Links for today’s readings:
Feb 4 Read: Job 37 Listen: (2:27) Read: Psalm 22 Listen: (3:49)
Scripture Focus: Job 37:14-16
14 “Listen to this, Job;
stop and consider God’s wonders.
15 Do you know how God controls the clouds
and makes his lightning flash?
16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised,
those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?
Reflection: Same Old Story
By Erin Newton
At no point in time has Job declared himself a scientific genius. When Elihu asks him if he knows how meteorology works, it is more of a statement than a question. Even if Job tried to answer his question, it’s not really the point.
The divine words in the next chapter sound nearly the same: “ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm?” (Job 38:25–27).
Job doesn’t know how storms really work but I am fairly sure he knows who makes them.
Elihu and the other three friends all refer to the natural world. They speak of the rain, the seas, the heavens, etc. So nothing that God points out in his speech is foreign to Job. He saw clouds, watched lightning, felt rain, and maybe swam in the sea. All the things Job’s friends asked him to consider were familiar. But none of their arguments resonated with him.
The arguments and advice given to Job for all these chapters have been like proverbs—there are universal truths and solid advice, but not always applicable.
Scholars have argued about whether Job had reason to repent, if his repentance was genuine, and so on. But I pause here today to think about how the attempted counsel of his friends, while full of truth, effected no change from Job.
Let’s consider 1 Cor 3:6-7: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”
Could God have answered Job right there in chapter 3 or 4? Absolutely. Why a week of silence and four friends with semi-helpful counsel? Perhaps because we’re all like them. Our call is to seek out friends, sit with them in their suffering, and hopefully speak wisdom. Does it affect change? Not always. (And we might get it wrong, just like them.)
And I think we’re a lot like Job. The truth might be found in a sermon, a friend’s encouragement, a line of a poem, a chorus in a song, a character from a book. We may need to hear truth from many mouths before we are changed.
And we need to keep speaking truth even if it’s been said before. We keep pointing to God and relying on him to affect change.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Test me, O Lord, and try me; examine my heart and mind. — Psalm 26.2
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Prayers Before the Storm
May the weak be protected and the powerful be warned
May the proud be struck and shaken
While the humble stand on a firm place
Read more: Hope In the Tree of the Cross
“He has done it,” Psalm 22’s last line proclaims. “It is finished,” Christ’s last breath from the cross echoes.