A Time for Posting

INTRODUCTION

A.    As a child I was convinced that God had a remote-control he would use to play my life in slow motion during school hours. After school he would use the same remote to play my life in fast-forward. I remember sitting at my desk in elementary school, trying to figure out if time would move as fast as I counted. To me, counting to sixty made a minute, so I figured if I counted to sixty “mississippilessly” (cue laughter of FRIENDS fans) and rather speedily, then a minute would be faster. Then, my 2^nd grade brain realized that if I counted to 60 time 60 really fast, a whole hour of school would be done faster. I thought that I had figured out how to “steal” God’s remote control. Well, after counting to sixty10 times, I couldn’t count higher because I was out of fingers to use to keep track of how many minutes I sped up.  Also my teacher reminded me that I could not go to recess until finishing my science work.

B.     As an adult recalling this event in my life, I probably do not remember the event completely accurately, but I remember the feeling of outsmarting God. I had figured out a loophole to the timeline he has already been in, is present in, and will be in. I am ashamed to say that as an adult, I probably too often long for that feeling. I desire the control, the power, the action; I want to have my will be done instead of participating in the will of the Father. However, in the action of “speeding up time” or making life fall into my timeline, I miss a very important aspect of God: His timing. Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 is a passage completely centered on the timeline created and instated by God. It is the “Circle of Life.”

BODY

A.    Verses 1-8 of today’s reading cover the different times of activities set in motion by the Creator.

1.       In this portion, the author claims: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hare, a time for war and a time for peace.” (NIV)

2.      God’s timing is a complex matter, and it does not seem like the seasons he placed in existence are accurate portrayals of his ascribed Characteristics. After all as Ed Young said “we can have whatever kind of God we want. All we have to do is invent him.”[1] In America we constantly are inventing the God that is most beneficial to our timelines. If we were to poll Christians who do not often study the scriptures with the question: “does God prescribe a time for destruction, mourning, killing, giving up, hate, and war?” I am pretty confident that the majority would say “of course not, God is love and these things are not loving.”  

a.       So often, we project the traits of Genie from Aladdin or Santa Clause onto God assuming he is all love, kindness, and generosity. We assume that our perception of “good” is the same as His, which leads to great confusion when times of drought and wanting reach our lives. Projection of our assumptions onto what is, generally has negative consequences.

b.      Assumptions are made when there is a lack of knowledge involved in life. Everyone assumes that they “know best” however, mankind’s knowledge is very lacking.[2] Humans do not know the extent of God’s character. Though he is love, there are plenty examples of His causing destruction.

c.       People do not realize the complexity of the Old Testament God. The God who inspired these writings, the God who claims there is a time for killing and destruction is the same God who inspired the New Testament. He is the same God Christians worship today. 

d.      Because this incomprehensible God set these “times of” into place, they must have meaning. Throughout scripture it can be seen that there are periods of both good and bad in the lives of the heroes. And even though the trials make life hard, they generally bring out growth and better character. Which is why God’s timing is perfect.

B.     The second part of the reading is verses 9-15. This passage discusses the beauty of God’s timing and his plan. It is an attempt to explain and define the poem through prose.[3]

1.      Unlike the first reading, this selection is prose. In it the author says: “What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity on man’s heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil –this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.” (NIV)

2.      God’s timing is forever. No one can change God’s timeline except for God. Man cannot comprehend the timeline of God, they cannot add to it or remove anything from it. In this portion “God deals exclusively in forever and flawless.”[4]

a.       When men have ideas, they are not original, they have been said before, just in a different way. I mean, every sermon of truth preached by this point is a repeat. It may have a different anecdote, but the main points are going to be recycled. Other men can add to or remove from these ideals and teachings. But when God speaks, it stays the same. Others cannot put words into God’s mouth. One cannot use God’s remote control.

b.      Because God is perfect, everything he does is perfect. There is no margin of era as there is for mere mortals. 

