When will God...
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When will God...
When will God...
We are coming to a shift in Job where the pace has picked up and Job’s original three friends are going to wind up their conversation with Job.
Job will wrap up his speech to his friends.
AND YOU MAY NOTICE that I have changed up the speaking order.
There is a reason for that, and I don’t want you to be freaked out.
The primary issue we open with today is this:
God, when will you...
Fix my spouse, Fix my job, Fix my life, Fix my kids, Fix my parents, Fix my government
By fix, we usually mean...
Mystically change their mind, Cause me to get a raise, Make me look ripped, Make my kids and parents behave, Handle the government
The method we prefer is...
Fire, Strength, Fear, Intimidation, Supernatural signs
The CORE issues though are WHEN and HOW…and that is where Job is...
Job 24-27 a
Here is where we are at the moment...
Job has searched in all directions, but he has realized it is a hopeless quest. God cannot be found, and even if Job finds God, then what? “Whatever God desires, he does.” For Job, this becomes a bitter and hopeless conclusion. How is God held accountable as the moral governor of all creation.
Where do you go from here?
You can retreat into your own gloom
You can turn your experience into a rant against another
LAST WEEK, he did the FIRST.
THIS WEEK, as we look at what he says, he dives into the SECOND.
A RANT against God
“Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment? Why must the godly wait for him in vain?
He presents this CHALLENGE to El Shaddai, the God Most High.
Let me put this in perspective:
God is the God of Justice
So where is this God of justice?
Job has JOINED the COMPANY of the POOR and OPPRESSED.
What follows is a scathing indictment of God.
JOB looks out on creation and makes some observations:
The wicked: steal land and flocks from the orphan and widow, cause the poor to hide in the wasteland, naked and cold. The wicked steal children and use them as collateral. The wicked make the poor work naked and hungry, unable to stop for a drink.
It is so bad, this is what JOB proclaims.
The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the wounded cry for help, yet God ignores their moaning.
Again, it is an indictment.
WHAT…is a CHARGE like this against God Most High doing in SACRED SCRIPTURES?
Heinrich Heine called the book of Job “the Song of Songs of skepticism”—for its seductiveness, its powerful entrancement of the reader to share its vision of the world. Who can dispute Job’s vision? Can God be charmed or persuaded by humans into answering their prayers—even if they are prayers for justice long delayed? Does God indeed rule the world, or does the evidence of oppression and misery all around us not show him up as feckless—and so himself unjust?
David J. A. Clines, Job 21–37, vol. 18a, Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), 617.
What does Job want from God? Why does Job think that God’s primary role is settling accounts? Job desires the wicked to be judged and punished by God, that seems to be the only way he knows of dealing with human wickedness.
The ideas of the repentance, reform, forgiveness, understanding, or education of wrongdoers does not occur to him. This, it must be confessed, is in the end a moral bankruptcy, to have no resources for dealing with wrong except punishment; and Job misjudges any God worth the name if he thinks that God in his wisdom is shut up to this petty principle of tit for tat.
David J. A. Clines, Job 21–37, vol. 18a, Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), 617.
To isolate the wicked this way, and to speak only of their destruction, is a mark of moral immaturity.
The GOOD and the BAD
Do you understand why this book is important in scripture?
God, when will you bring fire, strength, fear, and the supernatural to fix the problem of evil?
Job wants the wicked to be judged and punished by God.
But, what will that do for Job?
In our world we call this CLOSURE. Seeing your assailant go to jail or die by injection.
Then we have CLOSURE.
But, what have the wicked done to Job?
And, JOB is under the ILLUSION, that his RIGHTEOUS LIVING
EARNS or MERITS him special TREATMENT by God on EARTH.
Here is a QUESTION...
Why does Job think rectifying social injustice is God’s problem?
Now, pause, think about that...
We live in a fairly conservative region of a very conservative state.
If I say to you, “we need to be concerned about social justice,” you might run me out of town.
WHY?
Social Justice has become a dog whistle to the conservative right.
Again, WHY?
Why does Job transfer the responsibility for equity and justice among humans from society to God?
Again, I am likely not making any friends here...
“Well Jeremy, it is because they are the richest poor in the world.”
“They are just out for themselves.”
Okay, MAYBE.
But what if their plight is REAL?
If there are rich and poor in a community, and if that is an injustice, to appeal to God to fix it is to remove human responsibility.
IF their PLIGHT is REAL…THEN
When we DISMISS THEM, we have REJECTED the command of God to restore JUSTICE to the OPPRESSED.
And THAT, scares the CRAP out of ME!
IT SHOULD GIVE US PAUSE...
The LAKE of FIRE is RESERVED for DIVINE BEINGS who LED and PARTICIPATED in the OPPRESSION of the weak, the poor, etc.
Boiled down…here is the issue, right in the middle of the BOOK!
Job knows he cannot win from God a declaration of his innocence.
God himself has given up on governing his world.
For Job, and for MANY of US...
Governance of God is simple ACCOUNTING.
Most of our theology is built on ACCOUNTING.
(WE CANNOT HELP IT)
Think about it.
Paul in 2 Corinthians writes,
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
When WE see God as the GREAT COSMIC ACCOUNTANT...
(NOTICE the ACCOUNTING LANGUAGE)
THEN we LOSE SIGHT of how God really Governs his world.
Here is how God governs HIS WORLD...
God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.”
How about these from Jesus...
You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, be reconciled to your neighbor, love your enemies and pray for those who insult you, give to those in need secretly, lay up treasure in heaven, judge not, that you be not judged, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. For with the measure you use what has been given to you, it will be measured back to you.
Seems to me that Jesus desired to govern the world THROUGH US in LOVE
Which begs the question...
Who has been charged with governing?
You.
You and I want to govern with the fire and brimstone of God (just like James and John)
God commands that we set that desire aside, and govern with love.
But there are so many who are not in agreement with us.
CORRECT!
Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What did Jesus teach us to obey? LOVE one ANOTHER.
We just READ IT...
But we don’t do that…we TEACH others to KEEP an ACCOUNTING of THEIR SINS
We don’t follow what Jesus told us to do...
And then we wonder why the world is spiraling out of control.
It is up to you and to me to:
Climb out of our pit of despair, with help if necessary
Assume our God commanded responsibility, and
Take charge of living in love with others.