The Green Letter Bible and Study Bibles in General

I mentioned recently to someone that I am thinking of getting the Green Letter Bible. The person I was talking to responded, "I like the Bible I have." I respected his answer to me. I detected in his tone a disinterested dismissal, as if her were saying, "I am not into all these fad Bibles, the Green-letter Bible, the Poverty and Justice Bible. I don't need them." He did not say those things but I think that's where his thoughts were. And if I am right, I absolutely respect him. There are a lot of groups out there that want to make the Bible their agendas.

Christians are not to do that! We are to conform our lives to God's agenda and the leadership of God's Spirit. This means studying the Bible with an inquisitive mind, critical thinking, and a malleable heart. We conform to the word; we don't conform the word to our ways of thinking.

I was talking to another person, a pastor about the Green Letter Bible. It's supposed to be a Bible that highlights (in green) what God's word has to say about care of the Earth. Her response was "Isn't the entire Bible supposed to be green." She wasn't dismissing the Green Letter Bible for the same reasons as the other guy I talked to but she seemed just as disinterested.

OK! That's two Christians I respect, and neither had any excitement over the Green Bible. On the other hand, another Christian I respect greatly, a pastor, has a copy of the Green Letter Bible and he loves it.

I am in a fortunate position in that my church gives me a budget for resources. I feel like as a pastor I should be informed about the resources that are out there for evangelicals. Right now, Green is in; even conservative politicians are trying to be seen as eco-friendly. So, I think it is wise for me to see what I can learn from the Green Letter Bible.

However, I can't buy everything that comes along! If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know my most recent post is about the Poverty and Justice Bible. I still have the Oxford Annotated Bible I got in seminary 15 years ago. And my Grandmother-in-Law, a devoted Christian and true Pentecostal gave me a Full Life Charismatic King James Study Bible one year. My book shelf has a row of Bibles and concordances.

Is this excessive?

I don't think so. And I don't think it would be excessive even if I was not a pastor. It would only be too much if I never read the materials. It would be flat out sin if I just stacked the books there so people would be impressed by my diligent scholarship. (Actually that would just show me to be completely out of touch. No one outside of academic or clergy circles cares at all how much a pastor reads).

No, I think the accumulation of these study Bibles is a good thing because they inform me in my study of scripture as a preacher and as a believer. I love read the Good News Bible in Today's English Version that I was given when I baptized in 1981. My wife and I read from it every night. And sometimes, I'll borrow her study Bible when I am working on something. I encourage Christians who can afford to do so to buy the different study Bibles if they will be committed to reading the articles and commentary provided.

I know not everyone can afford 6 study Bibles. If you have one Bible and you read it faithfully and you connect with other Christians and discuss God's word on a regular basis and do it in prayer, you're going to grow in faith. But, many of the readers of this blog do have means. Their TV's, boats, cars, and 4-bedroom houses attest to the fact that they can easily afford a couple of study Bibles.

If the study Bibles will help someone awaken to issues that are of particular importance to God, then that person would be wise to make the reading of that study Bible (scripture passage, notes, commentary, and articles) a regular part of his or her faith life. A disciple of Jesus Christ is wise to let the study Bible be a part of his or her Spiritual growth. There's no need to chafe against the study Bible or dismiss it as trendy.

Use it.

We are to conform to the scripture itself. But the accompanying notes, articles, and commentary are tools to be used to build discipleship.

Poverty and Justice Bible

I recommend the Poverty and Justice Bible. It's from the Bible society and can be ordered for about 25$ on the Sojourner's website. In it, all the verses (well most of the verses) that deal with poverty & justice issues in the Bible are highlighted in orange. Over 3000 verses are highlighted.

Geek that I am, I immediately turned to some passages of Jesus' healing and found them not highlighted. I thought they should be because in the first century, someone afflicted with blindness or another incurable ailment would have been relegated to the fringes of society. So, they would have been marginalized and they would have been victims of injustice that Jesus freed. Why they weren't highlighted, I don't know.

That said, the Poverty and Justice Bible is a great help to the Christian who is truly interested in knowing God's heart. God is for the poor and God is for the hungry and the needy. That is not debatable. Read the passages highlighted in the Poverty and Justice Bible. If we take God's word seriously and we read these words of scripture, our lives will change. Our values will change. Our choices will change.

I am particularly grateful that my copy came just two days before Thanksgiving. I know Jesus appreciated a good party and there are times when feasting is appropriate. The food orgy I will experience with beloved family members over the next couple days is something to thank God for. However, the new Bible reminds me to keep the poor ever in my thoughts, and those thoughts guiding my actions.

I am equally grateful that I got to go on a mission trip to Arkansas earlier this year, serving the rural poor. And my wife is leaving next week for a mission trip to Ethiopia. She's going out of a love for orphans. We have a heart for the poorest of the poor. And our church, HillSong in Chapel Hill, has been an enormous support (through prayer and material support).

So, today, I am thankful. I am thankful for what I have. And I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of God's work.

The Unsafe God

A New Word

I have just begun Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. I am only 10 pages into the book. So I don’t know how profound what I am about to share is in relation to Dostoevsky’s story. But, as to my own thoughts and conclusions in my reading of the book of Job, it is poignant.

The first character Dostoevsky introduces is a young impoverished man named Raskolnikov. From the outset, Raskolnikov’s inner monologue is tortured. He makes the observation that I think strikes the climactic theological note in Job 42. Raskolnikov muses, “… I wonder what men are most afraid of … Any new departure, and especially a new word – that is what they fear most.”

The italics are the author’s, not mine. In America, we seem obsessed with the newest and latest. One of the features of ESPN the Magazine is “Next.” The editors try to identify the next generations of great athletes, the next Michael Jordan or the next Tiger Woods. American ethos would generally reject Raskolnikov’s assessment that we fear paradigm shifts more than we fear anything else.

However, Americans’ obsession with the new and the fad is itself a paradigm. The new word is not the actual answer to the question “what’s next?” The new word is heard when our culture moves on to a different question. We wake up one morning and realize that over the past 3 decades we have stopped asking “what’s next?” That is when we will have been through a paradigm shift, and we absolutely are terrified of it.

The real American Idol (and here I refer to ‘idol’ in the Biblical sense, something that is worshipped in place of God) is liberty. In our cultural ethos, liberty or freedom is valued over everything else. We are addicted to the notion that we are free to ask “what’s next?” We are scared to death that if we stop asking that question, we won’t be completely free. And we contently live under the deception that we are completely free.

When the book of Job became a scroll that was a part of the canon, the holy writings of the people of Israel, the prevailing theological framework rested on the idea of retribution. Sinners are punished. Righteous people are rewarded. People were generally more interested in living within that belief system than actually dealing with the reality of a relationship with God that could not be predicted.

