Understanding the Book of Job -- Finally

Each time I have studied Job in the past, I have come away with more questions than answers. Thanks to the men in my Bible study, one of whom curiously suggested we study Job, I think I finally have some answers. There are still plenty of mysteries in Job, but I can say with some confidence that there is a valuable lesson in the story of Job for believers today.

Before I get to the lesson, take a look at some of the remaining mysteries. The book opens with an unexplained gathering in some heavenly dimension. Verse six says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.” Everybody pretty much agrees that “sons of God” are angels. The interesting thing to me is that on a specific day they, “came to present themselves.” Was this a head count to see if more had joined the enemy? Was it some sort of performance review? This concept has long fascinated me, to the point that I have written a novel imagining what angels actually do with their time and how they interact with humans. (Shameless Promotion.)

The second half of verse six is equally curious: “and Satan also came among them.” We know from what follows that Satan had already broken faith with the rest of the heavenly host and had been banished to earth. What amazes me is that he still had access to the throne. God seems to casually ask him what he’s been up to, and Satan answers that he has been roaming around earth (seeking whom he may devour?).

What God does next is the real mind boggler: “Have you considered my servant Job?” God seems to be setting Job up like a golf ball on a tee… like a clay pigeon in the sling. I imagine a little bit of sour grapes whine in Satan’s voice when he protests that God has, “put a hedge around him and his house and… blessed the work of his hands?” Then God paves the way for the rest of the story by offering to drop the hedge, at least partially. It is comforting to think that God hedges his children against the enemy, but not so much that he voluntarily removes the hedge. This is where the weeds get thick and deep.

As almost everyone knows, the story goes that Job is subjected to terrible loss, financial and emotional, and after a second audience with God, Satan is released to pester Job physically. In the midst of his misery, Job’s friends give him their counsel; it sounds very much like what people might say today: Job has obviously offended God in some major way to deserve such harsh punishment. This thinking was still prevalent in Jesus’ day, evidenced by his disciples asking what sin was responsible for the man being born blind. We still wonder. Were the 92,000 people killed by the volcano in Indonesia in 1815 especially wicked? Did the thousands killed in Japan in the 2011 tsunami offend God particularly? Or the earthquake victims in Mexico… or the famine in Africa… and so on?

Job does what humans always seem to do: he protests his innocence, or more accurately, he proclaims his righteousness. When God finally speaks in the end, His response is quite shocking. He tells Job that even if he were perfectly righteous, he ain’t all that. To paraphrase, God said, “No matter how wonderful you think you are, this is not about you. As the one-and-only Majestic Creator, Sovereign of the Universe, I can do as I please without reference to you or your friends.” Job’s attempt to put himself on an argumentative plane with God was utterly demolished. “Does the clay say to the Potter, ‘What are you making?’”

Humans seem to be hard-wired to desire “fair” treatment. It’s not fair that babies die; it’s not fair that nice people get cancer; it’s not fair that some are rich while others are poor. It’s not fair that Job was made to suffer so terribly. Of course, we like that fact that Job was twice blessed after he walked through his trial, but if we think the lesson is there, we are right back with Job’s friends.

It’s not about Job getting his just reward; it’s about God getting his point across… to the angels (one of whom is called Satan.) Paul told the Ephesians that the mystery of the ages was being revealed through the church, “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” My take-away from Job, nay, the entire Biblical sweep is that God is doing something with this time-space continuum we call human history that is larger than the universe itself. Regarding “uneducated and unstable” false teachers, Peter says that they boldly and willfully blaspheme angels. Jude echoes this enigmatic idea hinting at the involvement of celestial beings who occasionally appear in Scripture, but are seldom explained.

Apart from the mystery of angelic correlations, one thing is clear to me (with thanks due to my Bible study partners). Not Job, nor Joseph, nor the man born blind can sue for fair treatment. Of the man born blind Jesus said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The Master’s next sentence is the real kicker: “We must work the works of him who sent me.” Note my italics; Paul picks this up when he tells the Ephesians, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

God has a work for each of us. It may be in the dust with Job, in the pit with Joseph or on a throne with Solomon. We don’t get to choose. To borrow from Tennyson, “[Ours] not to reason why / [ours] but to do and die.” That is the correct wording: “do and die.” Taking up our cross to follow Jesus (as he commanded) presumes a pending death; that’s what crosses are for.

Paradoxical though it may be, this is the way to life: death. Death to self, death to the old man, and yes, death itself may be required. We, like Job, have no grounds on which to ask why. We must ask what, where and when. The “where and when” is here and now. The “what” will be revealed when we open the door before us with our spiritual eyes and ears open. May we be found humble and ready as God’s servant Isaiah saying, “Here I am; [use] me.”

