READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART IV

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Job 8:1-10:22

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Bildad the Shuhite argues that God is just.  Therefore, Bildad asserts, Job’s sons caused their deaths by sinning.  This (a) blames the victims, and (b) contradicts what the omniscient narrator of the Book of Job tells us.  Bildad has a particular misunderstanding of God.  This version of God always punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous.  One problem with this God-concept is that it fails to account for observed reality.  The rain falls on the just and the unjust.  Many righteous people suffer and fail while many wicked people flourish and succeed.  The ranks of Jewish and Christian martyrs are uncountable.  Faith such as that which Bildad epitomizes cannot explain any of these facts.

The Gospel of John provides an effective rebuttal to the likes of Bildad.  In the Johannine Gospel, the glorification of Jesus was his crucifixion–his humiliating, public, slow, and torturous execution on false charges.  Likewise, one may turn to the Gospel of Mark, complete with its Messianic Secret, finally and fully revealed at the crucifixion of Christ.  The Markan and Johannine perspectives on the crucifixion, counterintuitive at the times of the composition of those Gospels, remain difficult for many people to accept.  I accept these perspectives as part of my inheritance of faith, however.

I grew up hearing the expression,

the patience of Job,

in reference to severely tested, afflicted, and put-upon people, as in,

She must have the patience of Job.

I wondered–and still wonder–which Book of Job people who said that had read.  I have read the only Book of Job I know to exist.  I have read the Book of Job, in which the titular character was impatient, as he should have been.  How could any mere mortal be patient while coping with such suffering and with frenemies?  No, Job, in his impatience, modeled my second favorite aspect of Judaism:  arguing with God.

Real, lived, and deep faith in God is frequently messy.  Real life teaches us that pat answers are useless and insufficient.  Job admits that he does not understand why God has acted as God has acted.  Job does know, however, that he is innocent.  His alleged friends, however, think that they know more than they do.  They live in a fantasy world, in which faith in God is neat and tidy, and all the answers are easy.  They live in a black-and-white world.  Job, however, lives in a gray world.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 25, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM HILEY BATHURST, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ISAAC WATTS, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JAMES OTIS SARGENT HUNTINGTON, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS

THE FEAST OF JOHN LAFARGE, JR., U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND RENEWER OF SOCIETY

THE FEAST OF PETRUS NIGIDIUS, GERMAN LUTHERAN EDUCATOR AND COMPOSER; AND GEORG NIGIDIUS, GERMAN LUTHERAN COMPOSER AND HYMN WRITER

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READING HAGGAI-FIRST ZECHARIAH, PART II

Above:  Icon of Haggai

Image in the Public Domain

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Haggai 1:1-15

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King Cyrus II of the Persians and the Medes (r. 559-530 B.C.E.) conquered the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C.E.  The following year, he issued a decree permitting Jewish exiles to return to their ancestral homeland (Ezra 1:1-4).  The first wave of exiles to return to the ruined homeland (Ezra 1:5-2:70; 1 Esdras 2:8-30; 1 Esdras 5:1-73).  The old, prophetic predictions of the homeland being a verdant paradise of piety and prosperity did not match reality on the ground.  Grief and disappointment ensued.  The land was not as fertile as in the germane prophecies, and the economy was bad.

As of 520 B.C.E., proper worship, as had occurred before the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.), had not resumed.  People had set up an altar–most likely in 520 B.C.E. (as 1 Esdras 5:47-55 indicates, not in 538 B.C.E. (as Ezra 3:1-8 indicates).

Construction of the Second Temple began (Ezra 3:10-13; 1 Esdras 5:56-65a).  Yet opposition to that effort caused a pause in construction (Ezra 4:1-23; 1 Esdras 5:65b-73).

Haggai 1:1-15 establishes two dates and three names:

1. The first date (1:1), converted to the Gregorian Calendar, is August 9, 520 B.C.E.
2. The first name is Haggai, who prophesied from August 9 to December 18, 520 B.C.E.
3. The second name is Joshua ben Zehozadak, the chief priest.
4. The final name is Zerubbabel ben Shealtiel (of the House of David), the satrap (governor).   Notice the lack of the Davidic monarchy, O reader.
5. The final date (1:15) is September 21, 520 B.C.E.

Haggai offered a simple explanation of why the drought was severe and the economy was poor.  He blamed everything on the lack of a completed Temple in Jerusalem.  The prophet argued that such disrespect for God was the culprit, and that the poverty and drought were punishment.  Work on the construction of the Second Temple resumed.  Surely resuming construction of the Second Temple ended the drought and revived the economy, right?  No, actually, hence Haggai 2:10-10.

