Scripture Focus: Job 29.2-3, 12-17
“How I long for the months gone by,
    for the days when God watched over me,
when his lamp shone on my head
    and by his light I walked through darkness!…
…Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
    and those who saw me commended me,
because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
    and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
The one who was dying blessed me;
    I made the widow’s heart sing.
I put on righteousness as my clothing;
    justice was my robe and my turban.
I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy;
    I took up the case of the stranger.
I broke the fangs of the wicked
    and snatched the victims from their teeth.

John: This rewritten post from 2020 looks again at the relationship of righteousness and justice. For Job, they are of the same substance. We can’t have one without the other.

Reflection: Righteousness Sets Things Right
By John Tillman

When we think of righteousness, we tend to think first about righteousness via elimination. We think of avoiding sin, abstaining from certain food and drink, abjuring the company of certain people, or censoring our experience of the world. These may be wise measures for avoiding temptation but they are not marks of righteousness. 

Limiting exposure to certain things to remain righteous is a confession of our unrighteous state. Light does not avoid darkness to remain light—it pierces the darkness and the darkness cannot overwhelm it. Job acknowledges that the light of righteousness that used to be his was not his own, but came from the presence of God shining through him. Rather than focus on righteousness by omission, Job describes the righteousness of commission. 

In Job’s example, righteousness is connected to and related to justice. The word sedeq, translated “righteous,” also means “just” or “fair.” It also is often paired with mispat, which is translated as “justice,” in this passage but can mean “law,” or “judgment.” Job’s righteousness and justice are his robe and turban—cut from the same cloth.

Righteousness, as Job describes it, is marked by formidable, positive actions on behalf of justice. Righteousness sets things right. Job defines his righteousness by his use of power, wealth, and influence to benefit the weak, the marginalized, and the victimized. 

When Job walked in, the powerful trembled. They recognized an enemy who would break their “fangs” which were their means of holding onto prey and exerting their poisonous control.

When Job walked in, those taking advantage of the poor would lose their control and investment. When Job walked in, abusers knew their time was up. 

When Job walked in, the needy rejoiced and the outcast celebrated. When Job walked in, the fatherless felt the power of a father on their side. When Job walked in widows knew that they would no longer suffer indignity or disregard.

When the church and Christians walk in righteousness, the powerful will tremble at our approach. Oppressors will pray that we do not show up. Swindling money-lenders will dread us setting their debtors free.

Do you walk in righteousness? Ask yourself this question. Who gets nervous when you approach? Do the powerful pat you on the back? Or do the oppressed consider you a friend?

Righteousness may not be righteous if it makes the wrong people nervous.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; we bless you from the house of the Lord. — Psalm 118.26

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

Today’s Readings
Job 29 (Listen – 2:26)
Psalm 38 (Listen – 2:14)

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Read more about Justice Brings Joy
Would we bury the tasks of righteousness and justice in the ground and dig them up, undeveloped and unimproved, to hand back to Christ?

Scripture Focus: Job 28.23, 28
God understands the way to it
    and he alone knows where it dwells…

And he said to the human race,
    “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
    and to shun evil is understanding.”    

Reflection: Mining for Wisdom
By Erin Newton

In Tolkien’s tale of Middle Earth, Bilbo and the thirteen dwarves venture toward the Lonely Mountain to recapture the dwarf kingdom. The movie elaborates on the dwarves mining for the “heart of the mountain,” the Arkenstone. Once possessing this stone, the owner gained the right to rule under the mountain. However, the king was corrupted by intense greed and the dragon destroyed the kingdom.

The interlude in dialogue between Job and his friends describes similar mining expertise. Iron, gold, and lapis lazuli are all found within dark caverns explored by humans. The author of Job indicates that not even animals can fathom the root of these precious minerals and stones.
Wisdom is placed in parallel to gold, silver, jewels and gemstones. They are all precious, valuable, and rare. Although one with dwarf-like accuracy can locate and extract veins of gold in the depths of the earth, the location of wisdom is evasive.

Wisdom is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. Wisdom is not “among the living” (v13). Wisdom is not in the primordial depths (v14), a term reminiscent of creation where the Spirit hovered over these waters. Wisdom is not among death and destruction (v22), terms echoing ancient cosmology about the underworld. From primordial creation to cosmological death, wisdom is absent.

“Where then does wisdom come from?” As all other options are exhausted, the conclusion is that wisdom resides with he who is outside of time and space, God. The fear of the Lord is the apex of spiritual mining. Just as the miner studies the formations of the earth to search for a starting point, we are told that all pursuits of wisdom begin with a relationship with God.

Some prefer to seek wisdom through intellect, looking to become wise through a series of academic degrees. Some prefer to seek wisdom through prestige gained through wealth or popularity. Some seek wisdom through rebellion, going against the grain of typical society. The age-old Edenic pursuit was to seek wisdom from anything outside of a relationship with God. Like dwarves, we often dig too deep into pursuits that bring about our destruction. 

It can be frustrating for such a worthy, invaluable asset such as wisdom to be summarized in simple terms. Although difficult to find, wisdom is freely given. The difficulty is not in its availability but in our pride. Wisdom is from God. To gain it is to know Him. 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Let us make a vow to the Lord our God and keep it; let all around him bring gifts to him who is worthy to be feared. — Psalm 76.11

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

Today’s Readings
Job 28 (Listen – 2:44)
Psalm 37 (Listen – 4:21)

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Read more about Where is Wisdom :: A Guided Prayer
Ask God to open to us the true and timeless wisdom that comes from one unlimited source.