A Timely New Book Worth Reading

I have been anxiously awaiting the publication of a new book, Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society by R. R. Reno. It became available this week, and I was so struck by Reno’s introduction to the book, that I am excerpting it here. I quite literally could not say it better myself.

“Today’s progressivism is waging a war on the weak. Putting an end to that war is the most important social justice issue of our time….

“We also need to recover solidarity, limited government, and a sense of the transcendent. These are natural goods that one finds in many cultures. Christian societies do not have a monopoly on them. But ours has been a Christian history, and it is by a renewal of Christian influence that we are most likely to restore theses humanizing qualities to our society.

“Serving those most in need and contributing to that restoration of American society requires us to speak clearly, honestly, and forcefully. Being a serious Christian does not automatically make one a social or religious “conservative,” but the logic of faith runs counter to the cult of freedom. The freedom for which Christ makes us free is quite different from the freedom championed by modern liberal culture….

“This does not mean “establishing” Christianity but speaking up in the public square as Christians. We need to say, out loud and with confidence, that we’re best off when we live under the authority of the permanence of marriage, accept the duties of patriotism, and affirm the supernatural claims the church makes on our souls. We’re “judgmental” not to sustain the preeminence of Christianity in American society… but because we seek to promote the wellbeing of our neighbors, especially the weakest and most vulnerable….

“Today’s poverty is spiritual and moral. What’s needed is the stability and permanence of moral truth, as well as a renewed sense of the possibility of a faith that brings us into the everlasting household of God….

“There is much talk among Christians these days about a pessimistic withdrawal from public life. The current of culture seems to be running against us. We need to be realistic about the challenges posed by the present age, and we certainly need to repair our communities of faith. There can be no Christian society without vital churches. But let’s not sell the public potency of Christianity short. The renewal of our society as a whole is possible, even today, even in a hyper-individualistic society like America.

“America is full of people who sense the poverty of our postmodern paganism. Our nation is still capable of caring for the weak and vulnerable. Most Americans want everyone to flourish – together. And they don’t want to be swallowed by the administrative-therapeutic state, ruled by a remote meritocratic elite. They want their children to seek higher things, the surest way to escape the cult of freedom that makes them servants of today’s materialist hearth gods.

“Our fellow citizens recognize the seriousness of our faith – loyalty to God, no less! They intuit that we can contribute something solid, enduring, and reliable to public life. It’s not going to be easy. But America is demoralized right now. Anti-establishment politicians win widespread support. A wave of populism is demolishing longstanding political coalitions. Polls reveal a dwindling of trust in mainstream institutions. Universities are terrorized by political correctness. Secular progressivism rules our culture more by default than because of widespread conviction. What seems like an all-powerful secular consensus actually churns with dissatisfaction.

“Which is why, in this time and in this place, a relatively small number of Christians can inspire and reinvigorate the public imaginations of the disoriented majority. We can renew our society by restoring our voices as Christian citizens.

“Resurrecting the idea of a Christian society is possible, but by no means inevitable. The United States is a great nation. I’m a proud patriot. But America is a nation of men, not the city of God. Yes, we may fail to restore the Christian leaven in American public life. It is also true that there will be a time when America is no more. Yet the Gospel endures. Let us therefore take up our political tasks with cheerfulness, even if the odds are against us. We are called to do what we are able, not to succeed. Let’s do our best, trusting in God’s providence and confident in his final victory.”

Amen and thank you, Professor Reno.

Vote Anyway

With the ascension of Donald Trump as the presumed Republican nominee for President, many Christians are talking about staying home on Election Day this November. Enough believers had an adverse reaction to Mitt Romney that Barak Obama won re-election in 2012 (my opinion). I admitted my own reservations about Romney (See http://whammonline.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-not-mitt.html), but I concluded that the value of electing the lesser of two evils precluded staying home. I’d like to lobby for that again.

No one who is even slightly familiar with Donald Trump would argue that he is a wholesome Christian candidate. Some may even question the legitimacy of his faith; that is for God to judge, not me. Regardless of where the Donald will spend eternity, we must take part in deciding where he spends the next four years. There are good reasons to want him in the White House in spite of his religious attitudes, or his lack of them.

First of all, while believers may not like Trump’s soft position on some important issues, he comes out as better than either alternative currently vying for the Presidency on the Democrat ticket. It is possible that a Trump administration may be able to throttle back the quickening slide into socialism that President Obama and the rest of the progressives have been orchestrating for the last seven years. I say “quickening slide” because we started down the path to a social democracy early in the 20^th century. It is only recently that wide majorities have begun to believe that they are entitled to government handouts. This broadening support for socialist policies has emboldened progressives to push their ideas more aggressively.

