Month: October 2012

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Sitting in Silence, lessons learned from Job’s Friends

7th print from William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job, pub. 1826

How often, when people are going through loss or tragedy, do we lament that we just don’t know what to say? Maybe that even holds us back from approaching others in their time of grief. The friends of Job may have plenty of words to say to him in his time of great suffering, but they don’t make up with quantity what they lack in quality. They come to bring comfort, but instead accuse him. I think we fear having wrong words like those three and that fear holds us back in a state of inaction.

To their credit they begin their time with Job with a great show of solidarity and compassion. The three come to him, tear their clothes, cover themselves in ashes, and sit with him. They sit with him in silence for seven days and seven nights. Here was a man who had lost so much and was enduring great physical pain. Did they have the perfect thing to say that would make everything better? Of course not. What could they say? But Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar come to be by Job’s side.

They show compassion, a word whose root means to suffer with. They sit and suffer with Job, and that at least can be something we learn from them.

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The Radiance of God

The Adoration of the Shepherds, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things,through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Hebrews 1:1-4

This is an opening unlike what we’ve seen in Paul’s letters. You may be forgiven for jumping over the first verse or two in his introductions, but here you’d be missing so much. You can’t read these lines slow enough to capture all the majesty of Christ we read in them. We see how he is the perfect revelation of God. Through Christ this world was made and by his word the universe is upheld. Christ is utterly supreme. He is not only savior, who has made us pure, but he is our sovereign Lord.

These are themes the author goes on to emphasize throughout this whole letter, so don’t overlook the introduction.

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A tip for reading Job

Job mocked by his wife, Georges de la Tour, 1625-1650

One thing I have found difficulty in reading Job is just keeping track of where I am. This is a pretty unique book and coming from the prophets in which we have fewer voices to keep track of, Job is complicated in comparison. Once we get past the prologue we find Job surrounded by three people, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

As the speeches start, make sure to keep track in your mind who is talking. Sometimes they’ll go on for pages, so you won’t have those handy little section headings that modern Bibles have. Each one will speak and then Job will reply to them. It is good to note here that just because the words of these companions are included in the Bible does not mean that they each have thoroughly ‘biblical’ perspectives. Try to imagine what you’d say to someone in Job’s position to get a sense of the difficulty these three have in finding any words to share. But also think of Job’s perspective and ask how he would respond to their words. They go back and forth several times, taking us through the first 26 chapters.

Later on another man named Elihu is added to this discussion, but in the end it is not the words of any of these men, but God who has the final say.

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Welcome to Week 4 of this Fall Quarter

William Blake’s illustration of Job

If you’ve made it this far here’s what I have to say–Well done, everyone. Jeremiah was a long, full book and you’ve finished it. But if you were hoping for a short and light read to follow it, you’ve come to the wrong place. We get the ancient book of Job with all the challenging questions about suffering and God’s sovereignty. We’ll also begin Hebrews, which I’ve really enjoyed in the last few years. It teaches us, among other things, just how perfectly Jesus fulfills the Old Testament.

Don’t forget that this week we’re back into the Psalms, so get back out your third bookmark for this week.

Send your questions my way and enjoy the week.

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Coming back to something familiar

Back in the winter our church began a church-wide small group which had as one of its theme verses Colossians 3:16. If you were a part of that study, did you notice it when you came back around to it? It’s only taken us a little over 6 months to stumble upon it again.

The segment that we memorized (can you still recall it?) was: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The entire verse is: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Here is a snippet on this verse taken from a sermon that kicked off Year in the Bible back in March, focusing on what it means for God’s word to dwell richly:

If you dwell richly in your home, how is that different from dwelling poorly? To dwell richly would mean having the best. You wouldn’t live in a closet, but in the finest room. To dwell richly wouldn’t mean to spend an afternoon there. To dwell richly would mean to abide, to live into the space, to make it your own permanently.

The word of Christ dwelling richly in us is not too different. It is too be firmly established in us, given the best of our time. Christ’s words are to be a favored guest in us, not an unwelcome visitor. Christ’s words are to be a centerpiece of our lives, like the big fish hanging over your fireplace. Christ’s words are to be given your favorite chair, the place of honor at your dinner table. To let the word dwell is not so different from truly delighting in it, like in Psalm 1. We are pleased to spend time with God in his Word. We enjoy him in it, we seek him there. We ask him to dwell with us and we never show him the door.

I hope having spent these times with God in the Bible, you are learning more and more what these passage means. I hope your experience of dwelling in God’s word continues to bear fruit, and may it lead to our being clothed in the character of Christ, which we read in the verses just before 3:16.

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The people’s failure to listen to Jeremiah

Zedekiah brought before the one who conquered Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar

You’d think after foreign powers have taken over Jerusalem, taking with them a great number of your own, you might then start to listen to Jeremiah. Jeremiah had been telling about the coming destruction and how it is the judgment of God. But no one listened. But Jeremiah was right.

I figured in reading through this that having shown his prophetic merit, the people would listen when in chapter 42 Jeremiah warns the remnant to remain in the land and not flee to Egypt. He says:

If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

But after all they’ve experienced, do they listen? No. Time and time again the people do not listen to God through his prophet, and ignoring God’s word is never a wise decision.

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More on Colossians 1

I put up the picture inspired by Colossians 1 on Monday, but I did so without explanation. So I thought today I’d talk more about what I see going on in the opening of the chapter. Paul writes beginning in verse three:

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

You may have noticed by now that Paul likes to use long sentences. This is one good reason to slow down and make sure you’re understanding what he writes. The picture from Monday centers in on ‘hope’ and I did this because although it comes later in the passage, we hear that it is a cause for the faith and love about which Paul has heard. Their hope–their goal, their promise–spurs them on to have greater faith in Christ and to spread his love to others. Christians who journey toward the goal, who are bound to the hope we have in Christ, should exhibit in that journey the characteristics that arise from that hope: love and faith.

Later in verse five Paul tells of where this hope is found, that is in the word of truth, the gospel. These words have power as they have not only taken hold in these Colossian believers, but in the whole world. Where the gospel is sown it bears fruit and this fruit is faith, hope, and love.

The Colossians know what their end will be, they have their hope, and they are exhibiting the marks of followers of Christ, faith and love. But Paul then goes on to pray for them so that they may know best how to live. They are already trusting Christ and loving the saints, but he wants them to excel in it. Paul wants them to know what faith and love will continue to look like, so he writes:

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Christians surely know we should have faith, hope, and love. What can be difficult is having the wisdom to know not only the what but the how. This is Paul’s prayer. He wants them to know God’s will for them and to have the wisdom to discern how to follow his will. This is not an endeavor to begin alone so we need the strength of God’s power to endure this life, and to do so with patience and joy.

Even though Paul gives thanks to God when he thinks of his fellow Christians, for their love and faith, he reminds his reader that this is not something we’ve achieved on our own, rather it is the Father who has qualified us to receive all we have.

Keep reading Colossians and you’ll see a beautiful picture of Christ and what he has done for us, and how what he has done is sufficient for all we’ll ever need.