Day 154: Job 40, 41 and 42

If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! (Job 41:8).

In the final chapters of Job, after Job has pleaded his case and his friends have arrogantly and at the same time naïvely spoken for God, God speaks. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? (38:4). Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? (38:22). Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons? (38:32). Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? (39:1). Does the eagle soar at your command? (39: 27).

And Job admits he is no match for the Lord God Almighty (40:4).

God then proceeds to illustrate further his own glory and majesty by pointing to some of his creations that man cannot tame: Look at the behemoth (maybe an elephant; possibly the hippopotamus), which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox (40:15). Can you pull in the leviathan (some posit this is the crocodile, others the whale) with a fishhook? (41:10).

You gotta laugh at this imagery: If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Though never backing away from his claims of innocence, about this time I’m sure Job was thinking to himself: I challenged God once and I’ll never do that again either!

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have you ever made a hasty and foolish challenge only to think better of it after it was too late? If you’ve been wrestling with God, is it time to say “Uncle”?

Day 153: Job 37, 38 and 39

Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? (NIV 1984, Job 38:2).

How often do we… let me start over; how often do I presume to speak for God? This is a danger to which pastors are especially prone. In today’s world, the closest thing to the Thus saith the Lord of the Old Testament prophets is the Sunday morning message preached from pulpits all over the world.

We attend school to ensure we are interpreting the Scriptures correctly, and speak with confidence that we are representing God accurately. Yet at the same time, we must be careful to leave our dogmatism at home, for we are human and our understanding of God’s Word and God’s ways are dynamic (at least it should be), shifting over time as we grow deeper in knowledge and deeper in relationship with our Creator.

When Jesus said, It is written… (Matthew 4:4), he left it at that. But on other occasions he said, You have heard that it was said . . . But I tell you… (5:21,22). He spoke with an innate authority (which we will never have), refuting the law’s popular interpretation yet never refuting Scripture itself.

Rather than darkening God’s counsel by presuming to speak for him with words without knowledge, we must be careful rather to let the voice of God speak for itself through a correct and responsible interpretation of the scriptural text.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Do you speak for God, or do you allow God to speak for himself? Who’s better at it?

Day 152: Job 34, 35 and 36

His thunder announces the coming storm (Job 36:33).

Three friends sat silently while Job grieved. Then they opened their mouths causing him to suffer even more. Elihu, a younger man, sits quietly out of respect for their age and standing in the community, but he has reached his limit; he can hold his tongue no more. Chapter 32 tells us he was angry with Job for not admitting his guilt, and angry with his three elders for their inability to convince Job of his need for confession.

Elihu expresses his conviction that God cannot possibly do wrong (34:10), and asserts that a man’s suffering must be interpreted as punishment for wrongdoing. Since God rewards the upright and punishes the sinful, suggesting a just man might also suffer is the same as accusing God of evil.

As far as Elihu is concerned, God is not hard to figure out. Those who do right don’t have to fear God’s reprisals, and those who do wrong only get what they have coming to them. Easy to read, just as thunder is a sure sign of an approaching storm, suffering is a sure sign of God’s displeasure.

As we get older, we find out things aren’t always so black and white. Are there opinions you held strongly in youth about which you’ve learned to be more flexible with a few years under your belt?

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Examine the dogmas of your youth. Is it time to admit some questions just don’t have easy answers?

Day 151: Job 31, 32 and 33

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman (Job 31:1).

In the 1983 film WarGames, Matthew Broderick plays a teenage computer whiz kid who accidentally hacks into U.S. missile defense. Thinking he’s found his way into a computer game company, he’s eager to sample their newest product. He comes across such files as Tic-Tac-Toe, Chess,… and a very intriguing Global Thermonuclear War.

The computer asks: “Do you want to play a game?” And before he knows what’s happening, it locks him out and initiates the countdown to a preemptive nuclear strike.

While the countdown progresses, the kid challenges the computer to a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Because two evenly matched players can play Tic-Tac-Toe indefinitely and neither of them ever win a game, the computer soon learns the concept of stalemate. It starts looking ahead through all the possible outcomes of a nuclear war and comes to a conclusion.

The only winning move is not to play.

The control room at NORAD breathes a collective sigh of relief, the world is saved, and the delinquent computer genius is celebrated as the hero.

We may think we can play the game of lust and come out a winner but we cannot. There are always consequences for playing this game. Job had taken precautions to protect himself. When it comes to sexual fantasy and lust, the only winning move is not to play.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

How are you protecting yourself? …your marriage?

