The Book of Job

I heard once that the book of Job is the oldest book in Bible, though I'm not sure if that is true or not.   I do know that I always hated it growing up.  Is it a true story?  A parable?  Whatever it is, it's quite a tale.  Satan and God are arguing about whether Job only loves God because God is good to him, so God gives Satan permission to basically reek havoc, to see how Job will respond.  And for some reason people always refer to 'the patience of Job', but I never saw how he was patient.  He was in agony--how does sitting in agony mean your being patient?  If people think he was enduring the agony 'patiently', I don't think they've actually read it:


“Therefore I will not keep silent;  I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul...I despise my life...Let me alone; my days have no meaning. What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention,  that you examine them every morning and test them every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?"


Yes, at the beginning of his torment he says, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”, but towards the end he changes his tune a little:


“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.  If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more...I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me... Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin—though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?"


I'm sorry, but these are not 'patiently enduring my suffering' words, these are fightin' words--pissed off words.  And the thing is, he has every right to be angry.  He didn't do anything wrong.  And to top it off his friends are saying, "You better watch your mouth, because God would never do this unless you deserved it"...talk about insult to injury.


"Surely mockers surround me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility. God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit."


And then the end...God shows up.  This is the part I hated most.  Does He apologize to Job for allowing all this suffering?  Nope.  He actually seems mad at Job: "Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me", and he goes on and on about being Creator of all and caretaker of all, so who is Job to accuse Him?  And Job, after all he has been through, and even through he was innocent and suffered so much, agrees:


Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know." 


When I used to read this, I imagined that Job really didn't feel all that differently--I mean, God didn't explain why Job went through all that, or make it better (at that point) so I guess I thought that Job was just kowtowing out of fear, because he was in trouble for complaining to an all powerful God.  I imagine it very differently now.  Job saw God with his own eyes, and Job was no longer mad.  Job felt terrible for questioning the goodness of God...even without an explanation or an apology.  "You can do all things, no purpose of yours can be thwarted", he says.  And what are these things?  "Too wonderful for me to know".  I don't think it is fear that is making him react this way.  I think it's love.  Job must have seen something pretty amazing to make him forget all his pain.  I know a few people going through pain I just can't even imagine.  My hope, the hope that helps me not shake my fist at God even though He's all powerful and does nothing to ease their pain, is that there are things too wonderful for me to know that makes it all worth it.  In James 5 it says, "You heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that very compassionate is the Lord, and pitying."  Sometimes it's hard to see that--but I'll end with one of my journal entries from the book of Job.


S) My friends, you think up ways to blame and torment me, saying I brought it on myself.  But watch out for the judgment, when God will punish you. (Job 19:28)
O) Job's friends keep telling him he is suffering because he has sinned.  They can't believe he is blaming God.  But Job is not afraid to cry out and tell God exactly how he feels--betrayed and abandoned.  But he holds on to the hope that he will be vindicated.
A) Job has some guts to talk back to his friends this way.  I think when your in that much pain, you just don't care what people think anymore.  In the end, his friends were not punished, because God asks Job to pray for them--and he does.  How remarkable.  This is the compassion and pity of God.
P) God, you know the part of me that wants judgement to fall on the 'leaders of the church'.  What I really want is your heart of compassion and pity.  Help me surrender my rights to vindication and trust you.

God the Gardener

So many parables in the Bible used to terrify me.  They always made me feel like I was just not measuring up, and that God was so disappointed...and very angry.  Many of the descriptions of God's discipline involve chopping off and burning up, and so no wonder the focus has mostly been "accept Jesus so God won't punish you".  Here's a few I remember reading as a child and feeling like it was a good thing Jesus saved me from this God who disliked people so much:


Weeds are gathered and burned. That's how it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everyone who does wrong or causes others to sin. Then he will throw them into a flaming furnace, where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. (Matthew 13:40-42)


Maybe you think those branches were cut away, so that you could be put in their place. That's true enough. But they were cut away because they did not have faith, and you are where you are because you do have faith. So don't be proud, but be afraid. If God cut away those natural branches, couldn't he do the same to you? (Romans 11:19-21)


I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener...If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. If you don't stay joined to me, you will be thrown away. You will be like dry branches that are gathered up and burned in a fire. (John 15:5-6)
(because I cringe even now reading how I will be thrown away, let me use the Young's Literal:  "if any one may not remain in me, he was cast forth without as the branch, and was withered, and they gather them, and cast to fire, and they are burned"...(and also to help with fear, don't forget what he says two verses later) "According as the Father did love me, I also loved you, remain in my love."