For example, national health care has long been on the progressive wish list. Karen S. Palmer has written an excellent history of the push for national health care in America’s past. She notes that Europe instituted socialized medicine in the nineteenth century, long before the US. Her list of reasons why America was slow to follow a similar course is revealing. She says efforts to socialize health care in America failed in the last century due to, “ideological differences, anti-communism, anti-socialism… the entrepreneurial character of American medicine, a tradition of American voluntarism… and the association of public programs with charity, dependence, personal failure and the almshouses of years gone by.”

Some may be wondering why I suggest that Christians should be opposed to socialist policies, since so many think that socialism is more closely aligned with biblical teachings than free-market capitalism. First of all, that is not a correct interpretation of the Bible position on social welfare in my opinion. Second, history proves that, in practice people have not fared better under socialism. (For a more complete treatment of this see my post, “Obama isn’t the Problem.”) Also, if you study Palmer’s explanation of why socialized health care failed, you will see a list of decidedly conservative, and may I say Christian, positions. The biblical model promotes private industry and personal charity, not government giveaways and legislated morality.

There are other aspects of the progressive or socialist agenda that should worry Christians: the wholesale approval of the murder of the unborn, the forced acceptance of “alternative lifestyles”, the implicit infringement of the Christian religion alongside widening acceptance of Islamic practice, the attitude that collectivism is valued over individualism. These differences (and more) should be motivation enough to get out and vote in November. Donald Trump is certainly far from the ideal candidate, but he is closer than anyone the Democrats are likely to offer as an option. If Christians stay home in large numbers this election cycle because they don’t like the Donald, the victory of the opposition will be almost certain. I maintain that a “None of the Above” choice next November is short-sighted and serves to undermine the traditional values upon which our republic was founded.

Weakday Christians

Sunday after Sunday people sit in churches listening to messages from God. At least some churches deliver divine words; I am not concerned with all those churches that gave up preaching the truth years ago. In churches all across America the true message of the Bible is presented on a weekly basis, or perhaps I should say a weakly basis. The warning from James chapter one should haunt those people (like me) who listen to the Word every Sunday and then live like pagans the rest of the week. “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves,” James says, “Do what it says.” (James 1:22)

I fear that many people sincerely believe they have done enough to call themselves Christians once they leave church Sunday morning. However, James cautions that listening to the Word but not living it is a useless practice, a wasted effort. Only those who, “continue in [the Word]… will be blessed in what they do.” (1:25) Some of the blame for this rampant self-deception can be placed on those who preach: how many men who get paid to stand in the pulpit every Sunday dare to accuse their flock of failure.

Failing to make the grade by James’ standard is not entirely, or even mostly the preachers’ fault. Every believer has the responsibility to know the Word and to do what he or she knows. No one gets to heaven on the preacher’s say-so. We are supposed to work the Word into every fiber of our being. Someone has quipped that most believers get just enough Bible in them to be inoculated against it. Instead of being vaccinated, we should be infected so that God’s Word seeps out of every pore of our lives like a Spirit-fed fever.

Paul told the Ephesians to avoid getting drunk with wine, but instead to be filled with the Spirit. It’s not stretching the metaphor to suggest that in much the same way that alcohol “takes over” a person, so the Spirit is supposed to be in control of a believer. While it is entirely possible and expected that the Holy Spirit can work in mysterious ways to accomplish God’s purpose through believers, He most frequently uses the Word for “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) The result of the teaching, etcetera is to lead believers into right action (righteousness).

None of what has been said should be misconstrued to mean salvation is by works. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that belief in Jesus Christ is what saves. However, if you read a bit further in the book of James you will hear him testify that the only faith that saves is a faith that works. This sounds very much like an application of Jesus’ words to his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Someone once asked if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence for a conviction? I fear I may be acquitted; that’s not good.

I belong to a too large club of believers: Sunday strong and weekday weak. As I write this, I am unsure of exactly what I should do differently. I’m not a bad person, generally, but I have a nagging feeling I’m not in line for the, “Well done, good and faithful servant” commendation either. So this is a challenge, as much for myself as anyone who might read this. What more can I do to strengthen my weak-day faith? Not tomorrow or next semester, but now, as soon as I post this and shut down the computer. And you?