Day 150: Job 28, 29 and 30

Mortals put an end to the darkness; they search out the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness (Job 28:3).

Job describes an awesome, scary picture of ancient mining operations. He writes about cutting a shaft through the rock, dangling from ropes, and working in pitch blackness, illuminated only by the miners’ lamps. Come on, did you know there was such great stuff in the Bible? No bird or animal has ever seen what man discovers there in the cave’s loneliness.

But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? (v. 12).

Job is telling us that wisdom is more valuable than even silver or rubies, and that we should be willing to go to greater lengths to find wisdom than we do to dig up sapphires and gold. It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price ne weighed out in silver (v. 15).

Our hero is also comparing the toils of his life to the search for riches. He has worked harder and suffered more than any treasure hunter. And he has discovered the hard truth that wisdom is more difficult to find than a vein of gold. It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing (v. 21).

The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding (v. 28). Do you treasure wisdom enough to keep going until you find it?

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have you sought wisdom but still find yourself lacking? Maybe you’re looking in the wrong places. Pray through James 1:2-8.

Day 149: Job 25, 26 and 27

I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity (Job 27:5).

One after another, first Eliphaz, then Bildad, and finally Zophar, Job’s three friends spout off the same age-old retribution wisdom. If you’re suffering, it must be because you sinned. Humble yourself and be restored.

But Job couldn’t humble himself. He had nothing to confess. To feign guilt just to gain relief wouldn’t have been right. Job was not about to let God off the hook just to ease his own discomfort.

Is there a lesson here for us? How often do we fall on our own sword, when we know we’re not in the wrong, just to make peace? If Job is a theodicy, a defense of God’s justice in the face of seemingly contradictory evidence, then it is also a study in the ethics of conflict.

How many times have I taken one for the team? While it sounds noble, it may be no better than a prizefighter taking a dive. Romans 12:18 reads: If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. But avoiding conflict isn’t always the ethical thing to do. Standing our ground may be more Christian than retreat. Winning a battle for my own glory certainly does not display a proper Christ-like attitude, but falling to the mat just to avoid the unpleasantness of conflict doesn’t either.

Have you ever kept the peace and lived to regret it?

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Are you presently struggling about how to deal with a conflict? Ask God first for a discerning spirit, and second for the courage to do the right thing, whether that is to fight or to fold.

Day 148: Job 22, 23 and 24

If only I knew where to find him (Job 23:3).

St. John of the Cross, a 16^th century Spanish mystic, wrote The Dark Night of the Soul to describe the painful and lonely journey of an individual seeking spiritual maturity. John wrote his treatise while imprisoned by his own monastic brothers for his attempts to reform the order. It symbolizes a spiritual crisis in which God seems far off and unreachable.

Watchman Nee, the Chinese church planter who died in 1972 after twenty years in prison, wrote about the brokenness of the outer man in The Release of the Spirit. He talked about how God uses struggles and hardships in our lives to break the shell (the personality or the soul) that binds the inner man (the spirit). Nee and John could have been reading each other’s emails.

We talk about times when God seems to be hiding and our prayers bounce off the ceiling, times we cry out to God but get no answer. That’s what Job was experiencing. He was seeking, but God was nowhere to be found.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest (Psalm 22:1,2).

It seems that Christ also experienced the dark night of the soul.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have your cries to God for mercy ever been answered only with silence? Reflect on what that was like and on what you learned.

Day 147: Job 19, 20 and 21

Why do the wicked live on? (Job 21:7).

There’s the crux of the matter. I know bad things happen to good people, but if it at least seemed like the scales were balanced, then I could say, Well, trouble comes to us all in equal measure.

But that’s not how it seems. While I’m struggling to pay my bills… while I’m suffering through illness and injury… while my kids are making bad choices causing me to lose sleep, my neighbor just bought another boat. Why does he need two boats? How is that fair, God?

It’s not so much that good people suffer, but that bad people so often seem to get a pass. Why do they have the advantage?

Near the end of the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner’s character Ray Kinsella confronts baseball right fielder Shoeless Joe Jackson. Kinsella complains how he did all the work and went to all the expense to build a baseball field in the middle of his struggling farm, and he’s about to go under.

Kinsella: Never once have I asked, What’s in it for me?

Jackson: What are you saying, Ray?

Kinsella: I’m saying, What’s in it for me?

Looking at the seeming disparity between the lifestyles of the rich and famous and that of the average believer, can you understand why Job thought life seemed unfair?

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have you ever asked, What’s in it for me?