Job discovered that while there is some merit to that theological framework, God would not conform to it. The rules (sinners-punished, righteous men rewarded) revealed truth about God some of the time; maybe even much of the time. But, the man Job discovered that some of the time, righteous people suffered. Some of the time, flagrant violators of God’s laws prospered. Much of the time, the truth was gray, not nearly as black and white as the rules seemed to indicate.

The redactors (editors) lived in a day when God’s chosen people were coming out of the disillusioning Babylonian exile. Their return to the Promised Land happened in waves and with the blessing of the pagan Persian king. There was no Moses parting the Euphrates River. Nehemiah was a slave. He was a slave with a very high position in the King’s court, but indentured nonetheless. He did not boldly thrust plagues upon the land in confrontations akin to those of Moses and Pharaoh. He meekly sought the favor of King Artaxerxes. It is as if the rebuilding of Jerusalem was as much as result of Artaxerxes magnanimity as God’s sovereign will.

Sages and priestly editors living in this world had trouble because their Exodus, Red-Sea parting theology didn’t exactly fit. God wasn’t working through signs and wonders. God was working in the heart of a gentile king. How would those who interpreted the word and the world help the people of God process the situation theologically?

The story of Job suddenly had a relevance it had not previously enjoyed. If Job took place in the days of Abraham and was told as a fireside story for 2 millennia, why had it not become a part of Israel’s scripture? Why was it just a story passed on by bards? Job called into question assumptions about God and the world. Job dared to say the world is unpredictable and we can’t just rely on the rules. We actually have to seek out God!

The people did not want to seek out God. They wanted to rest secure in the rules they knew about God. To actually be in relationship with God was terrifying. Noah discovered this. So too did Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Likewise Samuel, David, and Solomon. To be sure all of these also discover the wonder of a relationship with God. But as incomparably awesome as it is to be close to God and to talk to God and hear from God, we are reminded by Beaver (in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) God isn’t safe. God is good, but not safe.

In the whirlwind, Job draws close to the unsafe God. Job speaks to and hears from the unsafe God. Seeing that and seeing the way the book of Job dump ice water on the theological presumptions of 5^th century BC Israel, we affirm Dostoevsky’s poor Petersburg Student. Yes, Raskolnikov, this new word is what we fear most.

But if we can move past this fear, we can move to that place where Moses takes off his shoes. We move to that place where young Samuel hears the midnight cry and it isn’t Eli. We move to that place where Solomon has enough presence of mind to ask God for wisdom of all things. We move to Elijah’s silence and Job’s whirlwind and Daniel’s lion’s den. We move to that place where we stop reading descriptions of God and we start giving personal eyewitness testimony. We stop discussing ideas about God and we talk directly too Him.

When we enter relationship with God we’ve moved through the ultimate paradigm shift. Once we go there, nothing the world offers is satisfying; nor is it all that unsettling. How could it be? How could anything in this world shake the faith of one who has spent time in the courts of Heaven? To walk in the quiet of the morning talking with the unsafe God is the greatest height to which a man or woman can ascend.

Thanksgiving Day Blog

I recommend the Poverty and Justice Bible. It's from the Bible society and can be ordered for about 25$ on the Sojourner's website. In it, all the verses (well most of the verses) that deal with poverty & justice issues in the Bible are highlighted in orange. Over 3000 verses are highlighted.

Geek that I am, I immediately turned to some passages of Jesus' healing and found them not highlighted. I thought they should be because in the first century, someone afflicted with blindness or another incurable ailment would have been relegated to the fringes of society. So, they would have been marginalized and they would have been victims of injustice that Jesus freed. Why they weren't highlighted, I don't know.

That said, the Poverty and Justice Bible is a great help to the Christian who is truly interested in knowing God's heart. God is for the poor and God is for the hungry and the needy. That is not debatable. Read the passages highlighted in the Poverty and Justice Bible. If we take God's word seriously and we read these words of scripture, our lives will change. Our values will change. Our choices will change.

I am particularly grateful that my copy came just two days before Thanksgiving. I know Jesus appreciated a good party and there are times when feasting is appropriate. The food orgy I will experience with beloved family members over the next couple days is something to thank God for. However, the new Bible reminds me to keep the poor ever in my thoughts, and those thoughts guiding my actions.

I am equally grateful that I got to go on a mission trip to Arkansas earlier this year, serving the rural poor. And my wife is leaving next week for a mission trip to Ethiopia. She's going out of a love for orphans. We have a heart for the poorest of the poor. And our church, HillSong in Chapel Hill, has been an enormous support (through prayer and material support).

So, today, I am thankful. I am thankful for what I have. And I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of God's work.

Continued Listening to and Talking to God

I am sitting in my parents' dining room. My sister and my sister-in-law (and her 2 kids) are here, as are my wife and our two kids. And, my parents and my grandmother. The only one not here is my brother who will join us briefly tomorrow before he and his family head to his wife's folk' place in the South. It is Thanksgiving week, and a week of family, food, football, and fun.

One of the highlights of my week home so far has been the initial theological conversations with my sister. Christy is a passionate, evangelical Christian, and her framework for her faith resides in the reformed tradition. I have unintentionally developed a rather sharp anti-reformed bias that I am now working through.

It's not that I want to become a Calvinist (reformed theology adherent). It's just that I want to celebrate the rich Christianity of Calvinists I love (like my sister). There is so much of God I see in the way she vibrantly lives her discipleship. I don't want to let useless prejudice against a belief system prevent me from enjoying and learning from the richness of Christy's faith.

And how silly is that anyway, to be predisposed to be negative toward someone because of their theological system? I suppose that some teachings are damaging (like those offered by the KKK or the Third Reich). But, many differences in theology among Christians who truly worship Jesus are minor when held in contrast with the essentials of the faith. By saying that theological differences are minor, I don't mean they are unimportant. I just mean that they should not prevent sweet fellowship in Jesus.

If that phrase "sweet fellowship in Jesus" sounds campy, I don't care. I need more of it. I enjoyed it while on a mission trip in Arkansas earlier this year, and I want more! After that trip, I said that if anyone in the church wanted to complain about something, they would be allowed to register their complaint after they had spent a week on a mission trip, serving the poor in Jesus' name.

Maybe the same criteria should stand for theological arguments. Before we argue predestination v. free-will, we have to go on a mission trip where we serve needy people out of our love for Jesus. If we do that then our hearts will be properly prepared to put theological nuance in its proper place.

This blog began as a reflection on the book of Job. The Bible studies on Job that I've been leading have come to an end. The blog will continue. I'll share my own walk with the Lord and what I learn from people; authors whose books I read, and thoughts from not-so-famous but extremely wonderful and smart people I know personally. Please continue to read along and give your comments.

Now, I am off to bed. I am looking forward to more enthralling conversations with my sister and sweet fellowship in Jesus with my family this week.