Because I now believe Jesus is the reflection of God, and his death is the symbol of God's suffering for us and in us and with us until we are transformed into his image, (instead of Jesus being punished instead of us, much like a loving sibling would take a beating from an abusive Father in place of another sibling) I see these parables in a whole different light.  If I wanted to convey to you that the pain you were going through was not a result of hate, but of love...what better image to use than a gardener?  Who is more patient and caring and gentle (and nonviolent) than a gardener?  Everything he does is for the benefit of his plants...to help them grow.  What gardener prunes his trees because he hates them?  Who would believe he picks the ripe grapes because he thinks they are so much more deserving than the unripe ones?  And when he burns his yard waste, he is just cleaning up.  Who would imagine him standing over the burning branches and saying "suffer, you piece of crap branches that didn't produce for me!"  But our shame over our failures, and our anger at those who hurt us, obscure our ideas about who God is.  When we can look at Jesus and say, "THAT is who God is", then we are able to see Him as the gentle gardener, weeding and pruning to make everything beautiful and productive.

The Cross

Is there anything more central to Christianity than the cross of Christ?  On churches, on jewelry, on tattoos, on clothing--the cross is the symbol that is known everywhere to represent Jesus and what it means to follow him.  But what does it mean, really?  I'm certainly not the only one who is rethinking how the cross has been traditionally understood.  It seems odd though, doesn't it, that all of a sudden there is all this debate about it.  But I have to think that maybe there was always debate about it--I mean, it's such a deep subject.  Because I come from a religious background of such black and whites, (where you were told what was true, and that was that) I assumed that nobody ever questioned these 'truths'...especially this central belief that Jesus was punished in our place.


It's been a shock for me to find that a very clear "Substitutionary Atonement" theology has never really been agreed upon.  I understand why it makes people so uncomfortable to even think about it...there's a fear the meaning of the cross will be diminished or even discounted if you pick at it too much.  In no way do I want to do that.  For me, seeing the cross as a punishment for sin is what diminishes it, and that's why I'm so certain it cannot be it's true and fullest meaning.  And so, I'm going to try my best to present a deeper way of seeing it.  These are excerpts (below) from Hannah Hurnard's book  The Winged Life, from the chapter "Revelation Made by Jesus Christ".  I think it is the most meaningful explanation of the the cross I have ever found, but I certainly can't 'prove' to you it's true.  All I can say is, when I see it this way, my love and devotion deepens...for God and humanity both.


     "As a young Christian my first conception of God represented Him to me as...high and lifted up and inhabiting eternity.  He was entirely unapproachable by sinners, save through a mediator, his son Jesus Christ.  I knew that He knows everything and nothing can be hidden from Him...but I conceived of Him as cognizant of it all in an absolutely impersonal way, except of those who were brought into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus.  I was quite sure that when Christ arose again and returned to the glory of the Father...he is now past the reach of all suffering.   I can never forget the shock of horror of the very idea with which I reacted to a passage in a book...
     'God knows and is cognizant of all the sin and the horror of its manifestations and results all over the world.  Not a single detail is unknown to him...I can pity, I can sympathize, I can try to help, but then I can come home...and I am away from it all.  But he stays there.'
     With my whole will I longed to reject it--a suffering God instead of the high and lofty one, who had only needed to suffer once in order to atone for all the world's sorrow and anguish.  But God, being omnipresent, must be conscious of it all the time...and feeling it all with the anguish of holy love.  But still, revolutionary as this new idea was, I still thought of Him as suffering from without...suffering in much the same way as a loving and heartbroken father or mother suffers while tending a child in some agonizing illness.  It took another twenty years (when I saw) what our Lord Jesus has revealed about God through his choosing to become incarnate in a man--namely that he is conscious of himself in all humans. Until that moment I had thought of God as conscious of everything from without...but now I saw...he is conscious of it from within. This is what the saints mean when they speak of God as immanent. God manifest in the flesh. Once, in the fullness of time, when we were able to be shown, God in Jesus Christ revealed to us and the truth about "God with us reveled in us."  Every part of his incarnation, life and death on the cross--yes, and his glorious resurrection is a revelation of this truth.  
     The Jewish people found it overwhelmingly difficult to grasp the significance of a suffering God, of the Creator on a cross, just as they were so unable to understand the revelation of the presence of God actually dwelling in a tent of skins...and would not believe he was present and incarnate in a human body.  He was wounded and has been wounded for our transgressions all along...from the moment of the first sin it began to be true.  "Surly he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows", "In all their afflictions he was afflicted"...these passages now take on a marvelous and overwhelming significance, and a host of other ones as well.  Never again can I despise or be indifferent to a single individual that I meet...for I see someone in whom the eternal God and Redeemer is conscious of...feeling and bearing all they feel and bear and all the consequences of their sin and the cruel sins done against them by others.
     Here, at least as far as I can see, is the answer to the mystery of suffering...Love himself is in them, feeling it all, bearing it, crucified and rising to life making himself responsible to undo, in the end, all the results of sin...and bringing forth in his own good time resurrection life out of agony and death."

