Tough Job
I've been reading Job and about him in Philip Yancy's "The Bible Jesus Read".
The theme of suffering always pops up at me when i read. I dunno why.
Here's a little background:
If you've neve read Job, he was a poor guy caught between a wager between Satan and God about not cursing God when inflicted with suffering. God was boasting about him to Satan that Job was really righteous and Satan was sure he could bring Job down. And all this time, Job had no idea why he was hit. His family was wiped out, his possessions plundered and his body afflicted. Then 3 of his friends came round him and tried to comfort him with words as he cried out in pain. That's pretty much the book. And yes, he was restored at the end with his possessions doubled and everything else restored.
A few thoughts hit me (courteousy of Philip Yancey)
Job chose to live with an agonizing paradox.
That God loves him though the evidences pointed otherwise.
His friends pointed out to him: Suffering comes from God. God is just. Therefore, you are guilty.
Job looks at his own life and thinks: Suffering comes from God. God is just. I am innocent.
Job's formula made no sense, but in the best of Hebrew traditions, he clinged on to all three of those truths no matter how contradictory they seemed.
Job chooses to cast his lot with God regardless of how sadistic God appears, rather than abandoning all hope.
He keeps alive a vision of a personal universe instead of an impersonal one.
A tight belief in justice and a personal God despite the evidences because the alternatives look far worse.
In his despair, he finally asks God for a quick death, so that "...I would still have this consolation- my joy in unrelenting pain- that i have not denied the words of the Holy One." (Job 6:10)
i think about my troubles and struggles how how quickly i want to see clarity, meaning and purpose..and an exit. Job is a hero in staying steadfast to his belief in God.
How are you today friends?
Anything contradictory or paradoxical or just plain confusing to you in your life today?
"Why me? What does God have against me? why does God feels so distant?"
At root, Job faced a crisis of faith, not of suffering.
We tend to take a story of battleground of faith and testing and turn it into a story about suffering.
We focus too easily on the circumstances- illness, our looks, poverty, bad luck-as the enemy.
We pray that God will change those circumstances.
"If only..then i could easily believe God."
Job teaches, though, that we need faith most at the precise moment when it seems impossible.
God only criticizes Job for one thing: his limited point of view.
That's us too when tradegy strikes right?
We blame God and see Him as the enemy.
Job asks God poignantly,"Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the works of your hand?"
(Job 10:3)
Behind the curtains, in chapter 1-2, Job was being exalted, not spurned.
God was letting his own reputation ride on the response of a single human being.
At the time when Job was feling most abandoned, at that very time, God was giving him personal, almost microscopic scrutiny.
God seems absent; in one sense God has never been more present.
This entry seems apt in light of the bombing in Bangkok.
God is not the enemy.
Good people do get hurt and die.
Did they do wrong?
Does God have to explain Himself?
Can you handle that?
Nobody said anything about a painless world...
Faith
"...is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1
The theme of suffering always pops up at me when i read. I dunno why.
Here's a little background:
If you've neve read Job, he was a poor guy caught between a wager between Satan and God about not cursing God when inflicted with suffering. God was boasting about him to Satan that Job was really righteous and Satan was sure he could bring Job down. And all this time, Job had no idea why he was hit. His family was wiped out, his possessions plundered and his body afflicted. Then 3 of his friends came round him and tried to comfort him with words as he cried out in pain. That's pretty much the book. And yes, he was restored at the end with his possessions doubled and everything else restored.
A few thoughts hit me (courteousy of Philip Yancey)
Job chose to live with an agonizing paradox.
That God loves him though the evidences pointed otherwise.
His friends pointed out to him: Suffering comes from God. God is just. Therefore, you are guilty.
Job looks at his own life and thinks: Suffering comes from God. God is just. I am innocent.
Job's formula made no sense, but in the best of Hebrew traditions, he clinged on to all three of those truths no matter how contradictory they seemed.
Job chooses to cast his lot with God regardless of how sadistic God appears, rather than abandoning all hope.
He keeps alive a vision of a personal universe instead of an impersonal one.
A tight belief in justice and a personal God despite the evidences because the alternatives look far worse.
In his despair, he finally asks God for a quick death, so that "...I would still have this consolation- my joy in unrelenting pain- that i have not denied the words of the Holy One." (Job 6:10)
i think about my troubles and struggles how how quickly i want to see clarity, meaning and purpose..and an exit. Job is a hero in staying steadfast to his belief in God.
How are you today friends?
Anything contradictory or paradoxical or just plain confusing to you in your life today?
"Why me? What does God have against me? why does God feels so distant?"
At root, Job faced a crisis of faith, not of suffering.
We tend to take a story of battleground of faith and testing and turn it into a story about suffering.
We focus too easily on the circumstances- illness, our looks, poverty, bad luck-as the enemy.
We pray that God will change those circumstances.
"If only..then i could easily believe God."
Job teaches, though, that we need faith most at the precise moment when it seems impossible.
God only criticizes Job for one thing: his limited point of view.
That's us too when tradegy strikes right?
We blame God and see Him as the enemy.
Job asks God poignantly,"Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the works of your hand?"
(Job 10:3)
Behind the curtains, in chapter 1-2, Job was being exalted, not spurned.
God was letting his own reputation ride on the response of a single human being.
At the time when Job was feling most abandoned, at that very time, God was giving him personal, almost microscopic scrutiny.
God seems absent; in one sense God has never been more present.
This entry seems apt in light of the bombing in Bangkok.
God is not the enemy.
Good people do get hurt and die.
Did they do wrong?
Does God have to explain Himself?
Can you handle that?
Nobody said anything about a painless world...
Faith
"...is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1
posted by ch-eology at 12:19 PM
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