Today's Meditation - Friday, August 28, 2020

 Today's Meditation

Read Job 9, various passages

Then Job answered: ²“Indeed I know that this is so; but how can a mortal be just before God? ³If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand. ⁴He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength—who has resisted him, and succeeded?— ⁵he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger; ⁶who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; ⁷who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; ⁸who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea; ⁹who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; ¹⁰who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number. ¹¹Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. ¹²He snatches away; who can stop him? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ ¹³“God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.

¹⁴How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? ¹⁵Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. ³²For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. ³³There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both. ³⁴If he would take his rod away from me, and not let dread of him terrify me, ³⁵then I would speak without fear of him, for I know I am not what I am thought to be.

    In the ninth chapter of Job, Job is frustrated and filled with righteous anger at God.  Job believes that God is not just, because there is no mediator.  If you have a quarrel with God, who can you turn to?  Who mediates between the plaintiff and the defendant if the plaintiff also serves as prosecutor, judge and jury?  Verse 33 says, "There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both."

    In thinking about this, Job has a legitimate argument.  In spite of Job's argument about God being unfair because of who God is versus who Job is, he recounts the greatness of God; God's vast knowledge and wisdom and the powerful strength he holds.  Job knows that it is an unequal fight and that he is the lesser of the two.  Yet, Job still contends that there should be some kind of mediator, someone to go to in order to lodge a complaint against God.

    This is one of the reasons why I love the book of Job so much.  Job is willing to be open and honest about his own limitations, about his own beliefs in his justifications.  At the same time, he seeks to understand how logically this whole system is supposed to work with God as being all things; All Powerful, Judge and Jury (or as we Presbyterians more kindly put it - Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer).  It doesn't make sense to Job.

    Jill Duffield, writer for Presbyterian Outlook, wrote a prayer for anxious times:

“Be not anxious,” you tell us, Lord. “Fear not,” your messengers repeat to your terrified children. “My peace I give to you,” Jesus assures us. But in this time and during this season our anxiety runs rampant.

Too many leaders stoke fear and countless justified worries keep us up at night. Hurricanes churn and turn, fires rage, the pandemic persists, political divisions deepen, economic turmoil devastates, our country heaves with the pain of injustice — and through it all, we ask how we can walk by faith and not by sight.

We want to live a life in which your perfect love casts out fear, but we confess, merciful God, that we are afraid, unsure what might come at us next, uncertain how we can endure the relentless suffering and upheaval all around us and right before us.

We cry out, “How long, O Lord?” We yearn to be still and know that you are God. We remember your promise to give when we ask and hear us when we call, so we plead with you now to send your Spirit and ease our troubled hearts. Quiet in us any voice but yours. Help us give to you those burdens we can no longer carry. Do more with us and through us than we could ever hope or imagine.

As we attempt in this tumultuous time to love you and our neighbors with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, clothe us with Christ, make of us a new creation in Christ, unite us in Christ until Christ comes again and crying and mourning and death are no more. We look to you Lord, so that we will not be afraid, and even in our fear we will seek to follow you and be faithful. Amen.

Fear Not