Belief vs Faith

I don't think there is anything more confusing than the concept of "having faith." So much damage has been done in people's hearts and lives because they have been judged by their brothers and sisters for not having enough faith. We are taught we are "saved" (aka, not going to hell) if we "believe" in Jesus. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (Side note: why does perish mean go to eternal hell?)

"Believing" means to many "believe Jesus died and rose again, believe he was born of a virgin, believe he was the son of God"...basically, get your facts straight. If you don't "believe" any of the corrects "facts" -- then you're not saved. (Again, from hell, apparently.) This is why everyone fights so much over these critical facts...because getting them right is of eternal consequence. It sort of feels like you will need to take an entrance exam when you die...Question #1: What is the trinity? Don't know? Too bad so sad, that was something you had to "believe" in.  So sorry...next!

But Jesus asked the people standing right in front of him to "believe" in him. I think a better word would be "trust." If I ask you to believe in me, I'm asking for your confidence...as in, "Don't worry...I can do it." Christians spend a lot of time trying to prove the Bible is 100% accurate, because this will make people believe the correct facts. But the thing about belief is, is does not make something true. I can believe all day long the sun is made of jello, but it will not make it so. Either something is true or it is not true --belief does not change it. Faith is something different. The Bible defines it as "hope in something you can't prove is true."


Faith is a motivator into action. Faith is what gives me courage to do something, because even though I can't prove it, I believe it is true. (Maybe this is where faith and belief interact?) If there is a chasm, and I want to get across, and someone says "there is a bridge here, you just can't see it"-- it would take faith to step off the cliff.  And yes, belief it is there. But regardless of what I believe...either it is there or it isn't.

So, back to saved by faith. Many Christians think because they believe the correct things about Jesus, they have earned salvation. (Which to them is forgiveness so they get into Heaven.) This is why they can look down so terribly on atheists or anyone of another faith tradition, because those people have chosen not to believe the correct things, therefore, they are not forgiven. But FAITH is the thing that saves us. (And again I'll ask...saves us from what? God's rejection? His punishment?)


Paul goes on and on about faith in Romans and in Galatians, and guess what -- most of that faith didn't even have to do with Jesus.  It's just about people believing God could do what he promised, even when everything in the physical realm shouted "THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!" The story of Abraham sacrificing his son is a good example. Everyone always talks about this story being about obedience...a good Christian would be willing to give up anything (even their children) if God asked them too. Sadly, I think this is why so many parents completely abandon their gay children, because they see it as obedience to God. But if you look closely at this story, you'll see the only reason Abraham decides to go ahead and sacrifice his son is because he believes God will make him alive again -- because he trusts that God will make good on his promise to make his son into a great nation. And sure enough, his FAITH is what God credits to him as righteousness, not his obedience. So, are we to feel superior to those who's faith is weak?


Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. (Romans 12:3)


And also:
If I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. (I corn. 13:2)


Maybe faith is given to us so we can learn how to love. Maybe learning to love...becoming loving as God is loving and knowing and living in His love for us...is being "saved." Just a thought.

