Daily Devotion for Easter Sunday 2025

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Forty-two

It is fitting to finish this study on Job on Easter as we see that resurrection comes in today's conclusion.

Job is finally vindicated just as he has been asking for throughout the book.  It is interesting that we see Job is responsible for praying for his three friends.  Their fate is in his hands.  I can see them saying to him, "Remember how we came and sat with you in silence for seven days?"

Of course, Job forgives them because Job is a righteous man.

Or it could be that it would be nice to have his friends around so he could rub their noses in his victory for the rest of their lives!  This is written tongue-in-cheek (and doesn't fit with his righteousness) but is funny to think about nonetheless.

Job's fortunes in livestock are restored to twice what he had before.  We assume his boils and sores also heal nicely.

One difficulty for modern readers is the ten replacement children that Job sires.  Job's wife may not have felt that this was such a great blessing at her age (and already birthing ten previously)!

This reminds us that this story is told from a patriarchal lens.  The restoration has more to do with the honor of the head of the household.  The family name and prosperity are secured with these new offspring.  In this culture, the individual is minimized to the point where an ancient reader would be fine with the idea that ten new children are acceptable replacements for the former children.  They are regrettable losses and it is sad to be sure, but what matters is the security of the overall family line.

Another odd thing about this ending is that this is actually the argument that Job's three friends were making all along: the righteous receive earthly blessings while the wicked are punished in the here and now.  If you are blessed materially, you must have God's favor for good behavior.  If you are suffering, you must have done something offensive to God.

The argument that Job (and the theme running throughout the book) is that faith is not always transactional.  Sometimes the wicked get away with their bad deeds (at least at a surface glance) and sometimes people are good but are not necessarily rewarded for it.

We see this new way of thinking through the Easter story.

Judas dies but is not killed by God.  Rather, Judas takes his own life.  

Peter gets off the hook for his denials.

Thomas isn't told to go to the back of the class for his doubting - he receives the same assurance as the other disciples.

The eleven disciples who deserted Jesus are promoted to apostles who will lead the church.

We see grace offered in spite of their failings.  But this doesn't mean that being a disciple is a get-out-of-suffering-free card.  What we find is that our faith helps get us through the difficulties of life.

A resurrection faith is optimistic - we believe that life is ultimately stronger than death and that God will eventually win out.  This seems to be the point of Job.  This would be especially true if we see Job as a metaphor for Judah.  The exile is not permanent, and God's people will have a future.

For a people that are more community-oriented rather than individual-oriented, this is enough.

Prayer for the day:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Prayer from the Gloria Patri: Lesser Doxology, 3rd-4th centuries

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Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 40

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Forty, verse fifteen through Chapter Forty-one

This reading is a bit longer, but I thought the verses concerning Behemoth and Leviathan fit together nicely.  Humans were thought to be unable to contend with Behemoth or Leviathan, but they are not mightier than God.  These great monsters would have been among the mythic creatures that dotted the pantheons of the surrounding cultures to Judaism. 

If we can imagine Job representing Judah during the Babylonian exile, then Behemoth and Leviathan may represent the Babylonian empire.

We know that the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and took the most powerful families back to Babylon.

As many saw the Temple as the place where God lived, its destruction may have caused some to question, "Are the Babylonians mightier than God?"

As we see Behemoth and Leviathan as less than God, this indicates that even the mightiest empires fall in line and show subservience to God.

This is helpful when we feel small in the face of changes we can't control.  Empire today might be political forces at work in the world.  Empire might be economic forces such as market woes.  Empire could be systemic forces that demean certain people.  Empire can seem so large that it may make one feel insignificant.  God reminds us that even empires are finite.  Behemoth and Leviathan are not eternal.

The disciples experienced Empire as well.  Jesus ran into the Roman machine that decided he was not only expendable but detrimental to their well-being as the latest Empire in their time.  The disciples are trying to figure out what comes next.  We know the end of the story, but they are sitting in their grief on this Holy Saturday.  

They will soon discover what we have seen in Job, that God is mightier than any Empire.  

As we finish Lent, we have discovered that God is not as predictable as Job's friends would suggest.  We'll finish the book on Easter as we anticipate an ending for the faithful.

Prayer for the day:

Gracious God, we often find that our problems seem mountainous.  We forget that through faith, Jesus reminds us that we can indeed move mountains.  Help us to see the possibilities more often that the difficulties.  And when the difficulties do arise, may we find that they are insignificant compared to the power we find available in you.  We pray these things in Christ's holy name.  Amen.

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Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 3

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Three

Job’s suffering is such that he would wish that he was never born.

When Tennyson expressed, “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all” it seems that Job does not agree.  At least in this moment.

We begin to get an idea of the understanding of Sheol or the ancient Jewish understanding of the afterlife in chapter three.  It is there that the prisoners are at ease (and not made to toil) and slaves are free from their masters.  We get a sense of egalitarianism in Sheol.