Mounting Everest

It has been said that a special providence watches over fools and Englishmen. I guess that gives me double coverage. Many people think it foolish to actually plan to live full time in an RV, but since my wife and I began to do so, we have discovered that we are far from alone. It seems to be the preferred option for a large segment of the recently retired population.

We just purchased our fourth RV in three years; that’s where the foolish part comes in. Each time we thought we had the right one, and each time we discovered something missing. So we traded up. We think this is the last time; we’ll see. But I must tell you now this one came about because this is where the “special providence” comes into play.

We had some time to kill on a recent sight-seeing trip, so we stopped at Camping World in St. George, Utah. We had no intention of buying; we just wanted to see what was available. Of course the salesman wanted us to take one home immediately. We let him impress us with several new units even though we asked to see used ones. Then we let him write up a deal for our consideration. We could have done it if we wanted a 20 year mortgage on the rig; NOT.

When we got home that evening I checked out the Camping World web site and found a really nice looking, well outfitted fifth wheel that seemed to suit our needs and budget. The one photo that really struck me was of the kitchen; I knew my wife would be thrilled. Back in St. George with a salesman who wasn’t trying to push new units on us we found our dream home. We wrote up a potential deal and went back home to think about it.

The next day I called the dealer with what I thought was a real “low-ball” offer, and he accepted my terms much to my surprise. After that I found a small print clause in the Internet ad that implied they had over-charged me for prep, and I was able to get another $1,250 off the price, just what I needed to purchase and install the fifth wheel hitch. With the finance arrangements made with my credit union, we headed back to St. George with our trailer to make the swap.

 When the service person was giving us our walk-through to show us all the systems, the air conditioner failed to work, even though it had functioned perfectly days before. A quick inspection revealed a bad circuit board which was no longer available. The solution: the manager, Charles, offered to install a brand new A/C unit at no charge. We also learned that the inverter had malfunctioned the previous day and it too was replaced with a new unit.

Because the A/C unit would take several hours to install, and the hour was getting late, Charles put us up for the night in the motel next door since we could not stay in either our “old” unit or the “new” one. Since we had already put in several hours of transferring our belongings from one unit to the other, the hot tub at the motel was a welcome benefit. I must have made over a hundred trips down one set of steps and up the other taking loads of clothes, dishes and sundry other items into our new home.

The next morning we finished moving in and towed the Everest back to our “home” park in Mesquite, Nevada. We could not be happier. It will take a little more fuel to pull around, but it is worth it for all the extra benefits. It even has a washer/dryer already in place. And there is so much storage, we can’t fill it all (yet). The people at Camping World in St. George were wonderful, not only because I got the deal of a lifetime, but because they were so pleasant and helpful in providing it.

At St. George, I learned that the Good Sam Club of which we are members, is a Camping World affiliate, and is short for Good Samaritan, from the well-known Bible story. I don’t want to over-spiritualize a purely material transaction, but I do feel as though there was a “special Providence” working to get us our new home. And I don’t feel the least bit foolish... not about this anyway. 

God Wants Me Unhappy

I have been thinking a lot about my own happiness lately, so it is no coincidence that Randy Alcorn’s discussion of happiness slid across my Facebook page recently. God has a way of planting supplements to my devotional diet directly in my path so I can only avoid them on purpose. Many times I have had the subject of print or other media floating in my thought hopper only to find that it is the perfect preparation for a teaching or preaching assignment I am about to be given. It is exciting to work with an omniscient God. I am not yet sure what all this business about happiness is leading to.

When I taught high school students, the subject of God’s will for their lives was a frequent topic of discussion. Since the middle of the 20^th century, Christian teens have had to face numerous life choices that were seldom presented to earlier generations. Do I consider military service? Should I attend college? If so, what career should I pursue? Must it be a Christian college? Should I take on student loans? Who should I marry? Does God want me to get married at all? These are vexing questions to a young person who has been taught that God has a perfect will for each of them, and it is their responsibility to figure out what that will is.

I remember one young man who was horrified with the thought that God might call him to remain unmarried, to be celibate. He believed that sex outside of marriage was clearly forbidden, so marriage was his only hope to satisfy his biological desires. The idea that it might be outside God’s will for him to marry literally gave him many sleepless nights. He could not imagine being happy unless he was married.

I don’t recall the exact words I used to counsel him, but I do remember the general tenor of my advice. First, God will never ask us to do anything for Him that he does not give us the strength to accomplish. Next, God does not reveal His plan for our entire life all at once; that would negate the need to walk by faith which is what builds our trust in Him. The best we can do is take the step that is before us and wait on God to reveal the step after that. As long as we avoid taking steps we know are against God’s revealed will, His personal will for our lives will become clear as we live step by step.