Preaching While Distracted

OK, this was an unexpected experience. Yesterday morning some things happened right before the church service began that got me mad. One of the people involved will most likely read this and I hope I am forgiven for being so short-tempered and reactionary. I should not have gotten as mad as I did. I tried to keep it to myself, but I was seething.

I shouldn't have been, but I was.

So, worship began and I started thinking, "How can I pull myself together so I'll be ready to preach?" I began having some honest talk with God on the spot! As we sang the worship songs, I was trying in my heart to focus my mind on the words, but the anger was burning a little bit.

When that happens, it feels just like I have a heavy, iron helmet weighing on my brow. It's just sitting there not allowing me to do anything other than frown. So, there I was, the pastor, singing praise songs and trying to get into it and all the while boiling and burdened under the weight of (unnecessary) anger.

Then, it was time to stand up and preach. I got to the lectern, announced the scripture passage, and glanced at my manuscript. Something surreal happened. For one of the few times in my life, I experienced two realities at the same time.

I was a preacher tasked with bringing God's word to God's church, and I was truly able to give it my best shot. I certainly don't think anybody would mistake me for John Wesley or Billy Graham or Fred Craddock, but I thought the sermon wasn't half bad. More importantly, I felt God speaking through me and afterward, others said they felt that way too.

At the same time, I was a listener. It was not an out-of-body thing where I was in one of the seats hearing and watching the sermon. But, I was definitely listening as God spoke the words directly to my heart and specifically to my situation. God was convicting me of His truth and my own sin. Obviously, I had not written the sermon to myself originally. The message was composed earlier in the week, before the Sunday morning incident took place. But, God in His wisdom used those words to speak to me.

By the end of the worship time, my anger had been replaced with gratitude. I was thankful for God's mercy, grace, and wisdom. I was also grateful for God speaking to me in such a way that I cannot possibly doubt that it was anything other than God working through my fragile ego. I hope next time I won't get so easily distracted. It's kind of foolish. But, I am glad to know that God is leading our worship whether I am at my best, or not in such a good place.

In the End - God

Filled with anxiety and loneliness, Moses had reached his wits’ end. After leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, he climbed the mountain to receive the law and while he was up there, the people at the foot of the mountain forgot about him and about God. In his rage their idolatry and ingratitude, God thundered and threatened to wipe out Israel. Moses spoke out on Israel’s behalf and convinced God to withhold his punishing hand. “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster he planned to bring on his people” (Exodus 32:14).

Leading the people, receiving the law, contending with God – it all took a toll and Moses was worn out. So he appealed to God, and what exactly did Moses ask for? “Show me your glory, I pray” (Exodus 33:18). More than anything, Moses wanted to see God with his eyes. God granted that request – he allowed Moses to see his backside glory.

And what of Jacob, the man whose name would be changed to Israel? His brother Esau, a much mightier man, had threatened to kill him. That had been several years, 2 wives, 2 concubines, and 11 children earlier. Now, he was fearfully figuring out how to face the confrontation he had dodged for so long. The night before the meeting, an enigmatic, angelic figure wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. The contest ended with Jacob’s hip being permanently knocked out of socket. The assailant then blessed Jacob and Jacob concluded, “I have seen God face to face and yet my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). After that the reunion with Esau was peaceful and anticlimactic. The key event for Jacob was to see God.

Job presses God for many things. He asks that God relieve his suffering by taking his life (Job 6:8-10). Job asks God for pardon (even though Job never admitted sin) (Job 7:21). Job wants God to promise no rod of punishment because without that specter hanging over him he could speak and justify himself (Job 9:34-35; 13:20-23). Job declares his desire to speak directly to God and thus justify himself (13:3, 13-19; 14:15). He also asks why God hides his face (13:24).

Job also accuses God, “he has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit” (17:6). “Know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me. Even when I cry out, ‘violence!’ I am not answered; I call aloud but there is no justice (19:6-7).

Furthermore, Job talks a lot about what he would do. “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might even come to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mough with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. There an upright person could and I should be acquitted forever by my judge” (23:3-7).

Job reasons, argues, accuses, makes claims, and makes assumptions. His own innocence is as clear as it can be in his eyes. I have cited a sample of the ways Job expresses his desire to go one-on-one with God. Job thinks he knows how this will turn out; he’s just not sure the opportunity will ever come. Job expresses both hope and despair, faith and faithlessness.

In the end, Job gets what he desired – a hearing with the Almighty. God shows up. And God does not answer any of Job’s complaints. God does not give Job opportunity to ask any of his questions. Those questions seemed huge to Job when he laid there wallowing in his own (very real and very sharp) pain. But the largess of Job’s issues shrink to nothingness when God speaks from the whirlwind. In the end, Job only gets exactly what Moses got; exactly what Jacob got. Job gets the physical presence/manifestation of God.

Swiss theologian Loenhard Ragaz states concisely the divine response to the problem of suffering in Job. “God does not involve himself with arguments for and against his dominion, but lets himself be seen. His answer consists in His manifesting His greatness in powerful speech and creative deeds. This rather than arguments of God’s defenders [Elihu and the three friends] causes Job to go silent and beg God’s forgiveness. He has been afforded no incite into the enigmas that have tormented him, but he has seen God himself” (from The Dimensions of Job, edited by Nahum Glatzer, p.130).

The end of the book of Job is God – Job meets God. In chapter 42, there is a denouement, and what is said there is very important theologically. But, the big issues of justice and suffering are not resolved by book’s end. The only place the reader of Job, attentive to Job’s pain as well as his own, can land is in God. The sum of God’s testimony is to simply show up and be seen. That enough was overwhelming to Job as it would be to anyone.

How much Change is Possible?

I find myself repeating sins so often I get exceedingly frustrated with myself and I wonder if change is possible? I believe I am forgiven, but I also believe that it is possible when one is in Christ and has the help of the Holy Spirit to stop sinning or at least sin considerably less. Yet, I say the same mean things to my wife that I said a month ago or a year ago. I lose patience with my kids as quickly as I did in the past. I struggle with other sinful attitudes as much as I did when I was a young believer.

Writing in the mid-20th century, Jewish scholar Leon Roth said in a article entitled 'Job and Jonah', "If [people] are allowed the right to moral change and even encouraged to change, no science of human behavior is possible" (The Dimensions of Job, edited by Nahum Glatzer, p.72). The assumption is that science is based upon observed repeated patterns. So if the possibility exists that a human being will react completely differently to the same external situational and moral stimuli than his previous reactions, then a cause has to be ascertained. If the cause is not measurable, then there can be no science of human behavior.

I don't know if this is what Roth meant. What I glean from his observation is that spiritual change cannot be measured by science. But, he thinks Job at least vindicates God's confidence in him (1:8; 2:3) by clinging to faith when faith appears impossible. Job is suffering and believes that God is the cause of his suffering, yet he also believes God will be the source of his salvation.