Day 146: Job 16, 17 and 18

What ails you that you keep on arguing? (Job 16:3).

Job referring to his friends as miserable comforters (v. 2) reminds me of the SNL character Debbie Downer played by actress/comedienne Rachel Dratch (seasons 2003-2005). Debbie was that socially awkward acquaintance (we all know one) who shares depressing anecdotal information guaranteed to cast a pall over any gathering.

In one episode while the whole gang is enjoying breakfast in a Magic Kingdom novelty restaurant, one cast member says how great steak and eggs sound. Debbie’s reply: “Ever since they found mad cow disease in the U.S. I’m not taking any chances. It can live in your body for years before it ravages your brain.” We know she’s a lot of fun at parties.

Job goes on to say, If you were in my place, I could speak just like you. But my mouth would encourage you; my words of comfort would bring you relief (Author’s Paraphrase, vv. 4,5).

Let’s face it: some people seem to have the spiritual gift of discouragement… they’re pathological downers. Moms-to-be heading for the delivery room don’t need to hear horror stories about the pain of childbirth. People scheduled for a tax audit don’t need to be regaled with accounts of someone else’s IRS nightmares.

If you’re an encourager, keep it up. You are sure to be welcome in any gathering. If you’re a Debbie Downer (or Bob Bummer), maybe you should just not talk.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Do you light up a room by entering it? Or by leaving it? How could you be an encourager?

Day 145: Job 13, 14 and 15

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him (Job 13:15).

Job exhibits great confidence in his own righteousness, and even greater confidence in God.

Job’s statement highlights an important ingredient in faith. Job is saying that no matter how bad things get, no matter how dark, no matter how hopeless, he still knows where he will put his trust. God, I want to be delivered from these desperate circumstances, but even more than that, I want to please you.

Faith is Abraham on the road to Mt. Moriah. It’s Joseph in an African prison cell. It’s Moses before the Red Sea parted. It’s David in the Valley of Elah. It’s Hezekiah surrounded by the Assyrians. It’s Jeremiah in the cistern. It’s Esther requesting an audience with the King of Persia. It’s Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

When everything’s going our way, when the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming; when we’ve just received an A on our report card or a nice attaboy at work; who needs faith then? Faith was made for dark times. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see (NIV 1984. Hebrews 11:1). Faith is about facing uncertain times with certainty in the faithfulness of God.

When we can’t see what’s around the bend, that’s when we wrap ourselves in the faith that God is walking with us and will not let us down.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Are things not going your way? Reminisce on the faithfulness of God up to this point in your life. Can you trust him even through the hard times?

Day 144: Job 10, 11 and 12

If you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, . . . you will stand firm without fear (Job 11:14,15).

Job’s friend Zophar probably meant well and genuinely cared for his friend. We can forgive his ignorance in that he was simply going along with accepted understandings of how things worked. Again, popular thought said, Do right and you’ll prosper; do wrong and you’ll suffer. Obviously since so many things were going wrong for Job, he must have done something really bad.

Zophar and the others just couldn’t conceive of a righteous man suffering the way Job was. They saw his pain and wanted it to stop. They were doing what they thought was best. If they could get Job to confess his sin and abandon his claims of innocence, then his life and fortunes could be restored.

Maybe you’ve experienced the pain of well meaning friends adding insult to injury in their awkward attempts to minister to you in a time of suffering. How many platitudes and clichés have been offered grieving parents at the loss of a child, or to a friend who’s been diagnosed with cancer? Statements like: “Take comfort that this is God’s will,” or “If you just confess the sin in your life God will surely heal you,” don’t do anyone any good.

Let’s not inflict further pain with careless words. Ask God to give you the right words to say when a friend is hurting, or just be there for them with the grace to say nothing at all.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

What would you say to a hurting friend? What would you want them to say to you?

Day 143: Job 7, 8 and 9

If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both (NIV 1984, Job 9:33).

Some critical scholars see Job as an amalgam of writings. There is the original account of a good man beset by horrible misfortune – one of the oldest stories in the Bible; and then there is the long poetic conversation between Job and his friends, which is of more recent vintage. Here’s the thing: Wisdom literature – Job is classified among the wisdom writings – was the last part of the Old Testament to arrive at its present form and become canon, whereas the setting of Job is more congruent with the time of Abraham.

Regardless of when it was written, this passage has always caught me off guard. It is a poignant cry for a bridge between man and God. While I in no way want to imply that the writer of Job had any Messianic thoughts going on in his head; from this side of the cross I cannot help but see this cry fulfilled in Jesus as our High Priest, our arbitrator, our mediator between God and man.