Scripture Focus: Job 27.8-12
8 For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, 
when God takes away their life? 
9 Does God listen to their cry 
when distress comes upon them? 
10 Will they find delight in the Almighty? 
Will they call on God at all times? 
11 “I will teach you about the power of God; 
the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal. 
12 You have all seen this yourselves. 
Why then this meaningless talk? 

Reflection: Learning from the Suffering
By John Tillman

Job, prior to his experiences, believed similarly to his friends—bad things happen to bad people. Despite being an exception to this rule, Job still expresses this view in verses 13-23.

Despite experiencing things he thought only happened to the wicked, Job still believed God faithful. Job testified to the benefits of his faith. Unlike the godless, Job had hope even in death.  While the godless cried out to nothingness, Job expectantly waited for God to hear his cry. Job had a source of delight in God at all times. Job realized that others had something to learn from him about God. 

Job’s suffering did not change the core of what he believed. If anyone had reason to walk away from faith, it was Job. Were we in Job’s place, it’s easy to imagine we’d remain faithful. It is more realistic to imagine responding as Job’s wife did: “curse God and die.” It is wiser to pray that in any test of faith we will be sustained by God’s grace, not our own grit. It is also wise for us to extend grace to those experiencing suffering from which we have been spared.

In our world, there is debate about how to treat Christians who, for various reasons, are deconstructing their faith. Many “deconstructors” are spurred into this process by suffering. Some experienced sexual abuse or abuse of power. Many witnessed the defense and covering up of these kinds of abuse. Some were run out of their churches over politics. Some were cast out for being whistleblowers. Their stories are numerous and varied.

When people, like Job, have had fire fall on their lives, they have reasons for doubt. Do we treat them as Job’s friends treated him? With pointless moralizing and self-righteous condemnation?

Deconstructing people are not wolves to be hunted but fellow sheep—often attacked and wounded sheep. And even if they do choose to completely reject the faith…how are we supposed to treat unbelievers? With disdain? No. With accusations and attacks? No.

Like Job, may we maintain our faith in the face of whatever fire may fall in our futures. May we be gracious to those in crises of faith, not treating them as enemies but as those wounded by our great enemy. They are worthy of any effort we can make to rescue them and we may have something to learn from them about God.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
For who is God, but the Lord? Who is the Rock, except our God? — Psalm 18.32

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

Today’s Readings
Job 27 (Listen – 2:21)
Psalm 36 (Listen – 1:29)

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Read more about The Ever-Patient Agriculturalist
The purpose in deconstruction is reconstruction.
The purpose in uprooting is to replant.
May we rejoice in being pruned and replanted.

Scripture Focus: Job 26.5-14
5 “The dead are in deep anguish, 
those beneath the waters and all that live in them. 
6 The realm of the dead is naked before God; 
Destruction lies uncovered.
7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; 
he suspends the earth over nothing. 
8 He wraps up the waters in his clouds, 
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. 
9 He covers the face of the full moon, 
spreading his clouds over it. 
10 He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters 
for a boundary between light and darkness. 
11 The pillars of the heavens quake, 
aghast at his rebuke. 
12 By his power he churned up the sea; 
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. 
13 By his breath the skies became fair; 
his hand pierced the gliding serpent. 
14 And these are but the outer fringe of his works; 
how faint the whisper we hear of him! 
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” 

Reflection: The Whispers of God
By John Tillman

Ancient cosmology is well worth investigating for Christians. (Further Study from The Bible Project.) It tells us about the presuppositions of biblical writers and early readers.

We take for granted gravity, physics, thermodynamics, complex orbits of planets and other objects, and the vast void of space. The best minds of our time and observations of our universe tell us these are true. We unthinkingly apply our presuppositions to scripture. We read, “the earth was formless and empty…” (Gen 1.2) and think about pre-Big-Bang nothingness. 

The early readers of Genesis wouldn’t have been thinking of that at all. Ancient people, like Job, believed the best minds of their time and observations of their universe. They took for granted the earth was flat, supported above the nothingness of the chaos waters below. They weren’t fact-denying flat-earthers. They simply didn’t have the evidence we do today.

Job describes the wonders of God in a passage focusing on cosmology and the created world. He describes everything from the deep chaos waters (and monsters) and the realm of the dead to the skies and the sun, moon, and stars above them. Job would be unfamiliar with our understanding of gravity, or the water cycle, but that didn’t stop him from being amazed at how clouds, heavy with water, can float in the sky and how the earth can be suspended over waters when stones and dirt sink in a stream.

The hubris of knowledge can make us callous. Are these things any less wondrous to us simply because of greater scientific knowledge? 

Job calls the wonders of creation “whispers” of God—the faint fringes of his power and glory. (Job 26.14; Romans 1:20) God’s whispers of wonder still come from creation today. Science is not the enemy of God but his microphone, microscope, and telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope will soon show us more of the universe than ever before—distant realms Job never imagined. God’s whisper still reaches us from there. The deeper we look into space (or any science) the deeper God’s wonders whisper to us. 

The universe that Job believed in didn’t exist as he thought it did. Some of our current conclusions may be proved wrong in time. That makes God no less real and no less powerful. Is God smaller because the universe is bigger than Job thought? Or than we think? No. God is greater still. And we will yet hear the thunder of his power. (Exodus 20.18-19; John 12.28-29; Revelation 10.4-7)

Image Note: Today’s image contains an artist’s rendering of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. — Psalm 118.23

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

Today’s Readings
Job 25-26 (Listen – 1:52)
Psalm 35 (Listen – 3:21)

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Read more about Spiritual Instruments
Whatever scientific instruments we use…we find the fingerprints of God.