The verse Roth points to is Job 13:15. In quoting this verse, I add the 16th verse and I offer here the New King James Version.
"¹⁵ Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. ¹⁶ He also shall be my salvation, For a hypocrite could not come before Him."

Clearly, clearly, Job is saying God slays him and at the same time, Job trusts God and calls God "salvation." Furthermore, Job implies that God is a defender of integrity when he says "a hypocrite could not come before him." Thus Job is either insane (blaming God and relying on God simultaneously), Job utters faulty theology, or Job moves from blaming God for his fate
to reliance upon God for deliverance. Such movement is questionable in the short span of two verses.

However, human suffering can drive a person to express a range of emotions and thoughts from steadfast stoic clarity to maniacal ramblings. I don't think Job was insane, but I think his suffering was so intense, he sounded insane. I do think his faith and his emotion swung wildly due to his circumstances - wildly enough to express the diversity of thought we see in a single sentence in verses 15-16 cited above.

And, I believe the theology in Job is shaky throughout (except chapter 28 and 38-41), but that's intentional. Satan, the wife, the three friends, Elihu, and Job are all unaware of the depth the complexity of God. But their collective ignorance doesn't shut them up. Quite the opposite. The entire book is a stream of talkers who don't know enough to be quiet when their speech exceeds their knowledge. I hope this blog isn't another example of such empty exhortation.

In a round about way, this brings me back to my original quandary. Can someone grow spiritually to the point that in what they learn about God, they grow closer to God and actually change (by sinning less and living more righteously). I think the answer is "yes."

Job said,
² "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know" (42:2-3, NIV).

I think the book of Job shows that closeness to God is dependent upon the person honestly acknowledging what is not known instead of hiding behind conventional theology. A theological presupposition is not enough to draw conclusions about a situation in which the facts are known. Because my theology tells me God punishes sinners, I cannot assume when I see a suffering man that he must have sinned and must now be in the midst of divinely imposed punishment. Reality simply isn't that cut-and-dried. Job shows that situations arise that are beyond our understanding.

His faith statements show that we can stay with God even in our suffering. Our faith can endure. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. " This is one of many expressions of hope sprinkled in among Job's mournful, angry, lugubrious lamentations. Considering what he went through, this statement is enough to show that I (and others in more comfortable life circumstances) can grow in faith and grow in Christ. But we only by admitting that we need to and when only begin grow when we admit what we don't know.

Truly Amazing (Job 38-42)

Our American 21^st century culture is individualistic to such a damaging extent that we lose sight of community. We forget that we are part of something bigger than ourselves and we think the country exists to serve us and not vice versa. We want a church that meets our needs instead of searching for a church that gives an opportunity for the individual to sacrificially serve God and serve people. We’re very comfortable with the notion of a personal relationship with Jesus. We like it personal and private. We expect God to be interested in us. Twenty-first century Americans expect everyone to be interested in them. Why should God be any different?

It really is an awesome thing that God would take interest in people or in an individual person. That’s exactly what happens in Job chapters 38-42. God speaks to Job. What statement does God make?

God asks, “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it” (38:13)? Obviously, the answer Job has to give is “um, no; no I have not commanded the morning since my days began.” God has.

God asks Job, “Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground put forth grass” (38:25-27)? Job must answer, if he is truthful, “You have done that, God.”

Throughout the conversation, it repeatedly established that God is God, and Job is not. God is talking about awesome features of the creation, places inaccessible to man (e.g. “the storehouses of snow” – 38:22). Even the example of rain in the desert (v.25-27) shows God involved with the earth completely independent of man. God has interest in this planet God made. God does not need man’s advice or help. In all that is said in Job 38-42, God never mentions human beings as God discusses the creation.

Leo Perdue of Brite Divinity School points out the fact that God ignores humanity in these chapters. Perdue writes, “In a striking repudiation of an anthropology in which humans are kings in God’s creation (see Psalm 8), Yahweh speaks of sustaining a world hostile to human life. The anthropological tradition grounded in the metaphor of humanity as king is shattered” (p.174, Wisdom and Creation: The Theology of Wisdom Literature). Nowhere in this address to Job does God repeat what is said in Genesis 1, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion” (1:26). Perdue feels that God’s speech in Job makes humanity look small and insignificant.

J. Gerald Janzen of Christian Theological Seminary looks at the same evidence. In Job 38-41, God speaks of creation, but never mentions mankind. However, Janzen’s conclusion (in the book Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Job) based on what is happening in the book of Job is different than Perdue’s. Janzen thinks the speech raises the importance of humans in God’s view because while humanity is not accounted for, the conversation is with a person. God doesn’t talk about men and women, but he talks to a man!

So which scholar gives a more helpful reading of Job 38-41? I think both contribute to our understanding of what God is saying. Perdue shows what we all know implicitly but sometimes need to be reminded of. God is God and we are not. God doesn’t exist to meet our needs. God is creator of a world that overwhelms us and it is an act of God’s grace that God would ever deign to speak to a person. Janzen points out that God does in fact extend that grace in the speech to Job! Job has longed for an audience with the divine and he gets it. He is not told why he suffers, but he hears from God, he lives, and in the end (Job 42), his blessings are restored.

Of the many conclusions I draw from the book of Job, one is this. We in 21^st century America may feel entitled to be self centered, however, we are small. In the grand scheme of the universe, we don’t matter. God does not have to speak to us. But, God wants to. Furthermore, in Jesus Christ, God became one of us in order to redeem us. That’s the extent of God’s love for us. Love isn’t an obvious motivating force in the book of Job, but when we read it in light of the cross, we realize that the God who doesn’t need us loves us and because of that we have significance. Humans count and humans matter because humans are invited to be in relationship with God. Job lived in that relationship and we are invited to as well. I find that truly amazing.

Rob Tennant

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

This blog is called "Honest Talk with God." In the summer of 2006, I was honest with God. Living just outside of Washington DC, I loved the diversity of the community. We had neighbors from Ghana, Jordan, England, China, and El Salvador. As a pastor, I helped ordain pastors from China and Ghana, I baptized people from Laos, Argentina, and Sudan, and I worked in ministry with people from truly exotic places like Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

You may read this and think, "big whoop!" To me, it was huge. Before going to Northern Virginia, I had prayed that God would bless me with friendships with people from backgrounds different than my own. At the end of my seminary life in 1997, I was painfully aware that almost all my friends were middle class white people. Don't get me wrong; I love middle class white people. But there are billions in the world who are not white and do not speak English as a first language and do not come from the economic and socially dominant Caucasian group. I felt my view of humanity and my relationship with God were both severely limited by the fact that my relationships didn't go beyond people who were like me.