  

Fire

The winds are your messengers, and flames of fire are your servants.
Psalm 104:3-5


My words are a powerful fire; they are a hammer that shatters rocks.
Jeremiah 23:28-30


The LORD himself has promised to be a protective wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem, and he will be its shining glory in the heart of the city."
Zechariah 2:4-6


Everyone must be salted with fire.
Mark 9:48-50


I came to set fire to the earth, and I wish it were already on fire! (Jesus speaking)
Luke 12:48-50


The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, "My love for your house burns in me like a fire."
John 2:16-18


Dear friends, don't be surprised or shocked that you are going through testing that is like walking through fire.
1 Peter 4:11-13


When the crowd of people saw the fire and the Lord's glory, they knelt down and worshiped the Lord. They prayed: "The Lord is good, and his love never ends."
2 Chronicles 7:2-4


Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Revelation 20:13-15


The Bible talks about fire a lot.  (roughly 353 times...if "Biblegateway.com" is right)  These are just a few scriptures I found interesting, and hopefully get you thinking that maybe fire is not such a bad thing according to the Bible.  God led the Israelites with fire, the Holy Spirit baptizes with fire, Jesus eyes are described as flames of fire, and so on.  But I certainly understand why it's seen as bad, especially after looking through them all...because most the time the fire was coming from God's wrath and burning everything up.  It's so terrifying, and so no wonder people blame Satan and say he's the one in control of the fire.  But I want to make a strong point that the fire God punished with always destroyed things...not tortured things. 


Fire is described as causing torment in a few places, like the parable of the wheat and the weeds and the parable of Lazarus. (a different post, but I really don't think these parables are teaching about what hell is or isn't) I've been in torment a few times in my life-- I look back at those times and can honestly say I'm thankful, because I know I would not have changed without that pain.  So many people believe the lake of fire and hell are the same thing, but how can that be when it says hell is thrown into the lake of fire?  And if  "God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29) then shouldn't that mean that hell is destroyed?


The Bible is a difficult book, and it's even more difficult if we think of all these images as being literal.  (especially in Revelations)  If you need to believe there is an actual lake of fire, then you need to believe that Jesus is an actual lamb that stands before an actual throne.  To believe these images are conveying spiritual and not literal truths does not mean they are not speaking truths at all, it just means we have to be humble enough to admit that maybe we don't understand them, because we are spiritually blind.  May God open our eyes, so we can see Him for who He is.

Judgement

We die only once, and then we are judged. (Hebrews 9:27)


Here is another scripture used to prove that once we die, there is no hope if we haven't accepted Jesus. (Actually, as far as I know, it's the only scripture that 'proves' this.) Supposedly this means we are judged, either to go to heaven or hell for all eternity; end of story. But let me show you another scripture:


Don't be surprised! The time will come when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they will come out of their graves. Everyone who has done good things will rise to life, but everyone who has done evil things will rise and be condemned. (John 5:28-29)


Hummm...the dead who are in eternal hell will be brought back so they can be thrown back in. That seems odd, doesn't it? Let's look at it from the Young's Literal translation:


Wonder not at this, because there doth come an hour in which all those in the tombs shall hear his voice, and they shall come forth; those who did the good things to a rising again of life, and those who practiced the evil things to a rising again of judgment.


Notice the difference between "condemned" and "judgment."  Condemned sounds sort of final, sort of hopeless. Judgment sounds a little more hopeful I think. When singers stand before the judges on "American Idol," and they say, "That sucked"...usually it's because they want to help them, and not just to let them know they are a piece of crap. (Unless it's Simon Cowell...do you think God is like him?) Let's look at what Jesus says right before he says this, and maybe it will shed a little light:


For, as the Father doth raise the dead, and doth make alive, so also the Son doth make alive whom he willeth; for neither doth the Father judge any one, but all the judgment He hath given to the Son, that all may honour the Son according as they honour the Father; he who is not honouring the Son, doth not honour the Father who sent him. `Verily, verily, I say to you -- He who is hearing my word, and is believing Him who sent me, hath life age-during, and to judgment he doth not come, but hath passed out of the death to the life. `Verily, verily, I say to you -- There cometh an hour, and it now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those having heard shall live; for, as the Father hath life in himself, so He gave also to the Son to have life in himself, and authority He gave him also to do judgment, because he is Son of Man.