Haggai’s heart was in the right place, but he missed an important truth that predated Jesus:

[God] makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

–Matthew 5:45b, The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)

Haggai could have recalled certain laments from Hebrew literature.  He could have remembered Psalm 73, for example.  Why did the wicked flourish and the righteous falter?  Haggai could have recalled the Book of Job, in which the innocent, titular character suffered.

I make no pretense of being a spiritual giant and a great spring of wisdom, O reader.  However, I offer you a principle to consider:  God is not a vending machine.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 11, 2021 COMMON ERA

PROPER 10:  THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF NATHAN SODERBLOM, SWEDISH ECUMENIST AND ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSULA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DAVID GONSON, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1541

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN GUALBERT, FOUNDER OF THE VALLOMBROSAN BENEDICTINES

THE FEAST OF SAINTS THOMAS SPROTT AND THOMAS HUNT, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS, 1600

THE FEAST OF SAINT VALERIU TRAIAN FRENTIU, ROMANIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND MARTYR, 1952

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READING LAMENTATIONS, PART IV

Above:  Lamentations 3:10

Image in the Public Domain

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Lamentation 3:1-66

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Different voices fill Lamentations 3.  A new voice–that of Israel personified as the Man–speaks in verses 1-24, and perhaps through verse 39, as well.  An alternative view holds that the Poet speaks in verses 25-39.  Another new voice–that of the Community–speaks in verses 48-51.  Either Fair Zion or the Man speaks in verses 52-66.

Verses 1-20 depict deportation into exile.  They also depict God as a bad shepherd, in contrast to Psalm 23, Psalm 78, and Ezekiel 34.  Yet, starting with verse 25, we read an expression of hope in God.  Divine loyalty has not ended and divine mercies are not spent, we read.

For the Lord does not

Reject forever,

But first afflicts, then pardons

In His abundant kindness.

–Lamentations 3:31-32, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Comparing translations reveals shades of meaning in the original Hebrew text.  The Revised English Bible (1989) reads:

For rejection by the Lord

does not last forever.

He may punish, yet he will have compassion

in the fullness of his unfailing love….

When we turn to The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011), we read:

For the Lord does not reject forever;

Though he brings grief, he takes pity,

according to the abundance of his mercy….

Much of the material in verses 25-39 sounds like speeches by Job’s alleged friends (Job 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25, 32-37):  Suffering is divine punishment for sin, and people should accept this punishment.  In the context of the Book of Job, this is a misplaced theology, not applicable to the titular character’s situation (Job 1:1-2:10; 42:7-9).  Also, the speeches of Job’s alleged friends read like the useless yet conventionally pious babblings they are, in narrative context.

The rest of the Book of Lamentations confesses sins, repents of those sins, begs for divine deliverance, expresses hope in God, and prays for divine judgment on the wicked nations.

I get theological whiplash from Lamentations 3.  The contrast between Lamentations 3 and the rage against God in Lamentations 2 is stark.  And who says that God does not willingly bring grief or affliction?  I recall many passages from Hebrew prophetic books in which God speaks and claims credit for causing grief and affliction.  I do not recall anyone forcing God to do that.  In some passages, however, God speaks of these divine actions as the consequences of human sins.

I approach theodicy cautiously.  I am also an intellectually honest monotheist.  I have no evil god to blame for anything, thereby letting the good god off the hook.  There is simply and solely God, who is ever in the dock, so to speak.   The major problem with human theodicy is that it easily degenerates into idiocy at best and heresy at worst.

Whenever someone professes not to believe in God, one way to handle the situation is to ask that individual to describe the God in whom he or she does not believe.  One may also want to ask how the other person defines belief in God.  In the creedal sense, to believe in God is to trust in God.  Yet many–or most–people probably understand belief in God to mean affirmation of the existence of God.