So, life in Northern Virginia was a blessing that amazed me for 9 years. But in the summer of 2006, God was telling me it was time to leave that wonderful place and go somewhere I didn't think I wanted to go - North Carolina. I knew our family was headed to a wonderful church. I never worried about that. But I did not know that the beautiful diversity I so treasured in Arlington, VA would also be found in Chapel Hill. And I told God that. I told God I was happy and grateful to be called to serve an exciting church and I was grateful for the challenge. But, I was also worried that what I valued might no longer be a big part of my life. I was worried that God was calling me away from something (a diverse community) that helped shape. I told God and God just chuckled. I had no idea what was in store.

Was I ever in for a happy surprise! Over and over in North Carolina, I am blessed to meet people who have lived in Carrboro all their lives. These are wonderful people who show me God and I love them. And over and over in North Carolina, I am blessed to meet people who have lived on three different continents. No, it's not the same as Northern VA or DC, but it is just as enriching. And the while the diversity is different in shape than from in DC, it is just as beautiful in the South.

A story from this past Sunday illustrates well my experience.

In our 2 & 3 -year-old class, we had two children. The little boy is 2 and he is Ethiopian, adopted by an American family. The little girl is 3, and from a Burmese family who came to America as refugees, fleeing the oppressive military government in what is now Myanmar. This little girl comes to church with her sisters. She is quiet as a mouse and calm as can be - when she is with her older sisters.

On Sunday, the sisters tried to drop her in the class and then go on to their classes. She became inconsolable. She was weeping, crying, screaming, and kicking. Apparently, her confidence and calm are dependent on keeping her sister in sight. With adults she did not know, she was terrified. The poor thing could not calm down. Who knows what she has been through in her young life?

The teacher of that class and our children's minister are both great and both were admirable in their patience and love for this distraught girl. And one other person showed great compassion. The 2-year-old Ethiopian, calmly, lovingly, approached the crying girl and hugged her and stroked her and wordlessly loved her.

Ultimately, she would not calm down until we went and brought her sister. But, that thought of an Ethiopian boy expressing deep concern and genuine love for a panicked Burmese girl while in a Sunday school class in North Carolina brought to my mind one of my favorite scripture passages. People talk about having a life verse. This verse is one that has been a powerful motivating force in my life.

Revelation 7:9 - "After this I looked and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

The Whirlwind

In a recent discussion group, we all agreed that the book of Job is “thick.” I think by this we mean that there is deep theology, deeper than it first appears. The theology in Job is layered. What most casual Bible readers remember about the book is that Satan is permitted to do horrible things to Job (take Job’s property and wealth, kill Job’s children, and then destroy Job’s health). God permit’s Satan to do these things in order to show that Job will remain faithful. Then, in the end of the book Job is vindicated and the three friends who accused him of sinning are condemned and they are only forgiven when Job prays for them. This is the snapshot that most people I talk have of Job.

At a slightly deeper level, but still near the surface, people who have suffered greatly read Job as a source of hope and rationality. They see in Job an innocent sufferer and they hope his perspective on his unexplained woes will give them perspective. They hear Job say in 1:21: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Then in chapter’s 3-31, they hear Job wish for death, accuse God, hope for a redeemer, hint at the hope of resurrection, and mournfully lament what once was.

As readers of Job move beyond the clichéd “patience of Job” and deal with all the emotions of the dialogues, and as readers consider the theology of Job’s friends, and as readers consider the theology of the young man, Elihu, who speaks in chapters 32-37, it becomes clear why a discussion group would describe Job as “thick.” The layers of ideas seem unending. Tracing one thread of thought unearths a dozen more. Choose your theme – resurrection, justice, theophany, suffering, retributive theology, nonconformist theology, substitutionary redemption – it’s all in Job. And what makes it even more dense is our tendency (appropriate, I think) to read Job influenced by our own experiences of suffering and justice and conformist and nonconformist theologies. So, we aren’t just dealing with Satan and God, Job and his friends, and wisdom and Elihu. We’re also dealing with what our own experiences tell us about the issues raised by Job, God, and the rest.

One could read Job for years and not get to all the ideas and discussions this brilliant piece of literature has birthed. That said, I recommend reading Job in anticipation that you will actually hear God speak. It has been hard for me to do this because I have been blogging on Job, leading small groups on Job, and writing newsletters columns on Job. What helped was doing my daily Bible reading and reflective journaling through Job, one chapter at a time. I was unprepared for what hit me.

On the 38^th day of this practice, I turned to Job 38 and read “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” The crescendo blew me away! I instantly realized that I was not hearing the empty platitudes of the three friends or the puffed up arrogance of young Elihu. This was not the bitterness of Job’s wife, or the sinister deception of the Satan. This was not the schizophrenic rambling of the chaos of Job’s agony, nor the glimpses of hope inside of Job fighting to keep him sane. This was not even Sophia, the simple but unshakable wisdom of Job 28. This was whirlwind – something wholly other.

I thought, OK, it’s time to do my daily Bible reading. For me though, there was nothing routine about it. God asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding” (38:4b). From that point, I feel a sense of who God is. Reading in this way is not a critical, scholarly approach and does not account for the questions raised by good critical scholarship. Those questions are helpful and necessary, but they are secondary. This sense of the God of creation shows that all human wisdom is secondary. The density of the dialogues and ideas that flow without end but with much repetition throughout Job are important, but also are secondary. At the heart of the matter, God matters.

It is beneficial to study in depth the specifics of the whirlwind speeches, but at the outset, it is sufficient to note that God’s answer to Job “out of the whirlwind” puts the rest of the book of Job in perspective. God has noticed Job and heard Job, but God is still God. God notices you and me and God loves us, but God is wholly other, supreme beyond measure, and worthy of worship. That’s what we see in the whirlwind speeches and we see it right from the start in Job 38.

The Death of Conventional Wisdom

Ideas that are generally accepted as true – conventional wisdom; anything outside the boundary of conventional wisdom draws a second look, the occasional judgmental sneer, and uncomfortable head-scratching. The conventional wisdom I have found most often in the minds of well-intentioned church going Christians is as follows: God is always right and never to be questioned. Everyday folks who depend on their faith in God for their sanity reach blindly for that uncritical line of thinking.

A beloved friend dies. Standing around his casket, those he left behind put forth somber, unreasoned philosophy. “It was his time to go.” “At least he’s in a better place.” “God took him home.” Why do they think such thoughts? It’s conventional wisdom and it would be disquieting to go against it.

No one has the courage to say, “Why the heck didn’t God help them find a transplant for him? Other people get transplants and live a long time. He was only 58. He had many good years left. What was God doing, sleeping on the job?” No, we don’t say that. It never occurs to one that he or she might question God. Conventional wisdom doesn’t question the Almighty.

In the book of Job, we encounter conventional wisdom first in Satan, and then in the words of Job’s wife. Then the seemingly endless cycle of dialogues provide tiresome repetitions of conventional wisdom from the mouths of Job’s three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Finally, a sixth character comes along – Elihu, the angry young man.

