Tag: Job

Scripture Focus: Job 37.22-24
22 Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; 
God comes in awesome majesty. 
23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; 
in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. 
24 Therefore, people revere him, 
for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?”

Reflection: Prayers Before the Storm — Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

Elihu’s speech soars to its conclusion with a reflection on the beauty, power, and mysterious majesty of God.

Some interpreters have implied that Elihu’s speech is interrupted by God’s arrival in the storm. (Job 38.1) However, it seems to me that Elihu must have been aware of the storm of God’s presence blowing at his back and his final poetic lines announce God’s presence. The downdraft of a rising cumulonimbus supercell was likely licking at Elihu’s robes as he spoke. 

Elihu says his “heart pounds and leaps from its place…” Elihu’s voice cried in the wilderness, announcing the soaking downpour of speech that God was about to unleash. I imagine the winds lifting his words as he spoke of God’s majesty in storms, winds, and other powers beyond our understanding.

Let us pray heart-pounding prayers, crying out about God’s greatness. Let us announce his presence. Let us be awash in the downpour of his presence in the storm.

Pray this prayer of wonder inspired by Elihu’s speech:

Prayers Before the Storm
We pray, Lord, standing before the storm of your presence.
The life you sustain within us stirs, our hearts pound rushing blood through our bodies
Our breath gasps, taking in the freshness of the oncoming storm
The sudden coldness of the downdraft…
The enlivening smell of rain on the wind…

A cumulonimbus pillar of cloud moves toward us
Towering in royal power like a queen over a chessboard
Your voice thunders in marvelous ways we don’t understand
Hold nothing back when you thunder and speak.
We drop our defenses.
We rely on your mercy alone.

You are not like a human king.
Despite your great power, you do not oppress
Unlike man-made gods, you do not despise our weakness
You are as tender with us as with the newborn fawns you watch and the wild donkeys you set free. (Job 39.1-8)
You regard us with love from the height of the storm
You sweep in on the wind, condemning our accuser and silencing our pride

May the echoes of your voice break rocks in every canyon and arroyo
May the refreshing snows and rain cover and wash our gullies and ditches
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
A foundation you provide that withstands winds and rushing waters

May we cry in the wilderness before you, announcing your mercy.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Come, let us sing to the Lord…For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. — Psalm 95.1,3

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

Today’s Readings
Job 37 (Listen – 2:27)
Psalm 49 (Listen – 2:10)

This Weekend’s Readings
Job 38 (Listen – 3:33), Psalm 50 (Listen – 2:26)
Job 39 (Listen – 2:47), Psalm 51 (Listen – 2:19)

Read more about On Keeping Vigil
You have descended upon me, with great gentleness, with most forbearing silence, in this inexplicable night, dispersing light, defeating all desire. — Thomas Merton

On Keeping Vigil

Read more about Faith After the Storm
Jesus standing and commanding the storm is intimidating and disturbing. He is no longer the servile employee behind the desk of God’s complaint department.

Faith After the Storm

Scripture Focus: Job 36.15-17
15 But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; 
he speaks to them in their affliction. 
16 “He is wooing you from the jaws of distress 
to a spacious place free from restriction, 
to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. 
17 But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; 
judgment and justice have taken hold of you.

Reflection: Deliverance Through Suffering
By John Tillman

Elihu is confident that God has good intentions for people’s lives no matter the circumstances. Elihu explained that even the wicked who experienced God’s judgment were being wooed by God. The suffering in their lives was a warning of future judgment to come. Its purpose was to prevent future suffering. God is an earnest and longing lover, calling to the estranged and unfaithful to return to love and safety.

Elihu lists many events or actions that people may suffer from and how even the worst of these can be redeemed by God and used for his good purposes. This is consistent with the rest of the Bible. The Bible, from cover to cover, demonstrates that God turns what is intended for evil into good.

The prologue of Job makes it clear that Job is righteous—beyond suspicion or reproach. Yet, as the righteous one, he suffers by God’s sovereign purpose. Job suffers so that God’s righteousness can be preserved and proved. Job’s suffering overturns the arguments of the accuser, Satan. Job also provides a miraculous demonstration of God’s righteousness on Earth, overturning the misunderstandings his philosophizing friends. Because of Job’s suffering, God’s presence is manifested on Earth. In God’s answer to Job, God reveals that he is more intimately involved in creation and our lives than ever we imagined.

Job’s entire community was affected by his suffering. All who knew Job learned something new about God. All were humbled and drawn closer to God, including Job. Even the struggle of his friends to understand what had happened and Job’s striving with them in debate was (and is) used by God. They learn that what they need is not more self-righteousness, more rules, more truisms, but a closer relationship with God.

