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Archives For May 2009

Sunday after Ascension: Job 1:13-22

May 25, 2009 — Leave a comment

Opening Prayer: Our Father, we ask that you would be with us now by Your Spirit. That the Your presence would break us apart and remake us. Take away our pride that thinks we already know what your Word means for us. And grant us the grace to follow You. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Introduction
We noted last week that Job is the greatest of the “sons of the East,” but he is not among the “sons of God,” while The Accuser is allowed into the presence of God. Job is an Adam, but even perfect Adam was not finished and glorified. And the hint of coming glory is in the creation of Eve.

The Disasters
Notice that vv. 13-19 forms a literary unit bound by the description of Job’s sons and daughters feasting in the older brother’s house. This indicates the feast of Job’s children is the context of all the destruction, but it also creates a simultaneous feeling of events. While the children are feasting, these disasters are falling. The disasters are described in a chiastic order as well. With the children as bookends (vv. 13, 18-19), oxen and donkeys are stolen and servants slain (vv. 14-15) is parallel to the camels stolen and servants slain (v. 17). This makes verse 16 the center where the “fire of God” falls and burns up the sheep and the servants and “consumes” them. This suggests that verse 16 is an important part of interpreting the rest of the events in this section. We noted last week that Job’s care for his sons should be seen as parallel to Yahweh: as Job offers his sons up in the fire of the sacrifice (1:5), so Yahweh offers Job as a son to be tested by The Accuser (1:8). This parallel seems confirmed by the disasters and the “fire of God” in particular. This is the same sort of fire of God’s presence that burned on Mt. Sinai (Dt. 4:11, 9:15). And the imagery is sacrificial (cf. Lev. 6:12, Neh. 10:35). The final calamity is also parallel to the center of this section in that it is another “natural disaster.” We should notice that the “great wind” strikes the “four corners” of the house, and the house fell on the sons and daughters and killed them (1:19).

Returning to the Womb
Job tears his clothing and shaves his head and falls to the ground in a ritual enactment of what he says in the following verse (1:20). He is naked, bald, and returning to the ground out of which he was made (ie. his mother’s womb). The particular emphasis on being naked is another parallel to Adam as is the figurative “returning to the ground” (1:21). Job says he wants to return to his mother’s womb which seems strange, but ironically it also implies a kind of rebirth. If Job is an Adam, a “son of the East,” the picture is of Adam being “killed,” put into a deep sleep in order to be cut in order to be glorified. It’s the wind that hovers over the chaos at the beginning of the universe, and it’s the wind-Spirit that strikes the house of Job to begin remaking him. And in all of this Job is still blameless and upright; he did not sin (1:22). Job is a blameless Adam cut open and torn, but his suffering is a womb of new creation.

Conclusions & Applications
Justification means becoming a living sacrifice. The fact that God is a consuming fire is not merely a warning; it’s a promise.

As we look forward to Pentecost Sunday, it is worth pointing out what the Spirit does. The Spirit creates, but the Spirit also burns, divides, and destroys in order to create and re-create. Proof of the Spirit’s presence in us and His Church is this constant work of creation and re-creation.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Closing Prayer: Almighty and Most merciful God, we confess that we are afraid of Your work in our lives. We know that you play with dangerous things, and you are not afraid of anything. Grant us faith that sees You and knows You and trusts You even as you remake us into the image of Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray singing…

In Bible - Job, Sermon Outlines
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Not even the Pigs

May 21, 2009 — Leave a comment

In an article entitled “Health, Welfare, and Education in the Protestant Reformation: Who Cared?”, Rebecca Prichard cites Luther’s condemnation of the “brotherhoods” which were originally founded on principles of charity and mercy ministry:

“The brotherhood,” he said, “is also supposed to be a special convocation of good works; instead it has become a collecting of money for beer. What have the names of Our Lady, St. Anne, St. Sebastian, of other saints to do with your brotherhoods, in which you have nothing but gluttony, drunkenness, dancing, and wasting of time? If a sow were made the patron saint of such a brotherhood she would not consent.”

In Justice and Mercy
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Job and the East

May 18, 2009 — 4 Comments

One point that didn’t make it into the outline for yesterday’s sermon, but which came out in the sermon (somewhat) was the interesting contrast in the first 12 verses between Job who is the greatest of the “sons of east” and the “sons of God.” For all of Job’s greatness and perfection, he is not among the assembled sons of God. He’s a son of the East and not a son of God (or so it seems).