Idiotic theodicy produces a range of God-concepts abhorrent to me.  I suspect that many–or most–of those professed agnostics and atheists reject at least one of these God-concepts, too.  Many professed agnostics and atheists–a host of them refugees from conventional piety and abusive faith–may be closer to a healthy relationship with the God of the Universe than many conventionally devout Jews and Christians.  This matter lies far outside my purview; it resides in the purview of God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 19, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN DALBERG ACTON, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC HISTORIAN, PHILOSOPHER, AND SOCIAL CRITIC

THE FEAST OF ADELAIDE TEAGUE CASE, EPISCOPAL PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, AND ADVOCATE FOR PEACE

THE FEAST OF MICHEL-RICHARD DELALANDE, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF VERNARD ELLER, U.S. CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN MINISTER AND THEOLOGIAN

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PIERSON MERRILL, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SOCIAL REFORMER, AND HYMN WRITER

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READING DANIEL

Above:  Susanna and the Elders

Image in the Public Domain

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PART XI

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Daniel 13:1-64

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Daniel and Susanna, according to study Bibles I consulted, hails from either the second or the first centuries B.C.E.  A standard description of Daniel 13 is that it is the oldest surviving detective story.  I prefer to think of it as the oldest surviving Perry Mason story.

The cast of named characters is:

1. Joakim, husband of Susanna;
2. Susanna, daughter of Hilkiah and wife of Joakim;
3. Hilkiah, father of Susanna; and
4. Daniel.

The story does not name the two wicked elders.

This is a story about the miscarriage of justice.  We read that the beautiful and pious Susanna, wife of the wealthy and pious Joakim, refused the sexual advances of the lecherous and homicidal elders, who had hidden in her garden.  The story describes the two elders as predators.  We also read of their perjury and of Susanna’s false conviction, followed by her sentence of death (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:21-22).

This is also a story about justice.  We read of Susanna’s prayer (verses 42-43) and of God’s reply:  sending Daniel to rescue her.  We read of Daniel’s Perry Mason routine, by which he exposed the two elders’ lies with an arborial question:  

Now, if you really saw this woman, then tell us, under what tree did you see them together?”

–Verse 54, The Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha (1989)

We also read of the elders’ execution, in accordance with the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 19:16-21).  In the Law of Moses, the punishment for committing perjury to convict someone falsely is to suffer the fate one intended for the accused.

The suffering of the innocent and the pious is a major theme in the Book of Daniel.  We also read of God delivering such victims in Daniel 2 and 3.  Yet Daniel 10-12 wrestles with the realities of martyrdoms.

God delivers the innocent and the pious some of the time.  This tension is evident in the Book of Psalms.  Some of those texts sound like Elihu, as well as Job’s alleged friends:  Suffering results from sins, and God delivers the righteous.  Yet other Psalms come from the perspective of the suffering righteous.  The former position fills Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus/Sirach/the Wisdom of Ben Sira, too.  Ecclesiastes functions as a counter-argument to that excessive optimism.

Why does God deliver some of the righteous and not all of them?  I have no pat answer for such a challenging question.  In Revelation 6:9-11, even the martyrs in Heaven are not always happy.

We who struggle with this vexing question belong to an ancient tradition.  We are the current generation in a long train.  We have reasons to rejoice, at least; God delivers some of the innocent and the pious.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 23, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN KENNETH PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP; HIS WIFE, HARRIET ELIZABETH “BESSIE” WHITTINGTON PFOHL, U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN; AND THEIR SON, JAMES CHRISTIAN PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN

THE FEAST OF CASPAR FRIEDRICH NACHTENHOFER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLEMENT I, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF SAINT COLUMBAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ABBOT, AND MISSIONARY

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Above:  Job and His Alleged Friends

Image in the Public Domain

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,  who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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Job 8:8-22 or Deuteronomy 11:18-28

Psalm 42

James 2:18-26

Mark 2:1-12

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In the perfect moral universe of Bildad the Shuhite and those who think like him, piety is a shield against misfortune.  This is an attitude present in parts of the Book of Psalms.  That book also contradicts the attitude, however, for certain psalms acknowledge that innocent people suffer.

Jesus, without ignoring that the suffering of many resulted partially from their sins, did not state that all human suffering resulted from the sins of the suffering.  His sinless life testified to a different reality, that sometimes we suffer because of the sins of others, and piety sometimes leads to persecution and/or death.

Certainty can become an idol, as in the cases of Bildad (Job 8) and the accusers of Jesus (Mark 2).  Idols abound; certainty is one of the most popular ones.  I refer to false, misplaced certainty, not to confirmed knowledge, such as 2 + 2 = 4.  No, I refer to certainty that fills voids meant for faith in God.  The human psyche craves certainty.  Unfortunately, false certainty leads to conspiracy theories, to other denial of reality, and to idolatry.  In reality, what we do not know outweighs what we do know, and humility is in order; certainty be damned much of the time.

