Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 35

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Thirty-six

Elihu definitely ascribes to the sovereignty of God or the idea that God is totally in charge of all the universe.  The difficulty of this stance is that sometimes human beings act in ways that move against God's design.  Other things happen due to accident or simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

An Armenian or Wesleyan view of God is that God returns free will to humanity through prevenient grace as a way to allow us to be more than puppets on a string.  This helps explain at least the human activity that is harmful to others: it is a person misusing their free will rather than operating in some greater design that we just don't understand.

Elihu mentions that God doesn't despise anyone - no one is worth the negative emotion - but rather God just eliminates those who aren't playing ball!  We continue to see the same transactional faith stance from Elihu - the good are rewarded and the wicked are punished.  The entire book of Job seems to be a critique of this stance.

I do kind of like the statement that "the godless in heart cherish anger."  And of course, they die in their youth and their lives end in shame.  Does this mean that everyone who is old is sweet and happy?

Of course, we know this isn't true.  One thing that disproves this is that plenty of faithful people cherish anger in their hearts from time to time.  We don't do it on our best days, but there are times...

Maybe what we could take from this is that when we are cherishing anger in our hearts, we are acting as if we were godless.

I believe that this could have been a word to those in exile.  They needed not to give in to the temptation to give up their faith.  They would have had ample reason.  Some today might say that Elihu's speech turns toward a toxic positivity.  It is not kind and a little tone-deaf to the people suffering.  Would the people of God be able to hear it?  

Are we?

On the days that we are having difficulty - the days we are cherishing anger - maybe we can't hear it.  But maybe we need to hold it out there as a high bar to clear.  So that tomorrow, we can get over it.

It feels good on the days we clear it!

With the complexity of all that it means to be human, I recognize that there are days of great faithfulness and there are days of lesser faithfulness and there are days we would rather not remember.  The Christian walk recognizes these as we confess our sins.  And it helps us to have more days where faithfulness is the norm.  I hope that your faith is helping you get over the bar more often.

Prayer for the day:

Lord, we pray not for tranquility, nor that our tribulations may cease; we pray for your spirit and your love, that you grant us strength and grace to overcome adversity; through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Prayer by Girolamo Savonarola, Italy, 15th Century

Photo by Steven Pisano via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 14

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Fourteen

Job seems to be addressing God by taking the stance that human beings are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that God shouldn't bother noticing them to punish them.

As Christians, we often speak of the eternal presence of God as being a comfort.  Because earthly strife was connected with divine punishment, it seemed kinder to Job to experience the absence of God rather than the presence of God.  

Significance is a matter of perspective

A person of faith with this mindset could develop similar characteristics to a person with an alcoholic parent.  Growing up with an alcoholic parent, you would never be sure when the next tantrum might come.  What is difficult to understand in the moment is that this is less about you and more about the disease of the parent.  It creates dis-ease in the household.

And because sometimes tragedy is random, such as being in an automobile accident or surviving an earthquake, a person who believes that this is divine punishment would have to cast about to think, "what did I do to deserve this?"  Most of us have at least one or two things that are deficient and we would subsequently lay the blame on these.  This can lead to the idea that we have earned or deserve whatever dire occurrence has come our way.  

It becomes far kinder to God (and to the faithful) to lessen our view of the sovereignty of God.  In other words, God doesn't have to be in complete charge of the universe.  Some things can be random.  The advantage of this is that we are not robots caught in God's ordering of the universe.  We have real determination over our own actions.

Of course, this deeper thinking about God and free will is part of what the author is seeking for us.  Verses 16-17 state to God:

For then you would not number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

This is of course the theology that Christians took to heart with our understanding of atonement in Jesus Christ.  While we are in Christ, God covers over our sins and transgressions - seals them up in a bag to quote Job.

How does this understanding of grace help us to see God in a way that is helpful rather than problematic?

Prayer for the Day:

Gracious God, we believe that you love us even in all our imperfections.  We also believe that while our sins do grieve you, that you don't pile on any more than what natural consequences provide.  And at the same time, Jesus leads us to believe that you don't see us as insignificant.    Help us to do the right thing more often, not to avoid punishment or to receive praise, but because it delights you and follows your will for the world.  May we increase in this integrity for our faith.  Amen.

Photo by Dave Campbell via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.