Day 189

DAY 189

WHY SUFFERING?

Job 34 & 35 and Acts 15:1-21

We have been wading through Job for a number of days, and underneath the text is the fundamental underlying question, “Why is Job suffering?” Here is Job, we know a good man, and he is suffering. Now those of us who have read chapter 1 will understand that God has allowed Satan to test Job. Satan, bold as he is, challenged God and basically said, “The only reason Job is a good man is because you have protected him and allowed him to prosper. If he were to suffer for a moment he, Job would curse you, God.” God says, “Go ahead, test him.”

Job and his so-called counselors have no idea of this meeting with God, but remarkably they all have the same SINGULAR idea about how the world works: Be Good and God Blesses…Be Bad and God Punishes. Isn’t that Satan’s comment to God, Job is only good because you are blessing him. And listen to Elihu in chapter 34 verse 11, “…according to the work of a man, He (God) will repay him…”

For the people in Job’s life they have this one singular answer to the question of “why suffering.” Other people look at this idea of “testing” and conclude that God is testing them to see if they will break. To this I say, “Really?” “Really, you have cancer, or you lost your child, or your marriage failed, or you were fired, or…you fill in the blank…really all these things happened because God is testing you? I have several times in this blog asked, “What is your image of God?” Is it a God who only will bless if you earn it, or of a God who is testing you because he wants to make sure your faith is real? If that is your image of God then you have forgotten Jesus and the Cross – look at the Cross to re-image your God.

With respect to my opening question, “Why Suffering” there is a theological answer. The problem is that it does not offer much comfort.

Before I offer it, let me just say this tends to be true of all “theoretical” answers. While they explain the logical reason, they usually fail to offer solace or hope or any explanation for the deep emotion we experience. Take something as superficial as fireworks (hey its 4^th of July weekend); we can explain exactly why they do the things they do, but we cannot explain the wonder we experience by looking at them. We know why many things happen in this world, but those answers offer very little explanation in the area of emotion.

Returning to the question of suffering, there is pain and suffering and evil in this world. Why, because sin has entered it. The world we say is “fallen” – the world is not perfect. Sin is in us, in those around us, in the human-made systems and societies and it even is passed on from one generation to the next, at times building momentum. And yet that answer, when you are the one caught up in the suffering, offers no solace, no comfort.

My mother passed away six days ago and I am writing this blog having finished the funeral and driven home. Were we suffering as a family? Yes, we comforted ourselves knowing that she had lived a full life and that she was spared a long ordeal. Yet our grief was real. Imagine if we all sat around the church and reviewed why mom died. I can picture us reading Genesis 3, noting that this is when death entered the world, and all agreeing, “Yes, this is why mom died.” I cannot imagine that this would have offered us any comfort.

What did we cast our grief and cares upon to draw strength? Jesus Christ and his victory over all that pain and suffering and death. The point of all these words is to get back to the question of “Why suffering, or why does God allow it?” There is not one answer and we simply cannot know. Might it be testing by God, well certainly, we are reading a long book about it. Might it be God punishing us, well certainly, we have read about God doing that. Might it be part of some larger plan that you and I are caught up in and cannot see, I think most likely.

As we are drawing to the close of Job, I am sorry if you are suffering. What I pray you we think about is the futility of focusing on the “why question” and I want to encourage you to ask the “how question.” How do I live as I endure this pain?

Day 188

DAY 188

THE GOSPEL & ANGER

Job 32 & 33 and Acts 14

An editorial note: yesterday was “Day 186” and today is “Day 188” so what happened to Day 187? Well, I had two “Day 181’s” so we had to correct the numbering. Now onto Job and Acts.

In Job a new character is on the scene, Elihu. Maybe Elihu will be the long sought after source of counsel and comfort that Job has been looking for. Maybe Elihu will be the man to be less about judging God as he exalts himself, and will be more about mercy. Maybe…maybe NOT.

