Links for today’s readings:
Jan 22 Read: Job 23 Listen: (1:43) Read: Psalms 1-2 Listen: (2:05)
Scripture Focus: Job 23.
3 If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!
4 I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say to me.
6 Would he vigorously oppose me?
No, he would not press charges against me.
7 There the upright can establish their innocence before him,
and there I would be delivered forever from my judge.
8 “But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.
9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
10 But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
11 My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.
12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
Reflection: The Un-Localized God
By John Tillman
Job couldn’t find God but trusted God would find him.
Most ancient peoples worshiped territorially localized gods. Like kings, gods had borders. Your god might be a god of the plains, your ally’s god a god of the seas or rivers, and your enemy’s god a god of the mountains. Yahweh was remarkably un-localized. He claimed sovereignty over earth, heavens, mountains, plains, and seas.
Followers of Yahweh built altars to the Lord wherever they experienced him. You could never tell where Yahweh would show up. Abraham “called on the name of the Lord” from under “the great tree of Moreh” (Genesis 12.6-7), between Bethel and Ai (Genesis 12.8), under a tamarisk tree he planted in Beersheba (Genesis 21.33), and on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22.1-14). Isaac, Jacob, and others did the same.
Like Abraham, Job had no tabernacle or temple at which to seek God. In one way, Job felt God’s presence, like a hand oppressing him. In another way, he longed to appeal to God but could not reach him.
David would have sympathized. At times he fruitlessly sought God (Psalm 13) and at others claimed he could not escape God’s presence (Psalm 139.7-12).
The exiles sympathized. They felt simultaneously punished and abandoned. Without a temple and in a foreign land, Jeremiah reminded them God was not localized and they would find him when they sought him with all their hearts (Jeremiah 29.13).
Do you sympathize with Job? Do you feel exiled? Does God seem everywhere and nowhere at once?
God revealed himself to Abraham on Moriah and to Moses in the burning bush. Today, God reveals himself primarily in scripture. Learning to find God in scripture and prayer helps us to find him in every situation. Scripture shows us Jesus, the perfect image of the Father. And it shows us the Holy Spirit, poured out on all people everywhere.
Under the shade of scripture’s spreading branches, build an altar with habits of reading, study, and worship. Call upon the name of the Lord. With your ears, listen to God’s voice speaking through the Holy Spirit, scripture’s human authors, and your fellow Christians. With your hands do the works and wonders scripture commands (Luke 9.1-6; 10.8-9; Matthew 10.1-8). With your feet, follow the paths scripture describes and shun the ones it condemns. (Matthew 10.16-31)
Our God is not localized. God is present even when we don’t notice and he is seeking worshipers (John 4.21-24). The un-localized God wants to dwell within us. Seek him in Spirit and truth.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him. — Psalm 62.6
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Jesus, Our Blessed One — A Guided Prayer
We aspire, Lord,…to delight in your law…to meditate day and night. But we rely, Lord, not on our striving but on Jesus Christ.
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