Job, there is someone. Jesus Christ is our bridge – our connection to God. One hand on God – one hand on humanity.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (NIV 1984, 1 John 2:1).

TODAY’S MEDITATION

What would you want Jesus to say to the Father on your behalf?

Day 142: Job 4, 5 and 6

We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself (Job 5:27).

Word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertising. Someone for whom we have respect tells us, I tried it and I like it. I think you’ll like it too. That carries a lot of weight. As that endorsement spreads from 1 to 2 to 7 to 1,000 people, we call it going viral. It attains a momentum of its own and becomes almost impossible to stop. Advertising agencies spend loads of cash to achieve that kind of spontaneous success.

But there’s nothing more annoying than someone saying I should like something I don’t like just because they tried it and they liked it. I live in the Pacific Northwest and I don’t like coffee… never have and probably never will. Talk about pressure! It doesn’t matter if your favorite brand really is the world’s best cup of coffee. To me that means it actually tastes even more repulsive than the other brands. And no, thank you – even if it costs me book sales – I have no desire to acquire the taste. I hear people even now turning off their e-readers, closing their books, shouting, “He doesn’t like coffee! He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Run from the wolf!”

…but I digress.

Job’s friends ascribed to the popular philosophy of the day: Do right and you’ll prosper; do wrong and you’ll suffer. But no matter from whom or how many Job heard that message; he still couldn’t accept it, because he knew it wasn’t true in his life.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have you ever felt pressured to accept someone’s remedy for your life’s circumstances even though you knew it didn’t fit? They mean well, but they’re not your Creator. Only he knows what you really need. What’s wrong, and what is God saying to your heart?

Day 141: Job 1, 2 and 3

No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was (Job 2:13).

Why do bad things happen to good people? That’s the basic question in Job. Theodicy is a defense of God’s justice in spite of life’s onslaught of overwhelming evil. This question has plagued mankind since... well, since the time of Job.

Retribution theology can be summed up in the phrase: What goes around comes around. We read this thinking in the book of Deuteronomy: Love the Lord your God . . . then you will live and increase... But if your heart turns away . . . you will certainly be destroyed (NIV 1984, Deuteronomy 30:16-18). We get the same kind of thinking in the book of Proverbs: Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm (Proverbs 1:33).

When Job lost everything he had, he must have thought: “Wait! This isn’t supposed to happen to me – I read Proverbs. I signed up for the extended warranty!”

But we all know bad things do happen to good people, don’t we?

That’s why, even though Job can at times get tedious, there’s something about these writings that keeps bringing us back. It’s as if we can identify with Job, unlike some of those Bible characters who are a little too good to be true. Haven’t we all wanted to say to God at times, What gives?

TODAY’S MEDITATION

So you had a bad day. The book of Job teaches us that bad things happen to good people and, when they happen to us, we’re not alone. Pray through Psalm 23.

Day 154: Job 40, 41 and 42

If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! (Job 41:9)

In the final chapters of Job, after Job has pleaded his case and his friends have arrogantly and at the same time naively spoken for God, God speaks. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation (38:4)? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow (v. 22)? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons (v. 32)? Do you know when the mountain goats give birth (39:1)? Does the eagle soar at your command (v. 27)?

And Job admits he is no match for the Lord God Almighty (40:4).

God then proceeds to illustrate further his own glory and majesty by pointing to some of his creations that man cannot tame: Look at the behemoth (probably an elephant; possibly the hippopotamus), which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox (v. 15). Can you pull in the leviathan (likely the crocodile) with a fishhook (41:1)?

You gotta laugh at this imagery: If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Though never backing away from his claims of innocence, about this time I’m sure Job was thinking to himself: I challenged God once and I’ll never do that again either!

Have you ever made a hasty and foolish challenge only to think better of it after it was too late?

Day 153: Job 37, 38 and 39

Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)

How often do we… let me start over. How often do I presume to speak for God? This is a danger to which pastors are especially prone. In today’s world, the closest thing to the Thus saith the Lord of the Old Testament prophets is the Sunday morning message preached from pulpits all over the world.

We attend school to ensure we are interpreting the Scriptures correctly, and speak with confidence that we are representing God accurately. Yet at the same time, we must be careful to leave our dogmatism at home, for we are human and our understanding of God’s word and God’s ways are dynamic (at least it should be), shifting over time as we grow deeper in knowledge and deeper in relationship with our Creator.