In my recent response to Alcorn’s book, Happiness, I mentioned three of the countless episodes in the Bible that present unhappy servants. Here I might add Abraham who waited unhappily for 25 years for the son of promise only to be told he was to be sacrificed to the God who gave him. Abraham would not have been a happy camper trudging up Mt. Moriah knowing what lay ahead. Happiness came naturally when the angel stopped the knife and a ram appeared in a thicket to take Isaac’s place, but one cannot miss the agony through which Abraham walked as he followed God’s will up that hill. Nor can we miss the same thing when our Substitute walked up that same hill years later. I think Jesus was not happy about the crucifixion; he rejoiced in what it would accomplish, but to call that happiness is to wrench all meaning from the word.

Many of us find ourselves in circumstances that make us unhappy. The high school lad with raging hormones is not the only one who must wait on God’s answer to the burning question. Consider the husband or wife who has lost a spouse to divorce or death. While some may dispute the option of remarriage, none will argue that celibacy is the only righteous option outside of another marriage. Consider the man who, because of medical procedures or health issues, can no longer function normally. It would be comforting to think that the urge dies when the capability ceases, but that is often not the case. Consider the wife of that man. In these and countless other cases unrelated to sex, God’s will leads to unhappiness at least for a time.

There is a statement I probably borrowed, and I think I have posted it here before, but it bears repeating: God is less concerned with our comfort than our character. We are called to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, who for the joy set before him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). Endurance builds character; character, biblically defined, is what suits us for heaven.  Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are few prayers at parties. If my unhappiness makes me more like Christ, I’ll be “happy” to endure it.

Tillapaugh: Review and Resolution

I am half way through Frank Tillapaugh’s book, The Church Unleashed. The first thing I noticed is that his diagnosis of the infirmity in the church in America is spot on. The next thing that I realized is that his book is over thirty years old; that is a sad commentary. Then it occurred to me that another of my favorite twentieth century authors, A.W. Tozer, said essentially the same things Tillapaugh said another thirty years earlier. Two generations apart, two thoughtful men of God identify the same weaknesses in the church. Tozer lamented the emphasis on program over Presence, and Tillapaugh criticized the pastor-centric fortress mentality so prevalent in American evangelicalism versus what he called the unleashed church.

Tillapaugh traced the fortress mentality to the evangelical stance developed throughout the early years of the twentieth century in opposition to religious liberalism. He believed that as mainline denominations drifted away from doctrinal orthodoxy into unbiblical emphases like the “social gospel,” evangelicals retreated into bunkers to defend the true faith. This defensive position became ossified by the time Tillapaugh wrote (1980’s) and was exacerbated by the transition of American society from rural to urban and suburban in nature. In other words, Tillapaugh believed that the church closed itself off from the world, and the world moved away.

This separation resulted in a largely ineffective church, evangelistically speaking. The majority of time, treasure and talent were spent inside church walls on programs meant for members, and the main thrust of what evangelism did exist was to bring people into the church. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was held captive in the church building, and unbelievers were expected to come there to find it. Because the church had become irrelevant to a changed society, Tillapaugh believed it had failed in its prime directive: making disciples.

The corrective according to Tillapaugh is to stop thinking of a church building as the place where people find the gospel and start taking the gospel to where the people are found. The way he proposes to do this is to unleash both the pastors and the laity to minister as they are led by the Holy Spirit, a clear application of the principle found in Ephesians 4. He believed that committee meetings are a place where good ideas go to die, and though structure is necessary, the Spirit must dominate the structure rather than the structure dominating (quenching) the Spirit.

Apparently Tillapaugh’s ideas worked. At the time he wrote The Church Unleashed, the proving ground for the unleashed church, Bear Valley Church in Denver, was a body of thousands working out of a building designed for 300 and doing ministry all over the city to target groups such as street people, international students, singles and more while not abandoning a traditional Sunday ministry to believers. His application of Jesus’ teaching about new skins for new wine was apt: the old church “skins” are no longer functional given the newness of the “wine” he is recommending.

Here I plant my Ebenezer, as the old song goes. The church I now call home (when not snowbirding) has elements of both the fortress and the unleashed church. I am going to work to free the gospel from its captivity there and maximize the good already being accomplished, or else I will find a place where it is already unleashed. I loathe church hopping to find the perfect church (which does not exist in this world), but I believe Tillapaugh is right when he counsels against trying to fight against leadership that resists being unleashed. I want to be like the men of Issachar in David’s day: understand the times and act accordingly. The lost and dying world deserves better than what the typical American evangelical church offers. I plan to see what I can do about that.