Ultimately, we lack the perspective in our lives to always be able to see the purpose of our suffering. Is our suffering a warning? Perhaps. Is God asking us to change something? Perhaps. Will our suffering be instrumental in learning something about God that can be learned no other way? Perhaps. Will seeing our suffering warn others, or woo them to consider Christ? Perhaps. 

We must humbly ask for wisdom to glimpse this perspective, being gentle with one another as we seek him. Through suffering, deliverance comes. Through affliction, God speaks. (Job 36.15)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and in misery.
Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful; save your servant who puts his trust in you. — Psalm 86.1-2

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

Today’s Readings
Job 36 (Listen – 3:04)
Psalm 48 (Listen – 1:28)

Read more about Learning from the Suffering
May we be gracious to those in crises of faith, not treating them as enemies…we may have something to learn from them about God.

Learning from the Suffering

Read more about Fruitful in Suffering
We can be fruitful in the land of our suffering, not by our own cleverness, craft, or scheming, but by the Holy Spirit.

Fruitful in Suffering

Scripture Focus: Job 35.12-14
12 He does not answer when people cry out
    because of the arrogance of the wicked.
13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea;
    the Almighty pays no attention to it.
14 How much less, then, will he listen
    when you say that you do not see him…

Reflection: God’s Not Deaf
By Erin Newton

I assume most have dreamed about being in danger and suddenly couldn’t make a sound. Mouth gaping wide, no noise comes out. There is no one to hear the call for help. How terrifying!

Elihu waited until the end before adding his commentary. There is hope that the words will be kinder with the young friend. Unfortunately, he is just as hurtful. He denies Job’s claim to righteousness and suggests that God will not listen because of Job’s sin. Job is stuck in a nightmare of suffering. Elihu thought Job’s prayers were silent screams.

Elihu emphasizes the transcendence of God. He views God as removed from the experiences of humanity. In verses 6-7, Elihu states that God is unaffected by sin and gains nothing from righteousness. To this friend, sin is a human problem and righteousness is only beneficial for humanity.

Understanding the nature of God is difficult. We know from creation and prophetic visions that God is transcendent. Millard Erickson defines transcendence, “God is separate from and independent of nature and humanity.” In short, it is his “otherness.” But this is not the entire picture.

Job argues that God is intimately related to humanity. In this way, God is immanent. The prologue of the heavenly scene allows us to see how closely God is concerned with Job’s life. The permission given to Satan comes with strict boundaries. Job declares that his own life is the breath of God within him (Job 27.3).

James Wharton suggests, “It is possible that God is both infinitely more transcendent and infinitely more personally engaged with human beings than either Elihu or Job has any way of knowing?” Again, amid dialogue between the four friends, we are struck with the tension of truths.

In our own lives, we struggle with moments of wishing God was nearer to us. The pressure of illness, the dark cloud of grief, the uncertainty of politics, the vast void of loneliness. We often feel like each prayer is a nightmare-choked silent scream. But the truth is that God is overwhelmingly concerned about your life. Yes, yours.

The fear that God may ignore your peril, the doubt that your pleas are being offered to a deaf God are not founded in truth. Do not let your heart nourish such lies. Elihu understood God’s transcendence but discounted his immanence. Rejoice in the truth that God is with us, our Immanuel. 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

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

Today’s Readings
Job 35 (Listen – 1:33)
Psalm 46-47 (Listen – 2:15)

Read more about Ennobled by the Incarnation
Jesus comes not to condemn our humanity but to share in it. The incarnation is an ennobling epiphany.

Ennobled by the Incarnation

Read more about Ever Present Help and Gladdening Streams
The “ever-present” help that most people are used to are the digital assistants embedded in devices attached to our hands and wrists.

Ever Present Help and Gladdening Streams

Scripture Focus: Job 34.34-37
34 “Men of understanding declare, 
wise men who hear me say to me, 
35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge; 
his words lack insight.’ 
36 Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost 
for answering like a wicked man! 
37 To his sin he adds rebellion; 
scornfully he claps his hands among us 
and multiplies his words against God.” 

Reflection: God Is The Hero, not Us
By John Tillman

Elihu quotes arguments that the friends have made and questions them, “Do you think this is just?” (Job 35.2) Elihu challenges the friends as often as he challenges Job.