May we walk the path of faith in Christ without ignoring that of which we can objectively be certain.  May God grant us the wisdom to recognize the difference between matters in which we need faith and those in which we can reasonably have certainty.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 15, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN ELLERTON, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF CARL HEINRICH VON BOGATSKY, HUNGARIAN-GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF DOROTHY FRANCES BLOMFIELD GURNEY, ENGLISH POET AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT LANDELINUS OF VAUX, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; SAINT AUBERT OF CAMBRAI, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; SAINT URSMAR OF LOBBES, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND MISSIONARY BISHOP; AND SAINTS DOMITIAN, HADELIN, AND DODO OF LOBBES, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONKS

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/devotion-for-the-fifth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-humes/

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Above:  Pool at Bethesda

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mpc2004006004/PP/)

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Job 9:1-35 (February 13)

Job 10:1-22 (February 14)

Psalm 15 (Morning–February 13)

Psalm 36 (Morning–February 14)

Psalms 48 and 4 (Evening–February 13)

Psalms 80 and 27 (Evening–February 14)

John 4:46-54 (February 13)

John 5:1-18 (February 14)

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Some Related Posts:

Job 9-10:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/week-of-proper-21-wednesday-year-2/

John 4-5:

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/third-sunday-in-lent-year-a/

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/twenty-third-day-of-lent/

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/twenty-fourth-day-of-lent/

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Job, in the speech which encompasses Chapters 9 and 10, feels powerless before God, whom he understands as being omnipotent.  The speaker demands to know why God has done what God has done and is doing what God is doing relative to himself (Job):

I say to God, “Do not condemn me;

Let me know what you are charging me with….”

–Job 10:2, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

This is, in the context of the narrative, understandable and justifiable.  The Book of Job does open with God permitting Job’s sufferings.  The text offers no easy answers to the question of the causes of the suffering of the innocent.

John 4:46-5:18 offers us happier material.  Jesus heals a royal official’s son long-distance then a poor man paralyzed for thirty-eight years up close and in person.  Unfortunately for our Lord, he performs the second miracle on the Sabbath and speaks of himself as equal to God, prompting some opponents (labeled invectively as “the Jews”) to plot to kill him.  I said that the material was happier, not entirely joyful.

The paralyzed man and the observers probably understood his disability to have resulted from somebody’s sin.  The Book of Job, of course, repudiated that point of view.

It occurs to me that Job’s alleged friends and our Lord’s accusers had something in common:  Both sets of people were defending their God concept, one which could not stand up to observed reality.   J. B. Phillips wrote a classic book, Your God is Too Small (1961), which I most recently too long ago.  In this slim volume he pointed out that inadequate God concepts and attachments to them cause dissatisfaction with God and blind us to what God is.  Our Lord’s critics in the Gospel of John were blind to what God is and found Jesus unsatisfactory.  And, in the Book of Job, as we will discover as we keep reading, all of the mortals who speak have inadequate God concepts.  Yet Job’s is the least inadequate.

Until the next segment of our journey….

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 26, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES

THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET

THE FEAST OF SAINT PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF ROBERT HUNT, FIRST ANGLICAN CHAPLAIN AT JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA

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Adapted from this post:

http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/devotion-for-february-13-and-14-in-epiphanyordinary-time-lcms-daily-lectionary/

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Above:  Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun and Her Daughter, by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Job 8:1-22

Psalm 123 (Morning)

Psalms 30 and 86 (Evening)

John 4:27-45

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Some Related Posts:

I Hunger and I Thirst:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/i-hunger-and-i-thirst/

John 4:

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/third-sunday-in-lent-year-a/

http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/twenty-third-day-of-lent/

Lord, It Is Night:

http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/lord-it-is-night/

Memories at a Moving Sale for a Friend:

http://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/memories-at-a-moving-sale-for-a-friend/

Weeping:

http://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/weeping/

The Valentine’s Day Teddy Bear:

http://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/the-valentines-day-teddy-bear/

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Bildad the Shuhite, alleged friend #2, insults Job for expressing himself and goes on to repeat arguments Eliphaz the Temanite had made.  Understandably, Job does not find this helpful.  In contrast, the woman at the well becomes a gateway for Jesus to reach out to many of her fellow villagers.  I know which person I wish to emulate.