The narrator tells us Elihu is angry because Job’s three friends cannot correct Job’s mistaken assessment of his situation. Elihu agrees with their theological position, but it enrages him that they could not answer Job in his relentless commitment to his own innocence. Furthermore, Elihu is outraged that Job would make such claims. Elihu has quietly waited, and now it is his turn and he spews forth conventional wisdom so forcefully, it is almost convincing.

I am appreciative of Gerald Janzen’s commentary on Job (Interpretaion series, John Knox Press). He details 8 ways in which Elihu is off base. This was helpful because by the time I finished reading Elihu’s words (Job, chs 32-37), I wasn’t sure if he was a wise man or another foolish blowhard. The ambiguity is intentional. The book of Job raises questions more than it gives answers. The book of Job provokes discomfort more than it provides spiritual security.

Is something true if someone yells it loudly, with conviction, over and over? Elihu comes off as convincing, and like the three friends, much of what he says is something I would agree with. I would say it if I could be as poetic. But, Job reminds us that it is OK to question God. It is ok to stomp on that conventional wisdom that God is never wrong and is never to be questioned. Just because Elihu gets mad and upsets everyone around him with his anger outburst doesn’t mean we acquiesce and not speak truth.

I don’t think God is ever “wrong.” But if the circumstances of my life suggest that justice has been perverted, I should yell at God, appeal to God, seek God, and demand an audience with God. God is never wrong, but – conventional wisdom aside – God is to be questioned. Abraham - Moses – Job – Paul; those in the Bible who have enough wherewithal to question God are of the most use to God and in the closest of relationships with God.

Elihu is still among us telling us when times get tough, God must have willed it. We can’t question. We just accept it, praise God, and keep quiet (ironically – he has the longest uninterrupted speech in the entire book). We don’t dare question! The problem is if we never develop a dynamic, conversational relationship with God in which we can bring our hard, even unanswerable questions, our faith never grows. In fact, it decays to nothing more than empty ritual and creeds and confession spoken with no conviction. When we confess faith but don’t believe what we are saying our faith is dead.

It’s scary to question God. God is unpredictable.

Still, I believe the best (not the easiest) course for you and for me is to shuck off the confines of conventional wisdom, and dive headfirst into the swirling waters of living faith. Deal with God in a relationship that is unique in that God is interested in you and your interplay with God will be unlike anyone else’s. Be unconventional. Ask questions, upsetting questions, questions that embarrass conventional wisdom. (I hope our church can be a place people feel free to ask those questions.) Be completely real with God – even when you’re mad at God. In the end, like Job you’re drawn closer to God.

The people who stay with conventional wisdom have no idea who God is.

Unhealthy Comparisons

Job’s three friends looked at Job in his wretched condition and considered it in terms of their retributive theology. They see their own health. None of the three seems sick in any way. So, they stand by him in his agony, and they judge him. They compare themselves to him. They aren’t sick, so they must right in God’s eyes. Job has suffered sickness and devastating lost. He must be wrong in God’s eyes. It’s that simple.

Comparison is a damnable thing. There are ways comparisons can lead to seeing a situation clearly. Comparison by way of analogy can lead to understanding. But, I don’t like comparing people. I do it. I shamefully join and even initiate comparisons of different people. “She’s nicer than him.” “He’s not as educated as her.” I play that game, but I shouldn’t.

Comparison is damaging because God has things in mind for me. God’s plans for others are not God’s plans for me. If I start comparing, then I am drawn away from the best life I could lead – the life God envisions for me. I start trying to lead someone else’s life. It’s silly and stupid and frustrating.

When I was brand new pastor, I read Rick Warren’s book and Bill Hybel’s book. I saw how those guys were preaching to 100’s and 1000’s by their early to mid 30’s. I was envious and frustrated. I was leading a church of about 70 and the attendance was sinking. We were averaging right around 50 when I left 9 years later. I started comparing myself to those famous pastors and I was missing the plan God had for me. God didn’t set Rick Warren’s life before Rob Tennant. So, why was I trying to be him? Comparison!

I needed Job’s certainty. He was committed to the truth and the truth was, he believed in his innocence. He rejected wholeheartedly the evidence of the three friends as well as young Elihu. They presented their prosperity and his woe as evidence that he had sinned. The comparison led them to self-righteously judge him. But, Job would have none of it. He was living his own story and he believed God had taken his story – hijacked it. His only recourse was to bring response to God.

By the, way, I thought of all this earlier today. I went for a jog; 1 mile; down hill. I walked back up the hill to get home. So, I jogged and I was sore. I had not gone for a run in well over a month. My leg muscles in full revolt shouted at me, “What the heck is going on? We didn’t think you were serious about this!”

So, as I walked back up the hill toward home, a guy jogged by me. He was jogging up the hill faster than I had jogged down it. He was a couple of inches taller than me with a full head of hair. He was lean. His jogging stride was confident and smooth, not the labored, pavement-slapping tortuous effort I go through.

Now, you see what I did in that last paragraph. As that guy ran past me, I started comparing myself to him, and I starting feeling bad. It’s the same thing I used to do when I compared my church of 50 with Saddleback’s 25,000.

I am not in competition with that jogger. There is absolutely no reason for me to feel bad about putting the ice scoop down and going out and doing 1 mile roadwork. Maybe I can do this 3 or 4 times this week, and next week it will be 1.3 miles. I might run up a hill – a small hill with a gradual slope. In a month, I may try the 2 miles; or, I may try the same mile, but maybe faster. Who am I racing? The ice cream scoop, my gut, 40 (next February). What do I get if I win? I get to run more! I get healthier heart. I get more energy when I am chasing my kids around.

I am sorry if this has turned into a Richard Simmons testimonial. The point is I haven’t compared myself to Rick Warren for several years now. I am past that point of my life as a pastor. I celebrate what God has done at Saddleback and at Willow Creek and in the little churches where I pastor. I don’t do the comparisons in that way, but it is still a temptation for me. I compare myself with the other jogger on the road (not much of a comparison, I’m afraid). I compare my kids with other kids.

Part of my growth in Christ has to be daily victory over the sin of comparison. I have to reject the (non)wisdom of Job’s windbag friends. I have to lay claim to the story God is writing for my life with the same intensity and commitment Job made to lay claim to his innocence. God is writing out a pretty cool script. I am at my best when I follow it.

So, tomorrow afternoon, I hope to go running, much to the disappointment and dismay of my leg muscles. As the grandmas and the high school students and the studs go jogging past me I’ll smile and wave. And I hope the next time I am tempted to an unhealthy comparison, I am ready to push myself to be who God is leading me to become and not worry about anyone else except to help them be who God is leading them to become.

