The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 6 January 2015 "Job’s 'friend:' 'Everything happens for a reason'"

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 6 January 2015 "Job’s 'friend:' 'Everything happens for a reason'"
Daily Scripture: Job 4: Eliphaz Speaks Out
Now You’re the One in Trouble
1-6 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
“Would you mind if I said something to you?
    Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
    that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
    put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting!
    You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.
But shouldn’t your devout life give you confidence now?
    Shouldn’t your exemplary life give you hope?
7-11 “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?
    Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
It’s my observation that those who plow evil
    and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
One breath from God and they fall apart,
    one blast of his anger and there’s nothing left of them.
The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,
    but when he’s toothless he’s useless—
No teeth, no prey—and the cubs
    wander off to fend for themselves.
Reflection Questions:
Suffering has always raised deep spiritual questions. Job, the Hebrew poetic drama, came from roots that seem to go back more than 1000 years before Christ. The ancient drama showed Job facing awful loss and agony. Though at first his friends sat with him in silence, they soon began to offer simple, black-and-white answers to explain his suffering.
• Job’s “friend” Eliphaz asked him bluntly, “What innocent person has ever perished?” He clearly believed God was the reason for everything bad that had happened to Job, to teach him a lesson for something he’d done wrong. Have you ever asked the same question, inwardly or outwardly, about something bad that happens to you or someone close to you?
• Careful readers saw the answer to Eliphaz’s question before he even asked it. Job 2:7 made it plain that Job’s troubles came from “The Adversary” or “Accuser” (Hebrew “ha satan,” a title rather than a personal name), not from God. What human or natural forces have you seen cause suffering or pain that God did not desire?
Prayer: Lord, Eliphaz held a very simple, black-and-white idea. At times I wish things were that simple. But you taught Job, and want to teach me, to think more deeply about suffering and life. Help me learn from you attentively and perceptively. Amen.

Insight from Brandon Gregory

Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.

If you’re not familiar with it, the story of Job is very important to our faith. There’s a righteous man, Job, whom God has blessed with many things. One day, though, he loses everything–his material goods, his family, his livelihood. Job’s friends come to console him, but it’s not long before they start trying to rationalize the situation. They tell Job that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, meaning Job must have been a bad person. (Spoiler: Job’s friends were wrong.)

What a lot of people don’t realize is that the writing of the book of Job actually pre-dates that of the book of Genesis. Job is the oldest book in our Bible. This means that the concepts that bad things can happen to anyone, for no reason, and that doing good things does not guarantee that good things will happen to you are two of the most fundamental teachings of our faith.

Pastor Adam touched on a lot of points relating to this in his last sermon, so I’m not going to rehash those points here. If you want to expand on the Biblical case for that a little more and what that means, I’d urge you to check out his sermon from this past weekend. I’m going to focus on something slightly different.

People don’t like this idea. In fact, one of the biggest questions atheists have about God is why bad things happen to good people. People want to believe that everyone gets what’s coming to them–that good behavior is rewarded and that bad behavior is punished.

But why is this? If you look at the way the rest of the universe works, that’s not the case. Animals that put others first and live selflessly may be praised by people, but usually don’t do well in the animal kingdom. Even with humans, the people who look out for themselves and take what they want usually come out on top. Why would God give us that innate sense of justice when it’s largely not how things work?

My son is 12 years old, and he questions everything. We teach him how to be good and live a good life, and he asks why. And it’s a good question. Being good as a kid doesn’t necessarily pay off. It’s not very fun. It doesn’t always get you what you want. In fact, a lot of times, you give things up by choosing to be good. It’s hard for him to grasp that when he’s an adult, having the character that’s developed by practicing good for a lifetime will serve him well in relationships, in the workplace, and just about everywhere. But it’s only through doing good over years and years that this develops. It’s hard for a 12-year-old to grasp that it will take more than 12 years for something to pay off. But practicing good is one of the most important things he can do in his adolescence.

Just like my 12-year-old, we want things to pay off right now. We have trouble comprehending that something may have to be done for our entire lives and we may not see a pay-off in this lifetime.

There’s probably some debate on this, but I believe that we have that innate sense of justice because God designed us to think on a scale of eternity, not 100 years on earth. Salvation by works is not possible; but the Bible also tells us that doing good works stores up treasures in Heaven. I don’t know that we’ll find piles of gold when we get there equivalent to the good deeds we did in our mortal lives; but the Bible is clear that our behavior and discipline in this world can have an impact on the next.

What if being good or bad in this lifetime shapes our character for eternity in ways we can’t even understand? On that scale, anything good or bad that happens in lifetime pales in comparison. We want immediate pay-off, but something far more important is going on here. Remember, when good or bad deeds seem to go unrecognized, God takes careful note and no good deed will be without its eternal reward.

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