Too often we human beings feel as if we must say something to a person in distress.  Frequently this takes the form of a platitude such as

I know how you feel

when, in fact, the speaker has no idea how the other person feels.  But at least the speaker in such a case means well.  That, nevertheless, does not excuse the unhelpful words.  I have tried to be present and helpful for a suffering person.  I have tried to be properly cautious in choosing my words, with affects in mind.  Sometimes these words have fallen flat and even just being present has proved to be no help, so far as I have been able to tell.  But at least I have not blamed her or told her that I knew how she felt.  Overall, I think, I have succeeded in performing a good work.  As I type these words, the next chapter in that story is unfolding.  Maybe what I did to help my friend will help others as well.  Even if it does not, at least it proved useful to her.

Until the next segment of our journey….

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 15, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR B

THE FEASTS OF SAINT OLGA OF KIEV, REGENT OF KIEVAN RUSSIA; ADALBERT OF MAGDEBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; ADALBERT OF PRAGUE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND MARTYR; AND BENEDICT AND GAUDENTIUS OF POMERANIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS

THE FEAST OF SAINT DAMIEN DE VEUSTER, A.K.A. DAMIEN OF MOLOKAI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF SAINT EGBERT OF LINDISFARNE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND SAINT ADALBERT OF EGMONT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY

THE FEAST OF SAINT MELLITUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

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http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/devotion-for-february-12-in-epiphanyordinary-time-lcms-daily-lectionary/

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Above:  Job and His Alleged Friends

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Job 19:21-27 (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures):

[Job said in reply:]

Pity me, pity me!  You are my friends;

For the hand of God has struck me!

Why do you pursue me like God,

Maligning me insatiably?

O that my words were written down;

Would they were inscribed in a record,

Incised on a rock forever

With iron stylus and lead!

But I know that my Vindicator lives;

In the end He will testify on earth–

This, after my skin will have been peeled off.

But I would behold God while still in my flesh,

I myself, not another, would behold Him;

Would see with my own eyes:

My heart pines within me.

Psalm 27:10-18 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

10 Hearken to my voice, O LORD, when I call;

have mercy on me and answer me.

11 You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.”

Your face, LORD, will I seek.

12 Hide not your face from me,

nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

13 You have been my helper;

cast me not away;

do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

14  Though my father and my mother forsake me,

the LORD will sustain me.

15  Show me your way, O LORD;

lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.

16  Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries,

for false witnesses have risen up against me,

and also those who speak malice.

17 What if I had not believed

that I should see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living!

18 O tarry and await the LORD’s pleasure;

be strong, and he shall comfort your heart;

wait patiently for the LORD.

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A Related Post:

Immortal, Invisible:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/immortal-invisible-god-only-wise/

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Our journey through Job continues.  Here is a summary of what he have skipped over:

Job, in Chapter 10, declares,

I am disgusted with life.

–10:1, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Then he complains to God.  Zophar the Naamathite, in Chapter 11, argues that Job’s suffering must be the result of sin.  Job replies in Chapters 12-14, arguing that he is innocent, his alleged friends are fools, and God is guilty of abusing divine power.  This is too much for Eliphaz the Temanite, who defends God in Chapter 15.  Job replies in Chapters 16 and 17 that God is his enemy.  Bildad the Shuhite replies with an unoriginal argument (heard previously in the Book of Job) in Chapter 18, to which Job replies in Chapter 19.  Job, who expresses a sense of alienation, reasserts the argument that his suffering has not resulted from his sins.

The impulse to defend God might seem pious, but it is unnecessary.  If one works from the assumption that God is all-powerful, one must conclude logically that such a deity has no need of a defense from a mere mortal.  Besides, we are frail and often foolish.  Exhibits A, B, C, and D of human foolishness committed while defending God (or rather, an understanding of God) are the speeches of Bildad, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Elihu from the Book of Job.  The main character’s speeches agree with the prologue of the Book of Job that his suffering did not result from his sins.  So his alleged friends, who think themselves orthodox, are really heretical.  Even worse, they are no help whatsoever.  And they are fools.  Job was also correct about that.

It is easy, of course, to point to a character in an ancient text and call him a fool.  But we are fools sometimes, as are our friends and acquaintances.  May we, by grace, be foolish less often, especially when we are trying to be pious by defending God or our understanding thereof.  An acceptance of ambiguity at certain times will go a long way toward accomplishing this goal.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 27, 2011 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

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Published originally at ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS BY KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on October 27, 2011

Adapted from this post:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/week-of-proper-21-thursday-year-2/

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Above:  A Maine Coon Cat Kitten

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Job 9:1-16 (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures):

Job said in reply:

Indeed I know that it is so:

Man cannot win a suit against God.

