Job Concludes & Other Stories
It was a struggle this week to read because I had so much stuff rummaging through my mind but I was able to double up the last few days which made all the difference. For this blog I won’t cover Genesis, I’ll simply roll all the Genesis passages in the next one and focus on the rest of Job and Matthew today. Lets start with Job. This week I read Job 34-42.
In 36-37 Elihu speaks about God’s justice, God’s dealings with Men, and God in the back of a storm. Although I found these words valid and such I’m still left with gosh do you really need to throw this stuff at this guy right now? I guess there is something to be said that in times like these we need to be reminded of who God is and what he’s done in our lives and such but I still struggle with this whole exchange between Job and his friends. I’m thinking that Job needs to hear from God directly which I think was Job’s point here rather than being reproached by Elihu and company. There is room for encouragement and such in times when our friends are suffering though and there is a time for us to remind them of God’s faithfulness but harping on the persons sin which Elihu end up on doesn’t help much either.
God Speaks- Finally in chapter 38 God speaks to Job and I found it so interesting that I wrote a song about it mainly using the same verses, arranged a little differently with a refrain added in after each section. The tune to the song sounds beautiful when played on a bodhrán (kinda hard to explain unless you hear it). Here it is:
Were you there when he laid the earth’s foundation
Who marked off its dimension surely you know
Who stretched a measuring line across it
On what were its foundation set
Where oh where oh where were you
Where oh where oh where were you
Where oh where oh man were you
Surely you must understand these things
You have lived so many years
Do you know who shut the seas behind doors
or when it bursts forth from the whom
Were you there when he made the clouds their garments
When he set its doors and bars in place
Have you ever given orders to the morning
Have you ever shown the dawn its place
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
Or walk in the recesses of the deep
Who oh who oh who are you
Who oh who oh who are you
Who oh who oh man are you
Surely you must understand these things
You have lived so many years
Can you bind the beautiful Pleides or
loose the cords of Orion
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
Or lead out the bear with her cubs
Do you know the laws of the highest heavens
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth
Can you tip over the water jars of the heavens
or cut a channel for the torrents of rain
Can oh can oh can can you
Can oh can oh can can you
Can oh can oh man can you
Surely you must understand these things
You have lived so many years
In the rest of Job God goes on about various things which I think gives you a bit of an idea as to how all-powerful and all-knowig God really is and how small we are in comparison. Some creatures are mentioned that the footnotes speculate about but I’ve yet to see a leviathan or a behemoth so they’ve always seemed a bit way out there to me. Job hardly gets out a reply but humbles himself before the Lord and in the epilogue we are told that God deals with Job’s friends and tells them that he is angry with them and instructed them to repent and for Job to pray for them. In the end we are told that [The LORD (restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold). Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days].
Matthew 14-18:
Head on a Platter and other stories. This part of Matthew is rich with some of my favorite Bible stories some of which
have puzzled me to this day. This section starts off with a story about a little girl who danced and pleased a King so
much that he vowed to give her anything she wanted. This King happened to be her uncle and was hooked up with her mother who was the wife of his brother. Talk about some serious dysfunctional family. Prompted by her mother the little girl asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter and the King not wanting to lose face gives it to the little girl. Now I’m thinking gross what kind of a mother ask a child to ask for someone’s head on a platter this is just morbid and gross. Most parents now try to protect their children from death and destruction this mother had no such desire to protect her child at all. I look back at these Biblical times in my mind and I’m quick to not remember the gross violations of human lives that happened in those days, I only think of Jesus and his disciples walking around in their togas and sandals and preaching and healing and forget about the people being flogged, the crucifixions, the Romans harassing the Jews more than likely dragging off a host of them to prison for no good reason and yes some people like John even lost their heads now and again coz the King wanted it or in this case his mistress wanted it that way.
Feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes : Now after Jesus heard about the death of John he went off to be by himself a little while (understandable since he just lost his friend) Like before the crowds got wind of it and followed him on foot. Now Jesus I’m sure still grieved for his friend had compassion on the crowd and starting healing the sick. I’m thinking if I just lost a good friend I would seriously want to get away from the crowd and go hide and bawl somewhere but not Jesus. He started healing people and not only that he wouldn’t send them away to get food to eat as his disciples had instructed. Jesus made it seem like these folks came to visit him in his house and I won’t send them away hungry… He said to his disciples you give them something to eat. They scrounge up 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes and Jesus prayed over it and it multiplied enough that everyone ate their fill and they had plenty of left-overs (12 basket full) I don’t know the size of the baskets but they had left overs after feeding 5000 men not including the women and children from 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. Wow what would happen if we applied this type of faith to the starving folks in Africa and other places? I remember on one occasions a few of us had cooked for our fellowship meeting. The food turned out to be a bit on the small side that is we didn’t have enough to feed everyone by the looks of things. We prayed and that food most definitely multiplied, expanded or something coz everyone had enough and even went back for seconds. We kinda laughed it off nonchalantly and said God multiplied the food. I haven’t forgotten the experience though and know that this kind of stuff can and does happen. Having little money in my wallet this week I’m hoping for some serious multiplication of food in my fridge. No pun intended.
The Canaanite Woman: In chapter 15 Jesus encounters a woman from the vicinity of Tyre & Sidon who kept crying out to him to heal her daughter who was demon possessed. Jesus did something very puzzling to me he ignored her. The woman of course did not let this get to her and kept up the commotion so much his disciples got fed up and asked him to send her away. He tells the woman “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” she in turn came and knelt before him and asked him to help her (talk about not getting a clue). He replies that “it is not right to take the Children’s bread and toss it to their dogs” an apparent insult. I like this woman, she has gusto she knew what she wanted and she wasn’t giving up. His statement did not deter her one bit and she says to him “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Jesus’ reaction? “Woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. I am humbled and challenged by this example. I think sometimes when I ask God for something important I give up too easily. I’m not persistent I just ask half way and hope for the best. This woman pressed Jesus until she got what she wanted… healing for her daughter. She wanter her child to be well again and no disciple or Jesus’ initial reaction was going to keep her from her daughter being healed. She knew where to go, she knew he could do it, she persevered and it was credited to her as faith and her daughter was well again.
The Transfiguration: In Chapter 17 we are told that Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. The passage says that “his face shown like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.” To add to this Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking to Jesus. Can you say weird? First of all Moses and Elijah are supposed to be dead , second Jesus looks totally different, he’s got some kind of glow going on. He’s talking to these two dead guys and a cloud came down and enveloped them and a voice from the cloud started speaking. Now the disciples did what I would have done (they fell down on their faces terrified) except maybe I would have fallen backward down the mountain in addition. Jesus touches them and tells them not to be afraid then tells them not to tell anyone until he was glorified. I would have had some more questions about the glorified bit at this point but the disciples got into some discussion with him about the law and Elijah instead.
To end this section, in Chapter 18:15-35 Jesus instructs his disciples on handling conflicts with each other then he ends with the story of the unmerciful servant. He instructs them that if a brother sin against them they are to first go to the brother and show him his fault, just between the two of them. I know we have a hard time with this, its easier to first go to someone and tell them how the brother did this and that without talking to the offending brother first. Only if going to the brother fails are we to bring in 1 or 2 others and confront the offending brother, if he refuses to listen then take it to the church, if he still refuses then that’s it. Peter asks how many times he is to forgive a brother that sin against him I suppose the law at that time required 7 times. Jesus multiplied it by saying 77 times. To further illustrate his point he tells them the story of the unmerciful servant. In this story a king wanted to settle his accounts with his servants and found a servant who owed him 10,000 talents (from the notes this is millions of dollars) talk about a large credit card debt. Anyway, the servant could not possibly pay up so the king was going to have him and his wife and kids and their possessions sold to pay off the debt. The servant pleaded for mercy and the king cancelled the debt and let him go (wish the bank would do this today). Anyway, this guy should have been ecstatic with joy but what does he do? He finds a servant who owes him 100 denarii (a few dollars) grabs the man by the throat and ask him to pay up. The fellow servant pleaded for mercy and what does this fellow do? He had the man thrown in prison for a few dollars. The other folks who witness this were distressed and went back and reported it to the king. The king confronted him about it and had him thrown in prison and tortured until he could pay back all he owed. This is a jarring story of how much we ought to forgive but not only that how much we have been forgiven. Here is this servant forgiven $1 million and he could not forgive someone who owed him a few dollars. How much do I do this though? I have been forgiven much yet the question I ask myself is how much do I forgive?
