Today's Reading: Job, Chapter 35
Elihu moves into a philosophical question that has to do with our motivations for being good and following God's laws.
It reminds me of an old joke: "My older son has to be bribed to be good, so we pay him $5 a day. My younger son is a different story. He's good for nothing."
The question Job asks through Elihu today is "Why be righteous at all? Why not just be wicked if the result is the same?"
We must remember that this question is being asked through the frustration of so much loss and grief.
If a person is only doing the right thing to get into heaven, our faith becomes transactional. So the real question would be, if you found out that heaven didn't exist and you only went to Sheol where everyone goes regardless of behavior, would you still be good?
Elihu reminds us all that being good affects those around you. It can raise the spirits of a community and make a real difference. The opposite is equally true. Bad behavior also affects the people with which you interact. It can really bring down the lives of others.
So, the idea that we exist in community is why most of these laws were written in the first place. They help us get along with one another. They are important for the fabric of society.
As we consider our own call to do the right thing, we might have lots of reasons for following through. It might be that we are setting an example for children, friends or other family members. Doing the right thing can positively impact them as well. But in the end, the more we do the right thing, the more it becomes ingrained in us. So, this becomes our identity. We don't want to let ourselves down because we have decided that we are going to be fundamentally good people, even in the face of hardship.
Of course, this is the very subject which opens the Book of Job. Will he only praise God when things are going his way?
He's not done a lot of praising but at least he hasn't turned to cursing so there is something there. Who among us could say that we would do any better with all he's faced?
Prayer for the day:
Enlighten our understandings with knowledge of right, and govern our wills by your laws, that no deceit may mislead us, no temptation corrupt us; that we may always endeavor to do good and hinder evil. Amidst all the hopes and fears of this world, take not your Holy Spirit from us; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer by Samuel Johnson, England, 18th Century
Photo by Randy Watson via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
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