Elihu “burned with anger” at both Job and Job’s three friends. The text says that Elihu was younger in years; he was waiting to hear the wisdom of his elders, and he was getting really upset, wanting to possibly scream at all. Listen to him describe himself, “For I am full of words…behold my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst.” And so Elihu begins; you can read his speech today, and tomorrow, and the next day.

I had a boss who one day said to me, “It must be nice to be an angry young man.” It was a humbling moment for me. Anger never serves anyone well, young or old. I remember that time well. I was full of knowledge and eager to participate, but I can look back on those days now and realize what I did not know.

Anger is something that Paul faces in Acts chapter 14. His model of engaging a city is always the same: go to the synagogue and engage the Jewish leaders and people inviting them to hear and accept the Good News about the Jewish Messiah. If they reject this Good News, then go outside the synagogue and invite the Gentiles. He does it in Iconium and is almost stoned (after a great number believed!). At Lystra after Paul heals a man, people not only want to receive the Good News, they want to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods, they were attacked and Paul was in fact stoned, yet survived. He went on to other cities.

Talking about God, about your beliefs, and talking especially about Jesus, often provokes anger today. Someone asked me today if I wear my collar when I travel. I answered that most times I do. They wanted to know how people reacted. The answer is that people react in a number of ways. Some are nice and tell me about their church and priest/pastor. Some have many questions and look to me as a stranger to sort some of it out during a long plane ride. Some are angry. The angry folks are angry at all sorts of things: God, the church, their family…the list goes on. I often find that people who are angry are hurting.

It can be hard to not respond to anger with anger, but look at Job and Paul. Neither are “door mats” for the people who are angry towards them, but neither attacks. Job has gotten a little mouthy, but given what he has faced he has been remarkably restrained. There is no recorded retaliation by Paul of any kind - then of course there is Jesus.

The point of all this is for me to think about how I handle anger: mine and others directed at me. The goal is not to lash out at others, nor be sucked in. The goal is to live as Christ and in the process bring others to God.

Day 186

DAY 186

THE SHORT SUMMARY

Job 30 & 31 and Acts 13:26-52

Today Job finishes his final speech. You and I might be tired of hearing what seems to be the same words again, but when you are suffering and pleading your case, is there too many times a person can “plead for his life.”

In Acts we read the balance of Paul and Barnabas’ sermon. They provide a wonderful thumbnail sketch of God’s story of redemption, a short summary you might say. It started yesterday with an invitation by the synagogue leader, “Brothers if any of you have a word of encouragement, please share it.”

A word of encouragement – what a wonderful phrase – what a wonderful idea: let me offer you one. The story you have been reading about and I have been writing about for a little more than six months is the Word of Encouragement. Paul and Barnabas’ story is God’s story of love for you, how he, God, created the good earth and good humanity, and as it/we went astray over and over He, God, did not give up. In fact He went so far to come into the world, all for the love a you – a short summary.

Today my family is laying to rest my mother, it is a day we are holding onto and being held by, all that this story means, that there is hope in the Resurrection because our God is a God of Hope and Love. 

Day 185

DAY 185

FOLLOWING GOD’S LEAD

Job 28 & 29 and Acts 13:1-25

Throughout the Book of Job I have had a sense that Job is following God’s lead. He seems confident that, while he does not claim perfection, he does have a sense of “following God’s lead.”

As you have read Job, do you get that sense? Amid the wrangling from his three visitors, do you get a feeling that Job, rather than shaking his fist at God, has been saying all along that he is following Him?

He has been speaking for some four chapters (26-30). He will continue this long speech into chapter 31 and we will hear from him only one more time. Chapter 26 actually begins with sarcasm, “How you have helped him who has no power” Chapter 27 continues Job’s declaration that he is trying to follow God, “As God lives…as long as breath is in me…my lips will not speak falsehood.” In Chapter 28 Job muses about the source of wisdom, for that is what they have been seeking, wisdom and understanding about Job’s plight. Job points out that the sea does not know wisdom, even death says “we have heard rumor of it (that is wisdom)”. Where is it? “The beginning of it is the fear of God” says Job. That is interesting because Job has been consistently accused of not fearing God. In Chapters 29 and 30 Job recounts his plight; how good his life had been and now how miserable it is.

