Today's Reading June 25
We continue this morning in Job, chapters 4, 5, and 6
To add to his other troubles, his ''friends'' come calling. And give him the benefit of their words, the theme of which is that what has come upon Job is probably his fault, the fit recompense for wickedness somewhere.
From chapter 4,
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?or
17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
From chapter 5
6 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
and
17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
Acts, chapter 7, verses 20 through 43
Steven continues his speech before the religious leaders of the day, reciting the works of the Almighty in His dealings with the Jews.
So does vs 17 mean that all
ReplyDelete"bad" things that happen to us - sickness, loss, injury, etc. are chastenings from the Lord? Do you really think God does those things to us?
Not all the 'bad' things that happen to us are from the Lord, though that seems to be the belief of Job's friends. That attitude and belief persists today as well. No that point is that we can't always know. The bad may come from the Devil's opposition. The 'bad' may be the chastening of the Lord. It may also be His way of accomplishing a greater thing - see, for example, the trials of Joseph. Or of Steven and Paul and James and many others. And the bad may just be the results of living in a fallen world: when you get a flat tire, you may have just driven over a nail, there was no ''deeper meaning''. The key is, when we can't understand the circumstances, to see beyond to the One who waits for us. That's faith.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, there is an unfortunate belief in our world that the Lord will never ''do things to us''. The record does not support such a ''happy happy'' belief. See Sodom and Gomorrha, for example. Or Jerusalem at the time of several attacks. Sometimes He does inded remove His hand of protection. Falwell said so after 9/11 and took a lot of heat for it. Theologically, his point was correct - it can happen. Whether it did is something none of us knows. But ''the judgments of the Lord are just altogether'' and we are wise to recall it.
Job is an important book. We can't always know what the Lord's purposes are. We can only know Him, and trust Him, and cling ever tighter against the storms. Job did.