Job 16:19-21 19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. 20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; 21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
Its hard for a Christian to read this passage and not think of Christ. Christ the person who is advocating for us, who is offering intercessions to God on our behalf. We have the benefit of Christ which Job didn’t have. This makes me think about our friends and relatives who are not Christian. I often find it hard to talk and share with them the comfort of Christ when going through a difficult time. One clear rule of that is knowing when to share, but also trying to get them to identify with someone else (Christ) when it would help them. One of the reasons I think this is difficult for so many of us is that we don’t identify with Christ. Christ can intercede to God on our behalf, but we live as if there is no way that Christ can understand what we are saying or what we are doing. Christ, God, has no relevant part in any of our lives. While Job has reason to feel this way, we often don’t. We aren’t going through a trauma, we aren’t facing death. We are just plodding away at our day’s not thinking of much and doing even less. Can we let God in, can we allow him that time in our life now so that when we are in a situation like Job we will be able to cope?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Job 13:2-5
Job 13:2-5 2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. 3 But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God. 4 You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! 5 If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.
It never ceases to amaze me how bad some people are at talking. I’ve been in a lot of situations where I know the person means well, I know their trying to help me, yet they treat me like an idiot. This is a common issue to have, well meaning people, well meaning friends, share some advice try to push you to a conclusion when your not there. In fact those friends tend to come off like Job’s friends do in verse four, they are worthless. What many of us miss, and this bears reminding to me as a minister as well is how often we need to do what Job says in verse five, basically to paraphrase “shut up!” Our desire to help, our desire to be a good friend, our desire to be a good person of faith sometimes overrides our better judgment and disables our abilities to truly be a help to people. There was a term I learned in seminary we emphasized it in our counseling courses and that was how to be a “non-anxious presence.” How to, not be disconnected from the trauma or the issue, but how to allow the people who need to be overwhelmed by it, the people who need to voice certain things, or feel a certain way to in fact have that moment. We as Christians are always in danger of telling people what to think and how to think it. This text is a good reminder that sometimes we need to “shut-up” and wait for a better time, or better yet, let God handle the issue. Amen.
It never ceases to amaze me how bad some people are at talking. I’ve been in a lot of situations where I know the person means well, I know their trying to help me, yet they treat me like an idiot. This is a common issue to have, well meaning people, well meaning friends, share some advice try to push you to a conclusion when your not there. In fact those friends tend to come off like Job’s friends do in verse four, they are worthless. What many of us miss, and this bears reminding to me as a minister as well is how often we need to do what Job says in verse five, basically to paraphrase “shut up!” Our desire to help, our desire to be a good friend, our desire to be a good person of faith sometimes overrides our better judgment and disables our abilities to truly be a help to people. There was a term I learned in seminary we emphasized it in our counseling courses and that was how to be a “non-anxious presence.” How to, not be disconnected from the trauma or the issue, but how to allow the people who need to be overwhelmed by it, the people who need to voice certain things, or feel a certain way to in fact have that moment. We as Christians are always in danger of telling people what to think and how to think it. This text is a good reminder that sometimes we need to “shut-up” and wait for a better time, or better yet, let God handle the issue. Amen.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Job 9:32-35
Job 9:32-35 32 "He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. 33 If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, 34 someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. 35 Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
Often I have approached Christ (God) as a friend. I find its natural to talk to God in that manner, and like many other Christians I have been brought up to see God as my friend. The natural extension of this for me and for the majority of Christians is to see God in someway as human. This passage in Job reminds us Christians of a couple of things, one that God is not human. Job is lamenting the fact that there is no way that he can identify. He is not only lamenting that fact his is also longing for a relationship with God. There is another part here that we Christians see, and that is that there is an arbitrator between us and God, Christ. We can rejoice in this knowledge that God has provided a way that we can relate with one another. Yet we need to be mindful that while God loves and cares for us, and that God has continually sought reconciliation with humanity, he is in fact not human. This is a comfort to me, that means Gods ways aren’t my ways and the more I want to hold him to my standards, my words for justice, fairness, righteousness, forgiveness, and grace his ways his decisions are beyond all of humanities, including my owns comprehension. Does that comfort you?