A few things I think are important; first, Jesus says he makes alive those whom he chooses. (His choice, not ours.) Second, he says the hour is now that the dead hear his voice and have life. (Physical or spiritual death and life?) Thirdly, Jesus said God gave him authority to do judgement because he is son of Man. "Doing" judgement seems active...again, like it has purpose. And why point out he has authority to do this action because he is son of man, instead of son of God?  Things to think about.


PS...I was just watching "Super Nanny," a show where a nanny spends time with families who are struggling with parenting. At one point, she brings in video footage to watch with the parents so she can "judge" their parenting. Today the mother turned to Super Nanny and said, "You are such a good teacher, because you don't make us feel like loser parents." Do you think Super Nanny is a more compassionate and loving judge and teacher than Jesus?

Living in the Kingdom of God (part II)

Starting where I left off:


4) "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled"
The need for love is a hunger implanted by the Creator.  This instinct has become a torment and tyrant to most who seek to fulfill it unrighteously.  Jesus is righteousness personified--the expression of everything that is lovely and like God.  When we hunger for union with him, we will be satisfied.


5) "Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy"
We should have sympathy and understanding for the needs, sufferings, and testings of others; not indifference and contempt of their weaknesses.  The unheavenly practice of criticizing and talking spitefully about others will murder the lovely qualities of mercy, gentleness, compassion and understanding, which the Holy Spirit so longs to cultivate in our hearts.


6) "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God"
To be pure in heart means your actions and words are a crystal clear reflection of the motives and intents of your heart.  The hypocrite desires to veil the true thoughts and purposes of his heart, because it would bring disapproval from others.  If he can appear well in the eyes of men, he is satisfied.  Only those who practice sincerity and truthfulness in all things can 'see God' (or know what He is truly like) because every falsity in our lives must result in a distorted conception of God.  Matthew 6 shows three examples of hypocrisy and dishonesty to which religious people are most liable:
a) Charity given from motives of desiring praise in the eyes of men.  Showing off our 'generosity' to attract attention to ourselves.
b) Fasting (or any self-denial) and then making sure people know about it.  A spirit which hates to do good in secret, but must have an admiring and appreciative audience is not pure.
c) If our prayers are not the expression of real desires in our hearts, but only pious ideas which will sound fine to the ears of others, then it is hypocritical.


7) "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God"
The root cause of all discord, separation, division, and disunity are: anger at one another, indifference to the feelings of another, and contempt of others. (Matt. 5:21-26) Broken, sin-diseased relationships within mankind can only be healed through the power of God working through his 'peacemakers'--those who are connected with the life and healing power of the head of the body; Jesus (the Prince of Peace)


8) "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven"
This principle is enlarged upon in 5:43-48 when Jesus says "love your enemies, bless those who curse you".  This is the heavenly principle of forgiveness, a willingness to bear the wrong done against us without demanding retribution or holding a grudge.  Our Lord did this when he "bore our sins in his own body on the tree"--he did not count our sins against us.  He forgave the hatred and malice of the men who were watching him die.  Forgiveness is the highest of the heavenly laws, and the one we are slowest to practice.


9) "Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you"


It is one thing to suffer as an acknowledged martyr for the truth...quite another to be made to appear as an evildoer suffering only what is just and right.  Jesus was put to death by his own people for the most audacious wickedness known to a Jew, that is blasphemy.  Jesus remained silent before his judges.  This is not to say it's wrong to state our innocence; but when men continue to falsely accuse us, then we must not insist on self-vindication, but to willingly suffer as Christ and the prophets did, and leave God to vindicate us in his own time.  The world waits for another Pentecost when the Holy Spirit can work unhindered in men and women.  But he can only come upon us when we, like the first Christians, see what they saw--that these heavenly principles taught and practiced by Jesus must be accepted as the standard for ourselves also.  May he empower us to begin practicing these primary lessons "till we may all come to the unity of the faith and of the recognition of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a measure of stature of the fullness of the Christ", (Eph. 4:13) who when he taught these things summed them all up in a tenth Beatitude--"If you know these things, happy (blessed) are you if you do them".