Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 16  Read: Job 16-17 Listen: (3:40) Read: John 16 Listen: (4:14)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Jan 17  Read: Job 18 Listen: (1:54) Read: John 17 Listen: (3:40)
Jan 18  Read: Job 19 Listen: (2:48) Read: John 18 Listen: (5:16)

Scripture Focus: Job 16.18-21

Job 17.13-16

Reflection: What Job Didn’t Know

By John Tillman

Job said upsetting things. It’s no wonder that his friends were offended and confused by his angry and despairing words. We understand Job better than his friends because we know things that he and his friends did not know.

We know God considered Job righteous. We know there was more at stake than Job’s well-being, comfort, or prosperity. We heard Satan’s accusations in God’s presence. The accuser claimed God’s faithful only love him when he blesses them. The accuser claimed God shows favoritism to those who love him. Both faith itself and God’s righteousness were under attack.

What Job endured had a purpose that he could not see and won a victory that he could not have imagined. But even knowing what we know doesn’t make Job’s suffering less painful. It doesn’t rebuild destroyed homes, restore destroyed crops, or return stolen livestock. It doesn’t raise to life those who died.

Job also said hopeful things. It is a wonder that anyone in his position still held any hope. Job claimed that a witness on his behalf and an advocate were defending him to God and that his intercessor and friend was in Heaven, pleading with God. To Job this friendly advocate was shadowy and undefined. Is it a human? An angel? A divine being?

We know more than Job did. We know Job’s shadowy, heavenly defender is Jesus. (1 John 2.1-2) We see him clearly in the gospels, and Jesus says, when we see him, we see the Father. (John 14.9)

Job is the oldest book (the first to be written) in the Bible. Job probably lived after the flood but before Abraham. So, before Abraham received God’s promise, Job described the hope we have in Jesus.

We know more than Job. We know the grave is not our home or our prison. We know Job’s advocate and our friend, Jesus, is the firstborn from among the dead (Romans 8.29; Colossians 1.15-18; Revelation 1.4-5) and we are his siblings, sharing his cross and resurrection. (Romans 6.4-5; Philippians 3.10) We know after returning to dust, he will descend, raising us to life everlasting. (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18)

What Job didn’t know and couldn’t imagine is our reality. But we also live with unknowns in our present and future sufferings. We don’t know what is at stake in painful times. We don’t know what purpose our sufferings serve. Like Job, we must trust without knowing fully. Like him, we can rely on our friend and advocate.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

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.

Read more: Resist Weaponizing Spiritual Things

God won’t be anyone’s mercenary and he looks unkindly on weaponizing the Bible for earthly purposes.

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 15  Read: Job 15 Listen: (3:23) Read: John 15 Listen: (3:20)

Scripture Focus: Job 15.2-16

Reflection: Ad Hominem Indicates Self-Supremacist Thinking

By John Tillman

Eliphaz dives right into attacking Job’s character and motivations. The friends often do this. No wise person would say that. (v. 2) You want to encourage godlessness! You are hindering faith! (v. 4) You say that because you are a sinner. (v. 5) You’re giving in to emotions! (v. 12) You hate God! (v. 13)

“You only say that because…” This fallacious argument implies that the cause of your claims is a flaw in your nature or character. Your experience, the facts, and your logic are ignored. Your argument is dismissed because of your situation or identity.

When condemning this argumentation in his book, Miracles, C.S. Lewis gives the example of “He believes in Pacifism because he’s a coward” as a particularly foolish thing to say. In our context, examples might include: “You only say that because you are a Republican/Democrat.” or “…because you are a Catholic/Baptist/Calvinist/etc.” or “…because you are brainwashed/deranged.”

Identity-based argumentation is a form of the ad hominem logical fallacy, which means attacking the speaker instead of the speaker’s argument. It is also a type of “Identity supremacy.” “Our answer is superior because we are superior. If you were a better type of person, one of our group, you’d think like we do.”

Eliphaz and the other friends were condemned by God for not telling the truth about him, as Job did. (Job 42.7-8) There was something true in what Job was saying, even though he said it in a way Eliphaz didn’t like. Eliphaz missed the truth because he was blinded by pride and self-superiority.

