Scripture Focus: Job 41.11
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
Job 42.10-11
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
From John: We return to this devotional from 2020, remembering that growing in godliness means growing in our willingness to help those we have no obligation to help. Just as God helps us.
Reflection: Unobligated God
By John Tillman
“Who can stand against me?” God says to Job. “Who has a claim against me that I must pay?”
In the beginning of the book of Job, the adversary, Satan questions God’s justice. He says, in effect, “You are just bribing Job, God. He doesn’t really love you.”
Through many of their arguments, Job and his friends question God’s justice. They suppose that Job must be sinning in some way, otherwise, God is unjust.
We often question God’s justice today, asking many of Job’s same questions. Why do the wicked thrive? Why do the innocent suffer? Why is the world not just, if God is just?
When we question whether God is just, we question the author of justice.
We think God owes us something because we live in an unjust world.
But we are the ones who have made this world unjust, wrestling it from God’s will along the way.
We have sinned against God. Not the other way around. God is not a debtor. We are. Our sinful condition means that we are not the victims but the perpetrators. Sin makes us into God’s enemies.
God does not owe us salvation and forgiveness.
Thank God that he pays debts that he does not owe. He is a God who gives when he has no obligation. He is a God who comes to us, as we suffer in the highways and the byways, and compels us to come into his lavish banquet.
In the last chapter of Job (tomorrow’s reading) we see that God restored Job’s fortunes. I suppose we picture God handing Job a reimbursement check.
But there is an important detail that we should not skip over. God restored Job’s fortunes, yes. But God used the means of Job’s friends to carry it out. Scripture says Everyone Job knew came to give him a financial gift.
Part of God’s restoration of Job was carried out in the community and by the community. When God sets out to redeem someone and rebuild their lives, he typically uses people to do it.
May we cry to God for his justice, his righteousness, to be done on earth among us.
May we be a part of communities that line up to help the suffering as people helped Job.
May our actions be empowered by the Holy Spirit to demonstrate God’s justice in the world.
Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “ So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.” — Psalm 33.8
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Today’s Readings
Job 41 (Listen 3:03)
Psalm 28-29 (Listen 2:41)
Read more about God is Faithful, not Indebted
Job and his friends believed in an indebted God who owed good to the righteous, owed suffering to the wicked, and never made late payments.
Read more about Pause To Read
Tomorrow, we release “Lady Wisdom,” the 2nd of a three-part series of related podcast episodes. Last week was “Lady Folly” and next week, “RSVP to Wisdom or Folly.” Don’t miss them.
