July 23

Job 9 and 10/Luke 16

It is curious and perhaps fitting that Job's suffering is occasioned by the deal between the Accuser and God, for accusation forms the center of poetic dialogue here.  Accusing Job of not properly seeking out God or expressing remorse for his misdeeds, Job's friends doggedly believe that Job's suffering is somehow deserved as an expression of God's justice.   And the more his friends stridently declare this position, the more Job vocally accuses God.  His response to Bildad in Chapter 9 begins with his assertion that even if he were to approach God seeking vindication, the playing field on which he would contend with God is not level since God possesses ultimate power and advantage. 

 

Returning to the earlier observation from Eliphaz that no human can be righteous, Job asserts here that no human can be just—in other words, that no human can be declared innocent before God.  Indeed, Job 's response contains several verses of poetic idioms (including a second reference to God's power over Rahab, the mythological sea monster who represents cosmic chaos), figures of speech to describe the might and splendor of God's power within God's creation.  In verse 15, Job laments that "though [he] is innocent, [he] cannot answer" God because God would not listen, and justice becomes perverted when the innocent victim must plead for mercy with a wrongful accuser.  In fact, much more is at stake here than we may imagine since, as we have seen in the formulaic understandings of justice held by Job's friends, the universe for ancient Israelites is clear delineated to mark the righteous and the wicked, those who deserve suffering and those who deserve prosperity.  Job's claim that God destroys both wicked AND righteous human beings blurs these categories and denies that such a clear, grand moral order even exists.

 

In Chapter 10, Job continues his forthright argument, which his friends regard as blasphemous, by declaring that he "will say to God,   Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me" (verse 2).  He is deeply distressed that God would oppress him, one of God's human creations, when God knows that Job is not guilty and that there is no one more powerful to contend with God in order to save Job.  Job again lays out his case using legal form and poetic language.  God has created him and cared for his spirit, yet now God perversely watches him and "bold as a lion" hunts Job.  And so Job stops asking, "Why?" or even "Why me?" at the end of this chapter, asking God instead to simply let him alone that he may die in a little peace.  Stephen Mitchell comments on Job's response, observing that while probably blasphemous, his words are honest and true, expressing a deeper innocence and uprightness that God notes and approves at the end of the narrative in the epilogue.

 

·         Is Job acting faithfully here in the midst of his torment?

 

Luke, Chapter 16 also addresses human fortune, both in the literal and figurative senses.  The first half of the chapter discusses actual monetary wealth as Jesus offers the parable of the dishonest manager, followed by a series of sayings concerning wealth and faithfulness, to offer a lesson on stewardship.  We may wonder why Jesus chooses an obviously dishonest person to feature in a story about stewardship, especially one who takes it upon himself to slash the bills of his master's creditors and is commended for his shrewdness.  What point can Jesus be trying to make here? 

 

On the surface, it looks as if Jesus is applauding the self-serving fraud that the manager has committed.  He knows he will be put out of his job, so he ingratiates himself with his master's debtors by slashing their bills so that they will welcome him in their homes.  Yet, it is not fraud itself, but the manager's foresight and perseverance that Jesus wants us to note.  Those in the world, like this manager, choose unworthy goals to pursue, but they pursue them with care, shrewdness, and commitment.  In contrast, "children of light," those who are spiritually enlightened may understand that they are merely stewards of all that God has provided, but, Jesus cautions, they need to take a lesson from those of the world as to HOW they steward God's provisions.  Jesus advises the children of light to learn this wisdom from the children of darkness, those concerned only with worldly pursuits, so that those who have received true riches in the form of spiritual blessings may more carefully and earnestly steward this more worthy treasure of which they have been given charge.

 

Jesus also adds an important footnote, lest we try to have it both ways.  We must choose.  Either our focus is on earthly mammon (Semitic for "that in which one fully trusts) or upon our trust in God.  In the last half of this chapter, Jesus emphasizes this choice through a parable contrasting earthly and spiritual fortunes.  Both an unnamed rich man and a poor man named Lazarus, who begs at the rich man's gate, die.  The rich man is buried while the poor man is carried away by angels.  The rich man ends up in Hades, experiencing torment, not because he is especially evil and not because he has deliberately treated anyone cruelly or abusively, but rather because he is indifferent to the needs of the world around him, represented by Lazarus at his gate.  Without fully realizing it, he has made a choice—a choice that cannot be altered after the fact, but one which can be crucially and beneficially informed by reading and understanding God's word.

 

·         How might we be more shrewd stewards of what God has provided?

·         What in our worlds absorbs most of our time and attention?  How can we be wise stewards who make good choices within the context of today's world?