The book of Job and God's heart for Needy People

A key component of God’s vision for God’s people is that we show his love to the needy. This is a major theme throughout scripture. But not in the book of Job! Oh yes, read Job 31. Job is not a book about heeding God’s call to justice and mercy. Those topics are the fare of the prophets (especially Micah, Amos, and Hosea). And yet … read Job 31.

In that chapter, Job is declaring his own innocence as he has throughout. This time though, he goes to great depths to show that he understands sin.. He does so by repeatedly saying, “If I have …” and then he names some sin. Obviously, he makes two assertions. (1) The behaviors he cites are a sinful acts. (2) He is not guilty of those sins. By recounting what Job lists, we can ascertain his worldview. We can know what was generally assumed by society the basics of right and wrong.

Here are some of the sins Job recites: denying justice to the slave class (v.13); denying the desires of the poor (v. 16); neglecting the widow (v.16); failing to share bread (v.17); failing to aid a needy man by providing him new clothes (v.19); using political power to exploit young people whose fathers had died (v.21); trusting in money and rejoicing in wealth (v.24-25); rejoicing over the enemy’s misfortune (v.29); and, neglecting the foreigner (v.32).

Look closely at all that is mentioned in Job 31. It was understood by Job, by his friends, and by the original readers of Job that everything mentioned in the previous paragraph goes directly against the ways of God. It’s a catalogue of sins related to poverty, hunger, and social justice.

So, while we wouldn’t turn to the book of Job as a textbook on social justice and compassionate love of neighbor, it sure is a good secondary text. Job’s speech in chapter 31 is absolutely a fine support text one can read after one reads the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of Luke and the book of James and the three fiery prophets mentioned earlier. All this reading makes it clear that God loves people, and those who truly want to worship God and follow God must likewise love people, and make it a life mission to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Who's in control here, anyway?

I am a pastor. Every Sunday, I preach sermons. When you do you that every single week – some are better than others.

This morning, I got up to preach, and I started talking. I said my opening words, looked down at my manuscript, and kind of got lost. I kept talking. You have to – everyone is watching, waiting for you to say something. Of course I knew the general theme of the message, I had worked on it all week; but the more I talked the most lost and discombobulated I felt.

I finally recovered around the bottom of the page. Every time I looked at the crowd – really looked people in the eye – I could tell they were listening intently. I felt like the whole sermon, I came across as disorganized. As I got the last page of the manuscript, I was thinking, “Man, I am glad this is over.” In my mind, I was already making commitments to work extra hard in the upcoming week so I wouldn’t subject my folks to another exercise in unprepared rambling. I have two more weeks in a 5-part series in Judges, which is very hard to preach. So I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Then, afterward, two of the people who are typically very attentive listeners were talking. I entered their conversation not thinking the sermon would be mentioned. But, one of the women said she was getting a lot out of the sermons on Judges – especially today! The other woman agreed. ‘Really?’ I asked, astounded!

Who’s in control here anyway? Not me!

Once I got home, I asked the woman who is my harshest critic, my wife, what she thought. (By the way, because she is my harshest critic, she’s also the best, bar none). Before the two friends at church had said what they said, I had planned on avoiding the topic of the sermon in hopes that my wife wouldn’t bring it up. Because of their encouragement, I asked her for her reaction.

Expecting to have my worst fears confirmed, I waited. She said it was one of the best sermons I had ever given. Flabbergasted! I could not believe it. I felt awful about the whole thing and three of the people whose views I really trust affirmed me.

Who’s in control here anyway? Not me!

God guides how words are spoken and how they are heard. In the book of Job, many of the words spoken by his three friends are good words. They are good words spoken at the wrong time. They are good words spoken by people who did not have the right to speak them; the friends were especially out of line in saying what they did to Job. They forwarded a theology that God rewards righteous people and punishes wicked people.

Job’s suffering must have come from God. God would only send such awful woes on one who was wicked. Ergo, Job was wicked and things would go better for him as soon as he repented. The lengthy speeches of Job’s friends were poetic, quite beautiful and compelling at times. But, they did not adequately reflect the reality of Job’s situation.

God condemned good words, well-spoken words, by Job’s friends. And, not that God needs vindication from anyone, but, an ethicist would find God in the right. In the book of Job, God comes out OK.

This morning, God ordained words poorly spoken by me. Four different people were blessed by what they heard. It’s a good thing God is in control here. I would pity the world if it relied on me for eloquence or Job’s friends for truth spoken appropriately. We human beings try our best, and all the while pray and trust that God is guiding the way.

In Favor of the Lament Prayer

The professor of Old Testament I studied under while in seminary, Sam Ballentine, wrote a book called Prayer in the Hebrew Bible. One of the forms of prayer he discusses is lament. It’s probably very unfamiliar to American readers. We praise. We confess. We ask for God’s help (in healing, in times of need, in times of duress). We seek God’s leadership and guidance. But, I believe lament is wholly unknown to the vast majority of American Christians.

Ballentine make a case for the importance of offering lamentations. Some of the books of the Bible where laments are heard most poignantly and pointedly are Job, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Habakkuk. However, lament is not restricted to these books. Even the Psalms, maybe the most beloved of OT readings for evangelicals, contains this form of prayer. In fact, there are more lament Psalms than praise Psalms.

Here, I offer some of Ballentine’s comments toward the conclusion section of his book. I hope you find Ballentine’s words edifying and challenging. I hope what he has to say will drive you to read Job and the other books I mentioned.



“God’s presence is witness to divine intention to reward faithful obedience, as the prophets proclaimed, but fidelity does not guarantee God’s presence. This is the hard lesson of the book of Job. God’s hiddenness does confirm the indissoluble linkage between sin and punishment. On this truth the entire Biblical witness is unequivocal. But the pain and hurt that sunders the soul claims as its victims the just as well as the unjust. This too is the hard lesson of the book of Job. The present God is the hidden God and the hidden God is still God.” (Sam Ballentine, Prayer in the Hebrew Bible, p.287).



“When the church practices the ministry of lament, it proclaims the Biblical truth that life is finally open-ended, not settled or closed or bound. Even east of Eden, where limitations and impossibilities seem status quo, change, new beginnings, and surprise are possible. Questions are harbingers of change. In the practice of lament the church engages most daringly in the ministry of questioning. Whatever the reality of the institutions, the cultural forms, or the sacred dogmas that define life in the present, accurately placed questions can shatter their claim on people. Questions dare to imagine that things can change, that nothing, not even God, is locked into static, unalterable sacredness. In this sense questions always call for re-calculation, refiguring, rethinking, imagining that one has more than one way to comprehend to cope. For victims of grief and despair, the license to question is the key to hope that something different and better is still possible.” (Ballentine, Prayer in the Hebrew Bible, p.289)



“It is the stuff of lament to address God with hard and accusing questions. The Biblical witness is that God does not resist such speech; indeed, God takes it seriously, and it is effective. But the Biblical record is equally clear that God seldom answers questions, at least not in the way they are asked. Often the dialogue between God and humanity is painfully one-sided. God is expected to hear, believed to be receptive, but when questions end, faith must bear the burden of the silence that follows. … Are we willing to rethink God’s power, God’s compassion, God’s justice? Let us not stop short of ultimate questions – Are we willing to rethink the very reality of God? … We must admit that to engage in such questioning is to risk losing one’s faith. When one loses faith, where can one turn? Perhaps the greatest irony of the Biblical witness and perhaps also its most impenetrable legacy of prayer is that when one loses faith in God, it is precisely to God that one turns.” (Ballentine, Prayer in the Hebrew Bible, p.292, 294).