Following God; am I, are you? That is the question we ask ourselves. Job thinks he has been, and in the New Testament we read “While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said…”

Sometimes followers of Jesus will say, “I am following the Holy Spirit.” Some people are very “wired” for this type of thinking and talk. For others who are followers of Jesus, and who are not “wired” for this type of thinking and talk, such a comment is confusing.

Judging whether or not you are following God’s lead, His Holy Spirit, is what we want to be doing. In the earliest days of the Church it was all new. How could they know whether they were crazy or following God? The answer is that the Holy Spirit led them.

Consider for a moment their travels. They were “led” to Seleucia, then Cyprus, then Salamis, and Paphos, and Perga, and then Antioch. These folks do not own cars, and they were not racking up frequent flyer miles. Yet the moved from place to place, as unsettling as that can be, all because they were following God’s lead.

“Following God’s lead” is such a nice sounding phrase, another word that describes it is “obedience.” In all their travels and in all Job’s life obedience to God was key. So how is it we are “led by God?”

First and foremost God’s Holy Spirit will not lead you to violate His Word. This is one reason why it is so important for us to know the Scriptures. It was why it was so hard for the new Christians to sort out if they had to follow all the Jewish dietary laws and get circumcised (we have been reading about this in Acts chapters 10 and 11.) They had to ask themselves, “Are we violating God’s Law?”  It was why Peter hearing God’s voice that all “was clean” and remembering Jesus saying the same was critical (Mark 7:19 – you have read this). They wanted to be in accord with God.

Another key part of knowing God’s Holy Spirit is leading is found in our reading today, “They were worshipping and fasting.” Worshipping means they were in community. Being a Christian is not a “Long Ranger” activity. One person should not simply say, “The Holy Spirit is leading me” without seeking the Counsel of the Saints, the Church. They were also fasting, i.e. praying and fasting. In total they were earnestly seeking God’s guidance. The Scripture, Prayer, the Counsel of the Church, Fasting, Worship…it is all part of knowing if it is the Holy Spirit leading, or something else.

Nicky Gumbel, an English Pastor who is the author of the Alpha Course, describes following the Holy Spirit as the process of the “Five CS’s” – Command of Scripture, Compelling Spirit (which come from prayer and fasting), Common Sense, Counsel of the Saints, and Circumstantial Signs – and he says that these are in descending order and one does not override the other. Not to be sarcastic, but looking in the sky and seeing a cloud formation in some shape that is “leading you” when never having studied Scripture, or prayed, or fasted, or sought counsel from the Church is a formula for disaster.

I pray that you and I will constantly seek and be lead by God’s Spirit.

  

Day 184

DAY 184

ANGELS PLAN PRISONBREAK!

Job 25, 26 & 27 and Acts 12

I imagine the headlines of the local Jerusalem Times might have read as my title of today’s blog. Angels are afoot doing God’s work in the Acts of the Apostles today: not only do they plan a prison break, but they deal with an arrogant king.

Always looking to expand his popularity and influence, Herod comes to realize that killing Christians increases his political capital with some of the people. He kills James the brother of John and then seizes Peter.

What springs the angels into action? It would appear to be prayer! Here is Peter, with a very significant security detail holding him prisoner, apparently on the verge of death. But there is another very significant group of people mustered: people praying. Their prayer has the effect of causing angels to spring into action and Peter is freed.

More than debate, more than “right theology,” more than most things we can do, prayer, moves mountains. Sometimes the mountains are visible and external such as a jailed prisoner being set free. Other times prayer moves internal mountains, mountains in our hearts and minds. One of my favorite authors is C.S. Lewis. In a movie about his marriage to Joy Davidson there is a moment, after Joy has been diagnosed with cancer, that Lewis is going to Evening Prayer at university. The university is a fairly hostile place to people of faith. The movie scene has Lewis walking into the chapel, when one of his colleagues asks a brutal question, “Going to pray to your God to change his mind about your wife’s cancer?” I am stunned when I hear this cruelty. Lewis responds, “I don’t pray expecting me to change God, I pray expecting God to change me.” As I said, some days prayer leads to external mountains being moved, and other days it is the internal mountains.

