Today's Reading, Job, Chapter Four
One of the major viewpoints from that time period was that God
punished evil people while the just were similarly rewarded within their lifetime. This view becomes especially important for their sense of justice if their idea of the afterlife in Sheol was a similar fate for all people.
The Psalms and Proverbs often express this kind of wisdom.
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| Humanity has long imagined a just world. |
This kind of wisdom is often true. Those who are not kind often receive the measure
they give and deal in misery more often than not.
But is it always true?
With this kind of thinking, it becomes very easy to imagine
that if a person is wealthy, it is because God is blessing them for something
they or their parents before them must have done. But if calamity strikes such as a tornado or
flood, then this devastation also must have had some human misdeed to account
for it.
Eliphaz is speaking from this mindset. The reader knows that Job is innocent, but
his friends do not. Only Job and God
know and so far God is silent and Job is suffering more than they had seen
anyone suffer in their lifetimes.
As we think about our own understanding of the world, where do
we see victims blamed in society today?
As we think about this, we recognize that there are still
many with Eliphaz’s mindset still alive. And if we're honest with ourselves, it is difficult for us to completely escape this bias. What is our responsibility as faithful people of God?
Prayer for the day:
O Lord, baptize our hearts into a sense of the conditions
and needs of all people. Amen.
Prayer by George Fox, Quaker tradition, 17th Century
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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.
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