When Jesus said, It is written… (Matthew 4:4), he left it at that. But on other occasions he said, You have heard that it was said . . . , but I tell you… (5:21,22). He spoke with an innate authority (which we will never have), refuting the law’s popular interpretation, yet never refuting Scripture itself.

Rather than darkening God’s counsel by presuming to speak for him with words without knowledge, we must be careful rather to let the voice of God speak for itself through a correct and responsible interpretation of the scriptural text.

Do you speak for God, or do you allow God to speak for himself?

Day 152: Job 34, 35 and 36

His thunder announces the coming storm. (Job 36:33)

Three friends sat silently while Job grieved. Then they opened their mouths causing him to suffer even more. Elihu, a younger man, sits quietly out of respect for their age and standing in the community, but he has reached his limit; he can hold his tongue no more. Chapter 32 tells us he was angry with Job for not admitting his guilt, and angry with his three elders for their inability to convince Job of his need for confession.

Elihu expresses his conviction that God cannot possibly do wrong (34:10), and asserts that a man’s suffering must be interpreted as punishment for wrongdoing. Since God rewards the upright and punishes the sinful, suggesting a just man might also suffer is the same as accusing God of evil.

As far as Elihu is concerned, God is not hard to figure out. Do right and prosper; do wrong and suffer. Easy to read, just as thunder is a sure sign of an approaching storm, suffering is a sure sign of God’s displeasure.

As we get older, we find out things aren’t always so black and white.

Are there opinions you held strongly in youth about which you’ve learned to be more flexible with a few years under your belt?

Day 151: Job 31, 32 and 33

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (Job 31:1)

In the 1983 film WarGames, Matthew Broderick plays a teenage computer whiz kid who accidentally hacks into the missile defense of the United States. Thinking he’s found his way into a computer game company, he’s eager to sample their newest product. He comes across such files as Tic-Tac-Toe, Chess,… and a very intriguing Global Thermonuclear War.

The computer asks: Do you want to play a game? And before he knows what’s happening, the computer locks him out and initiates a countdown to a preemptive nuclear strike.

While the countdown progresses, the kid challenges the computer to a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Because two evenly matched players can play Tic-Tac-Toe indefinitely and neither of them ever win a game, the computer soon learns the concept of stalemate. It starts looking ahead through all the possible outcomes of a nuclear war and comes to a conclusion.

The only winning move is not to play.

The control room at NORAD breathes a collective sigh of relief, the world is saved, and the delinquent computer genius becomes the hero.

We may think we can play the game of lust and come out a winner but we cannot. There are always consequences for playing this game. Job had taken precautions to protect himself. When it comes to sexual fantasy and lust, the only winning move is not to play.

How are you protecting yourself? …your marriage?

Day 150: Job 28, 29 and 30

Man puts an end to the darkness; he searches the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness. (Job 28:3)

Job describes an awesome, scary picture of ancient mining operations. He writes about cutting a shaft through the rock, dangling from ropes, and working in pitch blackness, illuminated only by the miners’ lamps. No bird or animal has ever seen what man discovers there in the cave’s loneliness.

But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? (v. 12)

Job is telling us that wisdom is more valuable than even silver or rubies, and that we should be willing to go to greater lengths to find wisdom than we do to dig up sapphires and gold.

Our hero is also comparing the toils of his life to the search for riches. He has worked harder and suffered more than any treasure hunter. And he has discovered the hard truth that wisdom is more difficult to find than a vein of gold.

Do you treasure wisdom enough to keep going until you find it?

Day 149: Job 25, 26 and 27

I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. (Job 27:5)

One after another, first Eliphaz, then Bildad, and finally Zophar, Job’s three friends spout off the same age-old retribution wisdom. If you’re suffering, it must be because you sinned. Humble yourself and be restored.

But Job couldn’t humble himself. He had nothing to confess. To feign guilt just to gain relief wouldn’t have been right. Job was not about to let God off the hook just to ease his own discomfort.

Is there a lesson here for us? How often do we fall on our own sword, when we know we’re not in the wrong, just to make peace? If Job is a theodicy, a defense of God’s justice in the face of seemingly contradictory evidence, then it is also a study in the ethics of conflict.

How many times have I taken one for the team? While it sounds noble, it may be no better than a prizefighter taking a dive. Romans 12:18 reads: If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. But avoiding conflict isn’t always the ethical thing to do. Standing our ground may be more Christian than retreat. Winning a battle for my own glory certainly does not display a proper Christ-like attitude, but falling to the mat just to avoid the unpleasantness of conflict doesn’t either.

Have you ever kept the peace and lived to regret it?