Keep praying, who knows, maybe it will be lead to angels being afoot!

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Regarding Job, we are getting close to the culmination of the story. Bildad has a short response, but then Job begins his final discourse. This speech will go on for several chapters and we will take a look at it in the next few days.

DAY 183 HEARING CLEARLY Job 22 & 23 and Acts 11

DAY 183

HEARING CLEARLY

Job 22 & 23 and Acts 11

There are times in our lives and subjects in our minds that often prevent us from hearing and understanding. Today we have two stories: one where people continue not to hear each other, and one where they hear and understand a new story.

Not hearing: in many ways I feel like Job’s so called friends cannot hear him. Their idea of God and how God operates has such a strong hold on their minds that they screen out anything that does not line up with their notion of things.

Job’s friends are saying, “Look, God doesn’t just punish people willy-nilly, you have not only done something very wrong, you are an unrighteous person.” In fact Eliphaz says, “Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.” He even accuses Job of holding an attitude of “What does God know?”

Job throughout has been portraying a different image of God. It is not that Job is saying he is sinless. No, what Job is saying is that he wants to plead his case to God, he says, “God would pay attention to me.” He is so confident in God’s character that he believes he can come before him. It is not without trepidation that Job would come before God as Job writes, “But He is God, He will do what He wants and I am terrified at his presence.” Job is terrified of the greatness and goodness of God, but he also is confident in the nature of God.

His friends, because of their strong views, cannot accept his views, but Job’s views are not some new idea. The Scriptures testify to the nature of God, and so does Jesus. My sense is that it is Jesus’ nature that paved the way for the apostles to accept the God was welcoming the Gentiles into the kingdom. Imagine the situation. The Apostles have been working to convince their Jewish brothers and sisters that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and in the middle of this mission, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Gentiles. Their reaction, “And they glorified God saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”…and a great number appeared to the Lord.” What a great reaction! The Apostles could hear and receive this news.

Rooted in this reaction, this hearing, is a clear sense of God’s nature. As you have been reading the Old Testament and New Testament together my prayer is that you are getting a full and balanced sense of the is all-powerful, justice-seeking, holy, merciful and loving God – those are a lot of adjectives to hold together, but God is infinitely able.

DAY 182

I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

Job 20 & 21 and Acts 10:24-48

As I mentioned yesterday, today I wanted to focus on Acts chapter 10, an important moment in the early church.

Today we read the New Testament with an attitude that Jesus is for everyone…and He is, but that had to be worked out. Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s on, is the long awaited Jewish Messiah…of this belief the Apostles are clear. The question is whether or not Jesus is for the world. He has said exactly He is, but people have trouble hearing Jesus. Consider how many times He told them about going to Jerusalem and dying. They did not hear that very well. Jesus has not only told them He will give his life for the world, consider that Jesus interacted with Samaritans. His words and his actions didn’t sink into the Apostle’s consciousness. Up to this point the Apostles have been proclaiming the Gospel to the Jews…that is until a divinely appointed meeting takes place.

The meeting is between Cornelius, a devout man who feared God, and Peter. God tells Cornelius to send for Peter; meanwhile Peter is having a dream. In his dream Peter sees “unclean” animals that a good Jew would never eat. God says, “Eat!” Peter points out that these animals are unclean and common, to which God points out that nothing He makes is unclean or common. Peter goes to Cornelius’ home, proclaims the Gospel to them, and an amazing thing takes place, the Holy Spirit falls upon them – The Father’s Promise is given to the Gentiles. God: Father – Son – Holy Spirit is for all humankind.

If we listen carefully we can hear God’s voice speaking to Abraham back in Genesis 15…”I will make you the Father of many nations.” There is an old TV show where the character is famous for saying, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Countless verses in the Old Testament now opens up to all who realize that God has been planning this since before the foundation of the world was laid – He has been planning how to get you and me home.