July 24

Job 11 and 12/Luke 17

Zophar, the third and last of Job's friends to speak, stridently and brashly attacks Job's most recent speech, insisting that Job's position cannot be defended nor excused.  He responds to Job's assertion that he cannot be vindicated by God on an unlevel playing field, arguing that anyone who is merely "full of talk" cannot and should not receive vindication.  Indeed, he goes on more directly to label Job a liar, questioning Job's righteousness, and asserting that God should intervene directly to condemn Job's sinfulness so that everyone would know the true Job.  After all, God knows vain, wicked, foolish men when God sees them.

 

A closer look at the text reveals that the two men are talking past each other in a significant way here.  Job's position throughout his argument has been that he is righteous in the sense that he has been and continues to be pure in conduct.  In short, he has not done anything wrong.  Zophar, on the other hand, does not focus on Job's experience nor his behavior in this sense, but rather on the incorrectness of Job's doctrine.  Job is an unrighteous liar who should not be vindicated, in Zophar's estimation, because of what he says (remember he doesn't buy the formulaic explanation for his situation that his friends have been offering) and thus apparently believes, because the doctrinal basis of his speeches is faulty.  

 

Thus, Job should confess his sinful error, restrain his speech and amend his belief, so that God, portrayed here as a kind of itinerant judge traveling the countryside to correct error and dispense judgment, might forgive him.  He should "direct his heart rightly" (verse 13)—a phrase used in ancient Jewish tradition to describe a formal meditative preparation for prayer—in his approach to God, knowing that if he does so there is hope and safety.

 

After the last of his friends has spoken, Job can restrain his sarcasm no longer.  In Chapter 12, he addresses his friends and will conclude his response in Chapter 13 with a direct response to God.  In Job's view, all of his friends' advisory speeches amount to nothing more than superficial, simplistic, irrelevant rhetoric, foolish speech that he asserts kills wisdom.  Wisdom for him comes from experience, not from sayings and formulas.  He reminds them that he, too, possesses deep understanding and is not a simpleton that they need to lecture.  He returns to his original assertion, that his righteousness avails him nothing since God seems to favor the wicked.  In other words, his experience shows that the formulaic categories are not dependable.  The good do not always prosper, and the bad do not always suffer.  Job believes that somewhere there is a more ultimate, complex kind of justice that will explain his situation and exonerate him.  He just doesn't know what it looks like or where to find it.

 

Zophar has asked that God's wisdom be directly revealed to Job, but Job responds that one need only look to nature for a clear revelation that God is the one responsible for what is happening, and in verse 9, Job makes this statement explicit by referring to the deity by name as Lord, a prelude to his direct request in Chapter 13.

 

The last half of this chapter contains a parody of a psalm or hymn to God's power, most closely to Psalm 107.  In the original psalm, the chosen people give thanks for God's power to save, provide for, heal, and deliver them from exile.  They mark God's power even to reverse the natural order to accomplish this end—which is God's clear intention.  In Job's parody, there is no natural order; God's wisdom, strength, counsel and understanding are used without rhyme or reason  without a preserving intention to tear down, withhold, imprison, deprive, and strip away from both the just and unjust with both positive and negative results. 

In Chapter 17, Luke focuses on God's kingdom.  As in the last part of the passage from Job, this chapter addresses the ordering of God's kingdom and God's power.  Jesus is passing between Samaria and Galilee, moving westward toward Jerusalem and his ultimate destiny.  Jesus opens the chapter by highlighting the peril of causing temptation, followed by sayings concerning forgiveness and faith, and the obligation to obedience as a duty to be fulfilled and not an occasion for reward.  These elements form a kind of primer on the essential elements of God's kingdom.

The miracle through which Jesus cleanses the ten lepers foregrounds Jesus' divine power, reminding the reader/listener to honor God's power.  In Luke, it is the responses to the miracles that Jesus works rather than the miracle itself that becomes important.  Here only the Samaritan leper, a foreigner, offers thanks.  This concrete example precedes a long discourse in which Jesus declares the kingdom's availability. While the questioners in this section assume a kingdom that will bring material and political benefits, Jesus shifts the emphasis from this kind of future expectation to the concrete, observable presence of God's kingdom in his own ministry.

Starting with verse 22, Jesus marks the events associated with the day of the Son of Man, the Kingdom's future manifestation.  As we might imagine, the questioners want more specifics.  They want to know where the Messiah and his people will be located.  Instead of answering the where question, Jesus answers the when and how questions, which he deems to be more essential.  The coming will be sudden and discernable, so the questioners should always be prepared.

·         How do we understand God's justice in our world today?  Does the working of this kind of justice matter anymore?

·         How do we see God's intention revealed in God's creation?

·         Presbyterians do not often focus specifically on the Second Coming in the ways that other more fundamental denominations or fellowships do.  How does the prospect of the Second Coming influence our understanding of and approach to mission and ministry in our daily lives?

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Since this is my last blog entry, I want to express appreciation to all the folks at the Williamsburg church for the invitation to be a part of this incredible experience.  It has been an honor and a joy.  I look forward to reading the coming blogs in the days and months ahead.

 

Grace and peace, 

Rebecca Blair, Stated Clerk