Related to that: there are a number of parallels between Job and Adam in the opening chapters of Job. One I only noticed recently is that Job is in the “east” which is of course where the garden was planted, in the east of Eden. However, as I’ve thought about it more, I wonder if the emphasis is more post-Fall. That is, when Adam and Eve were exiled, they were exiled to the east, as witnessed by the two cherubim (sons of God) guarding the presence of God with their flaming sword at the east end of the garden.

So while Job is this new Adam, he also finds himself outside of the courtroom of Yahweh, exiled to the East. And though he is the greatest of all the “sons of the east,” he is still not a “son of God,” a member of the counsels of Yahweh. At the beginning of the story, Job has not yet been (re)admitted to the garden-presence of the Lord.

In Bible - Job
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Remembering Through the Cross

May 18, 2009 — Leave a comment

Memory can be a terrifying thing. We often remember things we wish we didn’t. We remember our own failures. We remember sin. We remember guilt. We remember things that others did to us, said to us, and we remember pain, loss, hardships. Memory of course can be a great blessing as well, but in a fallen world it can be haunting. We replay scenes in our mind over and over. We ask, “what if it had gone this way?” “What if I had said this?” And memory often serves to simmer regrets, would-have-beens, and so on. But the work of Christ is for this part of our lives too. Jesus came to save all of us. To save us from our sins, to save us from our failures, our habitual self-destructive ways, and He came to save us from our memories, to save our memories. He came to save us from guilt and the misery of regret. He came to deliver us from the suffocating bitterness that remembers other people’s sins and offenses against us. Jesus died for all of that, and He gave us this meal as a constant enactment of that salvation. He says, do this as my memorial. Do this in remembrance of me. And this does not merely mean that this is one thing to remember along with everything else, or that this is one memorial action along with any number of other memorials in your life. No, this memorial, the memorial of Jesus, is to be how we remember everything else. It is the memorial for all memorials, the remembrance that must shape and redefine all other remembrances. This is the foundation for all remembering. Here we declare to God and to one another that the cross of Jesus affects everything. Jesus is Lord of all, and Lord of all time, and Lord of all our memories and thoughts. Christ crucified changes everything. You may have been abused, mistreated, or hated in the past, but Christ was more so. You may have made awful mistakes and decisions in your past, but Jesus was bruised for your transgressions. You may have guilt that weighs you down, but Jesus suffocated on a Roman cross so that you might be free. You may have regrets, but the death of Jesus insists that God is always right and He will put all things right. So come in faith. Submit your memories to Jesus. See your past in and through the cross and grave of Jesus. And see your future in light of the resurrection.

In Eucharistic Meditations
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Like It’s the Best Thing

May 18, 2009 — Leave a comment

As it turns out there are a number of children here week after week. They worship with us in their own ways and are learning to participate with us. Many of you are parents who are busy with this task, and this is as it should it be. But the exhortation is directed to you and to all the adults all of us who take oaths at every baptism to assist these parents. All of us are godparents to these many children. First, remember that what you are doing is part of the greatest blessing you can ever bestow upon your children. You are teaching them how to draw near to God, how to cast their cares on their faithful Father, how to ask for and receive forgiveness, how to trust God and love Him with all that they are, how to love God’s people and see them as their own people. And so the first exhortation is to not grow weary in doing good, just as you should not grow weary in feeding your children every day, even when they spit it out, throw it off the high chair. Of course sometimes it takes coaxing and discipline, but we know it’s good for them. We know it is vital to their health; in the same way, this is vital to their health. And this is even more vital. Man does not live by bread alone, and children do not grow up big and strong on food alone. It is the Spirit that knits us together and grows us up to maturity. Finally, remember that you are bestowing blessing upon your children here. Gathering to worship God should not be like getting shots. Gathering for worship should not be like getting splinters out. Hearing the Scriptures, singing them, reciting the Creed, feasting at the Lord’s Supper, receiving the blessing of God, all of these things are the blessing of God being bestowed upon us and our children. And you know this, and so this is just a reminder to continue pouring out that blessing on them. And pour it out like it really is blessing. Get ready for worship with joy and enthusiasm, plan ahead to make Sunday morning special and exciting, and talk about it before and after and even during as though it really is the best thing of the week. Because it is.

In Exhortations
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Sixth Sunday in Easter: Job 1:1-12

May 18, 2009 — Leave a comment

Introduction
Job is the introduction to the wisdom literature in our English Bibles, and was perhaps written or compiled by Solomon himself. The book of Job shares many characteristics with the rest of the wisdom literature, and challenges us to learn the wisdom of the resurrection.