If he insisted on a trail with Him,

He would not answer one charge in a thousand.

Wise of heart and mighty in power–

Who ever challenged Him and came out whole?–

Him who moves mountains without their knowing it,

Who overturns them in His anger;

Who shakes the earth from its place,

Till its pillars quake;

Who commands the sun not to shine;

Who seals up the stars;

Who by Himself spread out the heavens,

And trod on the back of the sea;

Who made the Bear and Orion,

Pleiades, and the chambers of the south wind;

Who performs great deeds which cannot be fathomed,

And wondrous things without number.

He passes me by–I do not see Him;

He goes by me, but I do not perceive Him.

He snatches away–who can stop Him?

Who can say to Him, “What are You doing?”

God does not restrain His anger;

Under Him Rahab’s helpers sink down.

How then can I answer Him,

Or choose my arguments against Him?

Though I were in the right, I could not speak out,

But I would plead for mercy with my judge.

If I summoned Him and He responded,

I do not believe He would lend me His ear.

Psalm 88:10-15 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

10  My sight has failed me because of trouble;

LORD, I have called upon you daily;

I have stretched out my hands to you.

11  Do you work wonders for the dead?

will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?

12  Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave?

your faithfulness in the land of destruction?

13  Will your wonders be known in the dark?

or your righteousness in the country where all is forgotten?

14  But as for me, O LORD, I cry to you for help;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

15  LORD, why have you rejected me?

why have you hidden your face from me?

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The Canadian Anglican lectionary I am following jumps around Job, so I begin by summarizing what we have skipped over since the previous post.  Eliphaz the Temanite, in Chapters 4 and 5, is convinced that God is punishing Job for something and argues that God rewards the righteous and punishes the unrighteous.  Eliphaz utters many pious-sounding statements, such as:

See how happy is the man whom God reproves;

Do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

He injures, but He binds up;

He wounds, but His hands heal.

–Job 5:17-18, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Job, in Chapter 6, complains about unhelpful alleged friends.  As he says in verse 15,

My comrades are fickle…. (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures)

Then, in Chapter 7, Job addresses God and admits less than complete innocence:

Why do You not pardon my transgression

And forgive my iniquity?

For soon, I shall lie down in the dust;

When You seek me, I shall be gone.

–Job 7:21, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Bildad the Shuhite replies to Job in Chapter 8 and insists that Job is wrong to deny that his suffering results from sin.  A just God, Bildad insists, does not punish the innocent.  Then, in Chapter 9, as we read, Job states that he cannot win an argument with God.

Now for the rest of the post…

Each of us walks around with certain assumptions.  The most basic ones are those we do not recognize as being assumptions.  Those of us who are both religious and monotheistic conceive of God in certain ways.  We have learned theology from sources such as books, families, and faith communities.  Sometimes what we have learned proves to be both inaccurate and inadequate.  Life includes circumstances which contradict our assumptions.  What are we to do then?

That is the quandary facing our characters in the Book of Job.  Is God just?  If so, must Job’s suffering constitute divine discipline?  Yet the beginning of the book tells us that Job’s suffering does not flow from his sins, so his suffering cannot constitute divine discipline.  So, is God just?

All of this is part of a story, of course.  We are reading poetry with prose interjections, not history.  The book does contain much truth, however.  The most basic truth it teaches might be that God defies our comfortable theologies; God will not fit inside our metaphorical boxes.

Here is another great lesson from the Book of Job:  Be a real friend, not a pain.  If someone is suffering, offer comfort and help, not condemnation.  This might entail tough love, but so be it if that is so.  Job’s alleged friends did not help; they uttered pious-sounding defenses of their God concepts while making Job more miserable.  There is a good reason that many people like having fur-bearing animals as companions; the creatures are present and do not condemn or offer meaningless words of comfort, such as,

I know how you feel.

Now I offer a preview of a coming attraction:  God in 38:2, addresses Job and accuses him of having darkened counsel and spoken without knowledge.  That same critique could apply to anyone else who speaks in the Book of Job.  Maybe the error is in one’s concept of how God acts and works, or perhaps it pertains to how one things God ought to act and work.  Look for that dynamic in this great text from the Hebrew Scriptures.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 27, 2011 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

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Published originally at ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS BY KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on October 27, 2011

Adapted from this post:

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/week-of-proper-21-wednesday-year-2/

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