Often I have approached Christ (God) as a friend. I find its natural to talk to God in that manner, and like many other Christians I have been brought up to see God as my friend. The natural extension of this for me and for the majority of Christians is to see God in someway as human. This passage in Job reminds us Christians of a couple of things, one that God is not human. Job is lamenting the fact that there is no way that he can identify. He is not only lamenting that fact his is also longing for a relationship with God. There is another part here that we Christians see, and that is that there is an arbitrator between us and God, Christ. We can rejoice in this knowledge that God has provided a way that we can relate with one another. Yet we need to be mindful that while God loves and cares for us, and that God has continually sought reconciliation with humanity, he is in fact not human. This is a comfort to me, that means Gods ways aren’t my ways and the more I want to hold him to my standards, my words for justice, fairness, righteousness, forgiveness, and grace his ways his decisions are beyond all of humanities, including my owns comprehension. Does that comfort you?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Job 6:14-17
Job 6:14-17 14 "A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow 16 when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, 17 but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.
Doesn’t it seem that Jobs a little harsh here toward his friends? They did sit in silence with him for a week. In fact he’s yelling at two of them who aren’t even saying anything. The key part in this text comes in 14a “even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.” I’ve known many good Christians over the years, and unfortunately I have watched them succumb to the idea that a Christian should only have Christian friends. Or I’ve talked to people in the church and they claim that all of their friends are Christian. What tends to happen is that we abandon those friendship because of attitudes that individual might have toward God. We say its behavior but really its attitude. We become overly sensitive, we think we need to correct people all the time saying “you can’t say that,” or “don’t say that” like the person is going to be struck by lightning or something for even insinuating that God might be responsible or at fault. Job is pointing out to his friend Elphaz (and the others) that you need to just be a friend, not abandon him for his new attitude toward God, no matter how founded or unfounded that attitude is. When I read this verse I remember to thank God for my non-Christian friends. They remind me why I follow Christ and how I need to seek his face in all people, all people around me. They remind me that my job is to make disciples and not pal around with other Christians all the time.
Doesn’t it seem that Jobs a little harsh here toward his friends? They did sit in silence with him for a week. In fact he’s yelling at two of them who aren’t even saying anything. The key part in this text comes in 14a “even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.” I’ve known many good Christians over the years, and unfortunately I have watched them succumb to the idea that a Christian should only have Christian friends. Or I’ve talked to people in the church and they claim that all of their friends are Christian. What tends to happen is that we abandon those friendship because of attitudes that individual might have toward God. We say its behavior but really its attitude. We become overly sensitive, we think we need to correct people all the time saying “you can’t say that,” or “don’t say that” like the person is going to be struck by lightning or something for even insinuating that God might be responsible or at fault. Job is pointing out to his friend Elphaz (and the others) that you need to just be a friend, not abandon him for his new attitude toward God, no matter how founded or unfounded that attitude is. When I read this verse I remember to thank God for my non-Christian friends. They remind me why I follow Christ and how I need to seek his face in all people, all people around me. They remind me that my job is to make disciples and not pal around with other Christians all the time.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Job 4:4-6
Job 4:4-6 4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. 5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
In these verse Eliphaz reminds me of many well meaning, good Christians trying to help someone though a difficult time in their life. They offer canned wisdom, things that we “all ways said” but unfortunately they don’t remember that we always say them when we’re the one’s giving the advice not the ones receiving. Eliphaz is trying to be a good friend; he genuinely wants to help Job, to set Job on the road to recovery and well being. Unfortunately he doesn’t realize that he was better off not saying anything. In our lives that maybe our task more often than not. When someone who isn’t a Christian or someone who is a Christian but has hit hard times, it is not our place to explain their suffering to them. It’s not our place to remind them of what they may have once said, our place is to be silent, listening until they can articulate their needs. Until they can turn to God for help. Then we are there, then we can help, then we can speak.
In these verse Eliphaz reminds me of many well meaning, good Christians trying to help someone though a difficult time in their life. They offer canned wisdom, things that we “all ways said” but unfortunately they don’t remember that we always say them when we’re the one’s giving the advice not the ones receiving. Eliphaz is trying to be a good friend; he genuinely wants to help Job, to set Job on the road to recovery and well being. Unfortunately he doesn’t realize that he was better off not saying anything. In our lives that maybe our task more often than not. When someone who isn’t a Christian or someone who is a Christian but has hit hard times, it is not our place to explain their suffering to them. It’s not our place to remind them of what they may have once said, our place is to be silent, listening until they can articulate their needs. Until they can turn to God for help. Then we are there, then we can help, then we can speak.
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