When I was a young man, I thought Elihu was, in a way, heroic. I saw in him a young man taking a stand against old ways of thinking and reaching out to Job in kindness, but that picture is not exactly right. Elihu’s arguments aren’t that different from the friends’ arguments. Even though he starts out with a promise to not be heavy-handed, eventually Elihu seems just as condemnatory towards Job as the others. At this point in the story, though, we want there to be a hero. We sense that something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

Duane Garrett, in his commentary on this section of Job says:

“As we progress through the Book of Job, we feel the same distress Elihu voiced. We are sure there is something wrong with Job’s comments but are aware that the three friends failed to answer him. We try to find an alternative answer…We thrash about for a solution much as Elihu did and repeat old arguments without knowing it. And if we are not careful, we fall into the same vain certainty. We think we are wiser than Job and his friends put together. Job and his friends were each wrong in his own way, but so are we. We need to hear the voice of God.” — “The Poetic and Wisdom Books.” Holman Concise Bible Commentary.

Nobody’s perfect except God. That’s the most repeated argument Job’s debaters circle back to. We sense that Job needs a hero. Will it be the friends? No. Will it be Elihu? No. Every human hero fails.

The hero Job (and we) needed is coming—is here. God’s entrance is just around the corner, just around the bend, arriving in the next few turns of the page…in some ways, he is already here.

One of the deep mysteries of the Bible is that we are separated from God by our sins, yet he is with us and longing for us at the same time. The already and the not yet are side-by-side. God is the hero we all need and he is coming to us right where we are when we are ready to listen to him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7.18

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

Today’s Readings
Job 34 (Listen – 3:26)
Psalm 45 (Listen – 2:17)

Read more about When Nations Pray
Help us to incarnate a gospel that evangelizes and emancipates those in need as a real and relevant demonstration of our living Christ.

When Nations Pray :: Worldwide Prayer

Read more about Christ, the True Hero
Our cultural “superhero” lens can cause us to see ourselves as the “hero” in biblical accounts.

Christ, the True Hero

Scripture Focus: Job 33.6-7
6 I am the same as you in God’s sight; 
I too am a piece of clay. 
7 No fear of me should alarm you, 
nor should my hand be heavy on you.

Reflection: Entering the Ring of Debate Differently
By John Tillman

Elihu comes in at the end of Job thinking he has the solution to the puzzle. He doesn’t. 

Some chalk it up to Elihu’s cockiness or youth but that doesn’t make that much sense to me. We just listened to Job and his other friends rant at one another for over 30 chapters and they didn’t solve anything either. Plus, Elihu is almost excessively apologetic about his youth and apologized for even daring to speak up. Cockiness doesn’t seem an accurate reading.

Elihu talked more than all the other friends combined, but the “knowledge” that he expressed didn’t untangle the knot of the arguments that came before. However, there is much to learn from him. Elihu’s patience, his excellent listening skills, his intentions of being gentle with Job are all lacking in today’s world. Elihu tenderly told Job not to fear him and that he would not make his hand “heavy” upon Job.

When modern theologians exchange ideas (especially on public forums like Twitter) a heavy-handed smackdown is often what their words aim for. (I’ve made this error myself.) Like wrestling performers, grandstanding to the crowd, we swing exaggeratedly even when our actual logic or argument has little real punch. Our intentions are to smack someone down rather than lift them up.

We fail to listen. We rush to judgment. We disdain patience. We double-down on our points when proved wrong. We insist on our infallibility, sometimes confusing our infallibility with that of scripture. We refuse to interpret our foes charitably. We throw around accusations of heresy with no regard for the historicity of the terms or of confessions of faith. 

Elihu isn’t soft in what he believes but he’s gentle with those he confronts. He’s passionate about defending God against Job’s accusations. He’s passionate about defending Job against the treatment of the other friends. It’s not like he has no convictions or lives in some mushy middle ground of non-commital faith. Elihu just enters debate in a different way. A more compassionate way. He’s not perfect. None of us are. Some of his arguments are not that different than what came before but his attitude brings much needed refreshment and hope.

May we enter the ring of debate more like Elihu—more like referees than combatants. More patient. More measured. More deferential. More compassionate. Humble.

I confess in my own life I could learn from Elihu.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “If your brother does something wrong, rebuke him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I am sorry,’ you must forgive him.” — Luke 17.3-4

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

Today’s Readings
Job 33 (Listen – 3:00)
Psalm 44 (Listen – 2:44)

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Young Christians can identify with the crisis of faith in this pleading psalm. For many Millennials and Gen Z, prior generations of prosperity have melted into scarcity…

A Generational Lament