited. And my spirit is too often limited to the three dimensions of my physical existence. Help, Lord; I need you.

May your divine grace and peace surround me and fill me, so that even when I am weak in body, I am strong in faith. Help me to accept my human limitations, as well as help from others; and to embrace and pursue my spiritual possibilities; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

A Very Heavy Burden (Job 20:1-29)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Woman carrying a burden, by Eugène Jules Joseph Laermans, 1916

Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

“My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
    because I am greatly disturbed.
I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
    and my understanding inspires me to reply.

“Surely you know how it has been from of old,
    ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
    the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
    and his head touches the clouds,
he will perish forever, like his own dung;
    those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
    banished like a vision of the night.
The eye that saw him will not see him again;
    his place will look on him no more.
His children must make amends to the poor;
    his own hands must give back his wealth.
The youthful vigor that fills his bones
    will lie with him in the dust.

“Though evil is sweet in his mouth
    and he hides it under his tongue,
though he cannot bear to let it go
    and lets it linger in his mouth,
yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
    it will become the venom of serpents within him.
He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
    God will make his stomach vomit them up.
He will suck the poison of serpents;
    the fangs of an adder will kill him.
He will not enjoy the streams,
    the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
    he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
    he has seized houses he did not build.

“Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
    he cannot save himself by his treasure.
Nothing is left for him to devour;
    his prosperity will not endure.
In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
    the full force of misery will come upon him.
When he has filled his belly,
    God will vent his burning anger against him
    and rain down his blows on him.
Though he flees from an iron weapon,
    a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
He pulls it out of his back,
    the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
    total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
    and devour what is left in his tent.
The heavens will expose his guilt;
    the earth will rise up against him.
A flood will carry off his house,
    rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
    the heritage appointed for them by God.” (New International Version)

Well, there you have it. Proof positive that God is merciful. The fact that the Lord kept his mouth shut after hearing all of Zophar’s supposed insight is amazing.

Illustration of Job and his friends from the Kiev Psalter, 1397

Zophar talked as if he had the inside scoop on the righteous and the wicked, and could tell the difference with ease. He is, however, another “friend” of Job who either could not or would not entertain the possibility that Job could be innocent and undeserving of such terrible suffering.

In addition, Zophar took the further step of accusing Job of being an enemy of God, and a secret sinner who was finally exposed and found out.

I have been in the position of being accused of sinful things that I did not do; and of being victimized by others who assume I must be a sinner because of a particular set of life circumstances. In some ways, it’s worse than the situation itself.

So, not only did Job experience the loss of family, property, and health; he also experienced gross misinterpretations of that experience from the very people who ought to have consoled and helped him through it.

Zophar sounds like one of those guys who always has to win an argument, always has to have an answer for everything, always talks himself into believing the things he says, and always has to have the last word.

I don’t need a “friend” like Zophar. I’ll take a friend like Jesus, who said things like this:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5, NIV)

Christ put the onus on repentance where it needed to be – not on the ones who suffered and died, but on the ones who offered their bogus interpretations of the suffering.

I am confident that Jesus would have had little tolerance for Zophar, and would not have treated Job in the way he was treated by his so-called friends.

Jesus extends an invitation to those who are experiencing such heavy burdens that they seem like crushing loads. That is certainly where Job was. His spiritual and emotional wounds were just as great as his painful physical situation.

Job needed help, and not people who would add to his already inconceivable burden.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners! (verse 3)

By J. Wilbur Chapman, 1910

Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
While the billows o’er me roll,
even when my heart is breaking,
He, my Comfort, helps my soul.
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving;
He is with me to the end.

Amen.