Perfect and Great
The author describes Job as blameless or perfect, one who is upright, fears God, and shuns evil (1:1). Job is a new Adam who was created upright and blameless. Job’s children and animals picture for us an Adam who has been fruitful and multiplied and rules over creation. Job’s children and possessions also remind us of the patriarchs who had many sheep, camels, and oxen (e.g. Gen. 13:2, 26:12-14, Gen. 30-31). The numbers also indicate perfection, threes and sevens, adding up to tens (1:2-3). Job was clearly a great king in the East (1:3). Job may have been an Edomite, of the family of Esau, and the Septuagint goes so far as to say that Job is the same as Jobab of Gen. 36:33-34. Job’s perfection is also illustrated in his offerings for his children (1:5). Job is a priest-king.

Sons of God
In order to approach this story thoughtfully, we need to understand the title “son of God.” Adam was the first “son of God” (Gen. 1:26-27, Lk. 3:38). Seth was the second “son of God” (Gen. 5:1-3). This means that the image of God and access to God are central to the calling of “sons of God,” but after the Fall, some of that calling is granted to angels (Gen. 3:24). Sons of God have access to the Father and are called to carry on His mission in the world. The “seed” theme in Genesis follows the line of “sons of God” (Gen. 5, 10ff), and takes on a broader corporate meaning in Israel (Ex. 4:22-23). When we come to Job, the “sons of God” should be understood as those men and/or angels who have access to the presence of God. It should also be noted that the sons of God “present themselves” before Yahweh (1:6). This is a court setting where servants stand in the presence of a king (e.g. Ex. 8:16, 19:17, Num. 11:16, Jdg. 20:2).

The Satan
The title of Satan is “The Satan” here and throughout the book of Job (1:6). “Satan” means accuser or adversary. Recalling the courtroom setting, this places the Satan in the role of prosecuting attorney. God highlights the blamelessness of Job to Satan, and the title “my servant” is almost disturbing (1:8). Does God treat all His servants like this? Satan questions God’s protection of Job, and insists that Job’s blamelessness is based merely upon God’s blessing and protection (1:10). Notice that God’s “hand” limits the “hand” of Satan (1:11-12).

Conclusions & Applications
To be perfect or blameless is risky business, but that is what justification is all about (Rom. 5:1-2, 12:1). Job is a book about maturity, about growing up into a son of God, and God disciplines the sons that He loves (Heb. 12). There are lessons here for enduring the chastening of the Lord, but there are also lessons for parenting. Love chastens, but love also gives up sons, trusting God to raise them up.

In Bible - Job, Sermon Outlines
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Bad Assumptions

May 15, 2009 — Leave a comment

My friend Remy Wilkins has several great posts on Bad Assumptions in Raising Children.

In Misc
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Atbashing Babel

May 15, 2009 — Leave a comment

Some of my notes from an Old Testament class in seminary with Dr. George Schwab:

In Ezekiel many nations are listed for judgment, which nation is conspicuous by its absence? Babylon.

Why is Babylon not mentioned in Ezekiel’s many oracles and condemnation of the nations? Babel/Babylon represents all that stands against Yahweh and his people. Babel was a blatant challenge against God. The fall of Jerusalem was the greatest disaster to ever befall Israel. Babylon is a great evil power in Revelation. Why is Babylon not mentioned? Interestingly, in place of Babylon is the oracle against Gog and Magog. These are unknown people groups. Could “Gog” and “Magog” be Babylon?

The letters next to the letters of “Magog” reversed are “BBL” which is the letters for Babylon. Another example of this sort of thing is with the name “Sheshach” in Jer. 25:26. When the letters are made to wrap around they correspond to “BBL.” We find in Jer. 51:41 that Sheshach is indeed Babylon. “Atbash” writing is what this letter wrapping is called. This sort of code naming fits with the symbolic nature of prophecy. While it doesn’t change the nature of the prophecy, it helps to transfer the meaning to an even larger, perhaps cosmic reality. It makes it sound like we’re dealing with something huge and apocalyptic. And we are.

In Bible - Ezekiel
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Morality vs. Production

May 13, 2009 — Leave a comment

In Economics in One Lesson Henry Hazlitt says: “The progress of civilization has meant the reduction of employment, not its increase. It is because we have become increasingly wealthy as a nation that we have been able virtually to eliminate child labor, to remove the necessity of work for many of the aged and to make it unnecessary for millions of women to take jobs.” (73)

Hazlitt originally wrote this over fifty years ago and revised it some thirty years ago. He writes against the various schemes designed to mindlessly create more employment, as though employment in and of itself is a necessary good and benefit to society. Contrary to this, Hazlitt argues that production is the greatest good and benefit to society. As it turns out, employment is a necessary means to that end, but frequently the means is turned into the end.