Job expresses his anguish by saying it would be better to blot out his existence.  If we can look at this from a patriarchal understanding, if one’s belief is that all go to a similar dreary afterlife, then one establishes oneself through descendants.  By having a lots of offspring, one’s name is assured for generations.  From an evolutionary perspective (of which they had no knowledge), this actually makes a lot of sense – only its one’s DNA rather than one’s name that lives on.  Before the tragic news of the loss of his children, Job had thought he had secured a future for himself long after he ceased to walk this earth. 

In a time when infant mortality would have been high, he must have thought himself successful with seven sons and three daughters that lived past childhood. To lose his children was to lose everything. 

To give us an understanding of this mindset, Abram questions God’s promise while still childless when he states in Genesis 15:3, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”

What would it look like for you to lose your entire future in one fell swoop? 

Prayer for the day:

O Comforting One, Compassionate One, be with us all when we suffer loss and ache with the pain of grieving.  Give us a glimpse of the way it will be when love will never be taken away, when life itself will not be diminished, when all that we hold most precious will live and remain with us for ever.  Amen.

 

Prayer by Miriam Therese Winter, Roman Catholic Church, 20^th Century

Quoted Scripture: 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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Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 2

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Two

We continue with the narrative portion of the book that we won't revisit until the very last chapter which bookends the prose - the majority of Job.  Today, we find Job maintaining his faithful stance.  He's lost everything but his health and now that is being tested as well.

What if you lost your wealth, your children and your health all in a matter of a few days?  

The question from Job's wife is about his persistence in integrity.  Why bother?  You have nothing left to lose - simply curse God and die.  Of course, this sounds different from a 21st century understanding when one would still be hoping to end up in heaven.  Jewish perspectives on the afterlife in the time of its writing were that everyone went to Sheol when they died.  So, the hope of eternal reward was not on Job's radar.  This makes his stance all the more impressive.

With seemingly nothing to gain, Job persists in his faithfulness.

Being faithful doesn't always keep depression from our door though.  Job's three friends show up and do the best thing sometimes people can do for us: they stay with him and sit in silence.

They don't try to fix the situation or bolster him with their words.

They sit with him in silence for seven days and nights.  Soon, they will open their mouths and ruin everything, but they have been faithful to their friend in his grief.

I think sometimes we don't recognize the power we all have of being present with someone.  We may get nervous and feel like we have to fill the space with words but in reality, our being able to be with another person without saying a word can be a gift when a person is suffering.

Who in our lives today may need us to be present?  It may be that we need to simply be an encouragement without bringing a solution.

Prayer for the day: 

Ever-present God, we give you thanks that you never leave us.  And yet, we sometimes need a physical presence along with a spiritual one.  Help us to recognize you when you sit with us in silence.  And help us to embody your grace to those we know who need your touch. May we recognize what it is to be the body of Christ.  Amen.

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Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 1 - Ash Wednesday

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter One

Job is a figure that is larger than life.  He's billed as sinless and goes to extraordinary attempts to keep his children safe from any possible divine wrath that one of their missteps might lead them into.  

In a sheerly ironic movement, perhaps if he had not quite been so perfect, he wouldn't have attracted the notice of the accuser (the Satan in the original Hebrew).

We see the heavenly court and this part of the story seems to be influenced by Greek religious understanding of that time.  We might imagine the various Greek gods and goddesses carrying out the same type of contest.  

It is important to note that Job is a theological book rather than a historical one.  It even starts like a fairy tale, "once upon a time..."  Certainly, the land of Uz is not known historically.  And so, we might think of Job as a parable that allows us to enter into a theological conversation.  What does it mean to suffer in this lifetime if you haven't done anything to deserve it?

If the world is unjust, is this God's fault?

We'll explore these questions and more over the next forty days as we read through Job.

In today's chapter, we see a couple of sayings that have made it into the wider culture:

"Naked I came into this world and naked I shall leave it."

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."

We don't hear the follow-up as often: "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Sometimes we can't hear any more bad news

Some might say that Job is in denial (one of the stages of grief) and isn't allowing the full measure of his grief to touch him yet (he'll get there).  His stoic nature has led to the wider cultural saying, "The patience of Job."

As we consider this chapter, it does make one ask the question, does my faithfulness to God depend upon circumstance?  As we consider this for our own lives, I think it is a question worthy of self-reflection.

Can I bless the Lord in all circumstances?  

Prayer for the day:

Gracious God, help us to wrestle with our faith during this season of Lent.  Give us a stronger sense of who we are today.  And as we move forward, may we honestly account for those places that we can celebrate with you.  At the same time, let us honestly account for those places where we fall short.  As we know your grace, may our path forward align with you more consistently each day.  Amen.

  

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