All forms of supremacy are fatal to Christianity. Whatever variety of pride puffs us up, (1 Corinthians 8.1-2) we must pierce and deflate. Whatever flavor of favoritism we employ, (Acts 10.34; Romans 2.11; James 2.1, 8-9) we must wash out of our mouths. Christians fail to be people of truth when using identity-based, ad hominem thinking.

We are not contending for the truth or the faith when we condemn arguments based on the arguer’s identity. While it is true that individuals may develop reputations for untruthfulness (which should give us pause when considering their claims) we must defend the truth with facts, not feelings, favoritism, or foregone conclusions.

Instead of pride in our identity or disdain for others’, let us cultivate humility. For God did not call us because we were strong, wise, or righteous, but because we were weak, foolish, and despised. We boast only in Jesus, our wisdom, righteousness, and salvation. (1 Corinthians 1.20-31)

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught the people, saying: “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, ‘My boy, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not go,’ but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, ‘Certainly, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “In truth I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, showing the way of uprightness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.” — Matthew 21:28–32

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Constant Streams

However dry our streams are, even when friends dry up, remember that God makes streams in the desert.

Read more: Tribe Over Truth

It is not a question of evidence, but of morality. It is a battle between allegiance to other humans and the justice God demands.

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 13  Read: Job 13 Listen: (2:27) Read: John 13 Listen: (5:06)

Scripture Focus: Job 13.27

Reflection: Tension in God’s Presence

By John Tillman

Job acknowledges hardships beyond his own, including slavery. He addresses slavery realistically, but not in a way that defends its practice. Every reference to it is negative.

Job compares God’s awareness of all his sins to a practice of marking the soles of slaves’ feet to track their barefoot movements. This would probably have meant branding and would double as a proof of ownership. 

There is a tension in many of Job’s complaints related to God’s presence or attention. In verses like Job 13.22, Job complained about God’s attention on every detail of his life. Job even asked God to look away and let him die in peace. (​​Job 7.19)

In other verses, Job longed for God to answer him, to come to him, to not “hide his face” (Job 13.24). If God did not come to him and answer him, there could be no justice, restoration, or hope.

God’s presence was Job’s only hope but also brought unbearable attention. Job both longed for God’s face to look at him and begged God to look away. He did not want to be treated as God’s enemy but recognized he was not God’s equal.

We feel this tension in our lives. The weight of our sin is real. Our personal sins and the sins and guilt of our society and culture from age to age hang on us. “Gestures broadly at everything” has become a common phrase in memes that express frustration at problems. Like Job, we gesture broadly at everything and wonder, “How can God be pleased with us? How can he love us?”

However, there is one thing we point to that guarantees God’s love—the cross of Christ. There is one mark given to us which brings freedom, not oppression—the Holy Spirit. There is one redeemer standing upon the earth, (Job 19.25-27) mediating peace in humanity’s war against God—Jesus Christ.

Jesus told his disciples that “righteous people” longed to see and hear what they saw and relayed to us. (Matthew 13.16-17) Job is certainly one of them. We are sure of God’s love for us in Christ. We are more sure of it than Job ever could be.

So, let us live in a way that assures others of God’s love. Let our actions be evidence of God’s beneficent presence. May rivers of his living water flow out of us, calling the thirsty to drink.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: Whoever holds my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him. — John 14.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: If Not Him, Who?

Not only does God’s sovereignty limit evil, it ends evil through Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. All our answers are in him. If not him, who?

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Links for today’s readings:

Jan 12  Read: Job 12 Listen: (2:21) Read: John 12 Listen: (6:26)

Scripture Focus: Job 12.13-25

Reflection: What Gives?

By John Tillman

By this point, Job’s friends have all replied to him and have accused, scolded, and berated him. I imagine Job holding out hope the final friend to speak would see his point of view, but they all piled on. Job said they considered him a laughing stock.

Job responded not just to Zophar, who spoke last, but rebuked the trite theology of all three friends. Job did not hide his bitterness as he mocked them. He sarcastically praised their wisdom, saying their deaths would be a loss for the world and mockingly summarized their simplistic arguments.