The quote above however suggests that there are specific cultural values driving at least some of the economic policies. Making it “unnecessary for millions of women to take jobs” is now a string of political cuss words. If there is a higher priority of putting women in the work force, then the drive for employment as the highest good and benefit makes more sense. Framed as the liberation of an oppressed social class, the push for employment as a status symbol, as an emblem of liberty takes precedence over drives for greater production which in that light sound greedy and materialist in comparison. Liberating American women from unemployment is a moral issue. How can you value “production” over morality and freedom?

In Culture, Economics
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More Hobbes on Job

May 13, 2009 — Leave a comment

Thoughts generated by Gordon Hull’s article on Hobbes’ Leviathan and the book of Job:

Hull says that the reason for Hobbes’ reference to Job in his titled work Leviathan is threefold: “it serves as an image of the great and powerful civil apparatus… Second, the products of Job’s speech are given as parts of the state of nature. In other words, without a sovereign for the establishment of meaning, i.e. without a prior and explicit submission to God, Job’s speech is meaningless… Third, and finally, given the position of Job as Aristotle, and of the language Hobbes uses to attack scholastic politics, the reference to Job creates a Hobbesian critique of scholastic politics on the grounds that it expresses a hubristic desire to speak with God, a hubristic confidence in human ratiocination in the name of God which is explicitly prohibited by the Bible.” (28-29)

First, the use of the imagery of Leviathan to picture the civil magistrate or the state is highly intriguing. Only Hobbes seems to have missed the role that Leviathan plays in the narrative. On his reading, Job’s carrying on and argumentation has revealed him to be one of the “sons of pride” and therefore in need of taming like the Leviathan. As the above quote says explicitly, Job’s insistence on speaking with God is hubris. But that’s not the answer that the book itself gives. In fact, Job’s insistent request to speak with God is fundamentally answered in the affirmative. Yahweh speaks to Job out the whirlwind, and the conclusion also indicates that Yahweh would keep up the conversation. Job is invited to pray for his three friends, and Yahweh promises to hear and answer the prayer of Job. Yahweh invites Job to continue speaking to Him because Job has spoken what is right. The desire to speak with God seems entirely justified, ratified, and openly approved by God.

The basic argument of Hobbes seems to be that human reason cannot approach the wisdom and doings of God (witness Yahweh’s speeches). The point is that similarly, human government should satisfy itself in the realm of human discourse and reason. Attempts to sanction civil government with ‘thus saith the Lord statements’ are the same kind of hubris that Job evidences. Hobbes wants the church to stay out of politics and sees attempts by the church to enter the political sphere as arrogant imitations of foolish Job. But again, the text does not bear this out. In fact the lesson of the text seems to be just the opposite. Job’s journey is one that begins in a context of isolation from the courts of God and ends with Job being invited to speak directly to God in prayer. Thus, the overall thrust of the narrative actually suggests the very opposite of what Hobbes was after. Of course Job was not merely trying to “reason” his way to God, and on that level, Job would agree with Hobbes that human reason is completely insufficient. This is why Job wants to die. He knows that it’s futile to attempt a meeting with God on his own.

Last thought: Part of the problem Hobbes is reacting to is the high scholasticism which interwove biblical standards with ancient philosophers like Aristotle. This was the Empusa, the demon, which Hobbes sought to cast out of society. He was not opposed at all to a “Christian Commonwealth,” but when the Church intervened, she ended up (apparently of necessity) bringing all her extra-biblical (and unwanted) friends with her. Strikingly, as Hull points out, Hobbes is implicitly arguing for this separation on Scriptural grounds, even scholastic grounds. But this “immanent critique” as Hull calls it, appears to rest on faulty exegesis. But it does rest on exegesis, and Hobbes notes this himself: “Therefore, when anything therein written is too hard for our examination, wee are bidden to captivate our understanding to the Words; and not to labour in sifting out a Philosophical truth by Logick, of such mysteries as are not comprehensible, nor fall under any rule of naturall science.”

The point seems to be that if you can understand it with a simple reading then it may be used, but if it takes more than that much thought, it ought to be left to the Church to figure out but is not binding on the magistrate. And for the Church to enforce her interpretation on the magistrate is to follow in the hubris of Job and the Leviathan.

In Bible - Job, Church Polity, Politics
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