When Good Things Happen to Bad People

Do you know anyone who is really mean or exceedingly unethical, and also is rich and seemingly happy with life? It’s the age-old question re-worded. Why do good things happen to bad people? One of the wealthiest people in the world is Kim Jong-il, the dictator in North Korea. The people of that nation are cut-off from the rest of the world. They have experienced starvation. They have no religious freedoms. The media is run by the state. Why is their leader allowed to live a life of ease while such a high percentage of the citizenry wallows in poverty, often unable to even have enough food to eat?

Job asserts that good things happen to bad people all the time! He refers to them as “the wicked.” He who has lost everything (Job 1:13-19; 2:7-8) looks at the wicked and sees family wholeness and security in the home (Job 21:8-9, 11). The have success in farming (21:10). And in general, they rejoice because their lives are so good (21:12-13).

Job’s miserable experience has led him to believe that God is against him but is indifferent toward the wicked. And the wicked return the indifference. Job has the wicked ask, “What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?”

Job is not asking that question, but he says the wealthy wicked ask it because their lives are so blessed. What do they need God for? They have everything.

It would be a neat exercise to through these questions out to faithful believers today. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him? Why do we need God? I say it would be a neat exercise because I am convinced that disciples who earnestly follow Jesus would be able to answer these questions in a variety of creative and thoughtful ways. And I think those answers would be edifying to other Christians.

Answers to these questions he never intended to be answered would not necessarily help Job or anyone who suffers understand the cause of their plight. But, hearing the testimony of the faithful as they pour out their reasons for worshipping God and following Jesus would remind the sufferer who sees the world only through pain-tinted lenses that suffering is not all there is. Joy exists too and we can ask God to lead us to joy and to give us joy.

The joy of God will never come as we imagine it. It is from God and Job’s friends are right. We cannot fathom the depths of God’s existence. But, we can trust. The joy of God does come. Even in bad times, we can trust that God is good. Even when the Kim Jon-ils of the world prosper while millions ache in poverty that was imposed upon them, we can believe that God has a plan. God has a plan that involves deep, intimate, unending relationship with those who turn to Him and eternal alienation from and damnation on those who disregard God, like dictators who live fat and happy while their people have nothing.

Resurrection Dream

The dialogues between Job and his three friends have a confrontational, increasingly acrimonious tone. Job sounds hopeless because he lives with a distinctive worldview. He believes God rewards righteous persons with family, prosperity, and wealth. God punishes sinners, evil doers, with loneliness, complete lack of offspring, poverty, and physical pain. Job’s friends share this theological perspective.

Job’s dilemma is he is sure he has not sinned. Yet, all his children died. His property has been destroyed and wealth thoroughly plundered by raiding hoards. And, his health is gone. A shell of a man, Job brings pointed, desperate complaint to God. Whether God caused his misfortune or failed to protect Job, Job lays the cause of his unjust suffering in God’s lap. His theology of righteousness yielding shalom (peace, fullness of life, wellbeing) is upended.

Job’s friends won’t accept his claims of innocence. They see the calamity that has rested on him and assume sin. They verbally assail him. Obviously, they say, these woes indicate you have done evil in the sight of the Lord. Repent, and it will go well with you. Job is indefatigable in his self-defense. The exchanges with his friends become more and more heated. Chapters 3-37 of the book of Job seem an unending cycle of repetitive debate.

However, in the middle of it, Job asks an unexpected question. “If mortals die, will they live again? All these days of my service I would wait until my release should come” (14:14). Not much is said about resurrection in the Old Testament. The idea develops relatively late. This is startling. All along, Job has longed for death. The reader this is so because Job wants to escape the unbearable pain that is his life. Is it possible he dares to hope there is more than simply unending rest in his ancestral burial place?

“I know that my redeemer lives and that at last he will stand on the earth; and after my sin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (19:25-26). In the midst of his pathetic lamentations, Job finds deep within his soul a spring of hope. It’s just a trickle trying to find voice amid a torrent of despairing tears. Still, this hope makes its way, ever so briefly, to the surface and is heard.

Thus it is twice that Job topples conventional understanding. First, he claims he is innocent and his suffering is not due to his own sin. He blames God. That is unheard of by his contemporaries and instead of meeting him in his pain; they blame him for it and lecture him for his theological error.

Second, Job dares to look beyond the grave. He dares believe that the story of himself and God can extend beyond this present pain. There was no prevailing idea about life after death in ancient Judaism. But, Job was through being constricted by the winds of convention. He needed more, and in spite of all the verbal attacks he made, he believed God would give more. He believed somehow he would be made right with God.

Preposterous? We who worship Jesus Christ have no hesitation in speaking of eternal life in Heaven. It is central in our belief system. It is assumed even by people who have little to do with Jesus. In western, 21st century thought, the true atheist is rare. Most people hope for heaven. We absolutely count on resurrection.

What theological convictions do we hold that might be worth a second look? I don’t propose giving credence to every new idea that comes along. I don’t accept the claims of Mormonism. I reject the notion of reincarnation. I do not believe Mohammed was a prophet of God. Many new ideas directly contradict what we find in scripture. However, many new ideas are in scripture, but have been ignored because we are shaped by the world around us.

Prior to the 1960’s a lot of Christians accepted the same theological presuppositions that governed Job’s thought. Wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, and poverty and suffering are indications one is in God’s good favor. Liberation theologians pointed out that the overwhelming Biblical witness testifies that God is on the side of the poor. God is not against wealthy people, but God is always an advocate for those who suffer unjustly.

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, evangelical Christians have emphasized that the duty of Christ-followers is to “get people saved.” That is, the Christian’s primary work is to lead nonbelievers to confess faith in Jesus. However, minority voices have called this singular focus into question. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and more recently Dallas Willard and even John Ortberg suggest that the most crucial Christian work is to live a disciple and be like Jesus. Conversion-evangelism comes discipleship as does advocacy for the poor, commitment to prayer, holy living, and Spirit-filled living. Each are equally important.

Among the many thoughts raised by Job, I wonder if Job prods us to re-evaluate what we thought we always knew? Job and resurrection – did you see that one coming? God can and will do great things. We must be ever watchful, seeking God, expecting the unexpected. He makes all things new.