Their color-by-number theology portrayed an ordered universe in which the wicked always suffered and the righteous always prospered. Job responded, “Nice universe. Too bad it doesn’t exist.” Then he began teaching them the harder, more difficult truths he had learned. Wisdom is God’s. Power is God’s. Counsel is God’s. Understanding is God’s. Meaning none of them are humanity’s.

Job painted a darker, chaotic reality in which rulers, judges, kings, priests, officials, advisers, elders, nobles, and the mighty were stripped, silenced, defeated, disarmed, and humiliated. Job did not mention crimes they committed or judgment they deserved. Possibly because Job was describing his personal experience.

Job’s age, wealth, and status made him a mighty prince and leader like those he described. Job identified with them. Job felt like he had taken a test, got zero answers marked wrong, but still had an F in red pen at the top of his paper. The heart of Job’s question is “God, why did this happen? Show me my error!” To put Job’s objection in the parlance of my high school days, “What gives, God?”

We don’t live in the simplistic, color-by-number painted world of Job’s friends. We also don’t live in Job’s Jackson Pollack-style painting of a random, meaningless world. Even when the world feels chaotic and the wicked seem constantly celebrated, we trust God’s purposes are at work.

Take comfort that what looks like a failing grade in this world, is not a failure in God’s classroom. And truthfully, none of us expect a paper with no red marks on it.

Thank God that the righteousness we will be rewarded for, in the end, is not our own. It is the righteousness of Jesus. His righteousness is what gives meaning now and a future destiny greater than we can imagine. Fix your eyes on him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you. — Psalm 5.3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Hope’s Messengers and Means

When we are in trouble or suffering, we should appeal to God based on God’s nature. God is a wonder worker, a healer, a provider, and a restorer of lost things.

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Links for today’s readings:

Jan 9  Read: Job 9 Listen: (3:22) Read: John 9  Listen: (4:56)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Jan 10  Read: Job 10 Listen: (2:12) Read: John 10 Listen: (4:44)
Jan 11  Read: Job 11 Listen: (2:01) Read: John 11 Listen: (6:37)

Scripture Focus: Job 9.24

Reflection: If Not Him, Who?

By John Tillman

One thorny issue Job and his friends wrestle with is God’s sovereignty.

The friends express a simplistic theology where God says, “You do A, and I’ll do B,” and never breaks this formula. Their version of “sovereignty” makes God transactional and predictable—a machine-god who outputs blessings when you input righteousness.

Job rightly calls the machine-god a lie but struggles to reconcile God’s sovereignty with the reality of evil. God seems to destroy the blameless and the wicked without distinction. Job lays human corruption at God’s feet, saying that God blinds judges, causing nations to fall into wicked hands.

“If it is not he, then who is it?”

Good question. Does God cause evil? If not, who does? If God is sovereign, how can it be anyone else?

The book of Job reveals that God’s sovereignty restrains evil, it doesn’t motivate it. From the beginning, Satan complained that God protected Job from Satan’s evil influence. God allowed Satan greater freedom to harm Job to test Job’s faith, but never completely removed his protection. Evil is limited by God’s sovereignty, not caused by it.

God did not choose or carry out Job’s sufferings. He did not command them nor did they enter his mind. (Jeremiah 19.5) Satan chose Job’s sufferings and carried them out within God’s limits. Satan’s purpose went beyond destroying Job. Satan wanted to prove that God buys faith with blessings and bribes worshipers with wealth. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1.9) Satan wanted to prove God to be exactly the transactional, machine-god Job’s friends described.

God’s sovereignty is not a simple topic with easy, comforting answers. When (not if) we suffer illnesses, losses, or living in a corrupt country with wicked leaders and blind judges, our faith will struggle. Like Job, we may never be satisfied with why God prevents some evils and allows others. We may never understand how present evils will be twisted by God to bring about a future good. (Romans 8.18-28)

To begin to understand, look to the mediator Job called for. Jesus is God’s sovereign answer to evil. God steps in for Job, overturning evils with new life, relationships, joys, and growth. Jesus steps in for us, crushing the serpent’s head, defeating death, wiping tears, and bringing eternal and abundant life.

Not only does God’s sovereignty limit evil, it ends evil through Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. All our answers are in him. If not him, who?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on me.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on me.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant me your peace.

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Christ, Our “If Only…”

Thank God that he is the God who does the unthinkable on behalf of the unworthy.

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