CONCLUSION

            Life runs in a circle. This fact has been observed for quite some time and even has a song about its habit. God instated this circle, a wisdom writer penned a poem about it. It is common knowledge that there is a time for birth and death, growth and decay, examples are found all over creation by open eyes. This week, as you live in your circling habits, I challenge you to see the good in the bad, see the joy through the pain, turn tears of mourning into laughter, and rely on the timing of Him who is forever and flawless.  It is a hard thing to do, but it is a part of the cycle that is extremely productive in producing fruits in the community.

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[1] Ed Young, “Been There. Done That. Now What?” (Broadman & Holman Publishing. 1994) 116.

[2] Douglas Miller, “Symbol and Rhetoric in Ecclesiastes” (Leiden: Brill, 2002) 113-114.

[3] Tremper Longman, “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids. 1998) 118

[4] David Jeremiah, “Searching for Heaven on Earth” (Brentwood, Tenn; Integrity Publishers, 2004) 70.

The First Words of Job: A Look into Job 3:1-6

        There is a phrase I have both heard and used countless times in my life. Generally, it goes like this: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” But as I have pondered the text for today over the past week I realized that though pictures are very powerful, they do not come close to containing the power involved with speaking words. Have you ever thought about the power of words?  Our entire world is the result of God speaking it into life. Mankind exists because God spoke it, not because he took a snapshot of the idea in his brain. Words are powerful, even the words of a mere child have influence behind them. The power of words is seen constantly throughout the day. It may be a mundane coffee order at the café, an article slandering a politician, or an infomercial on television.

At the café, a word’s capacity is evident in allowing the customer to convey what he wants to drink, then in the communication between employees to make sure that the needs of the customer are met in a timely manner and correctly. In the article, the potency is manifested in placing a concept in the reader’s head about the subject being something other than their original idea. And though most people do not buy items from infomercials, I vividly remember being a child and desperately wishing I were 18 years or older so I could call that 1-800 number to buy moon sand. You see, words are powerful. They create, motivate, and breathe life to our world.

The reading for today is based in Job’s first words. So what authority is behind Job’s monologue on the atrocity of his life? In this chapter of the poem, chapter three if you are not turned there already, Job conveys his agony, his pain, and his lack of understanding through his words as he curses the day of his birth; as he questions God’s motive for creating him.

From the get-go Job is singing a song of pity. He doesn’t understand why, being a good person, bad things, rather atrocious things, are happening to him. I mean, whatever happened to retribution theology? According to this though good people prosper and bad people suffer, it’s a ratio in direct proportion to man’s actions, leaving no room for God to bless or curse.[1] He knew that he was a good man, so why had God decided to take everything from him in such a rapid succession? Should he not just “Curse God and die?” Even from his vantage point of being cursed, Job knew better than to go that far, though he does do some cursing.

Take a look at 3:1 with me. “After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”(NIV) Before our character even has the chance to speak, the narrator of the poem foreshadows the mood for the reader. According to Marvin N. Pope’s edition of Job in the Anchor Bible Commentary series, the “after this” is a reference not to all of the previous events in the book, but specifically to the seven days of silence.[2] I don’t know about you, but if I had not said a single word in seven days after all these bad things happening to me, I would have probably been more forceful than Job. I really like complaining, even when nothing is wrong, so to have gone through all the trauma of Job that leaves room for a lot of complaining.

Our character’s first words are found in 3:3 “May the day of my birth parish.” Wow, Job curses the day of his birth and wants it to die. He has the audacity to speak death over that which God spoke life. Words are powerful; do you see the power in this statement? He’s not simply asking “God, why was I born.” Not even close, he is saying, God you made a mistake somewhere, I guess it was the day I was born, so I want that day to be erased, if I was never born, I don’t have to go through all this pain and misery you are putting me through.

Personally, I enjoy the way that Robert Alter put this in his work “The Wisdom Books.” You see, he translates the curse like this: “Annul the day that I was born and the night that said ‘A man is conceived.” Words have power. Alter, in his notes on the chapter, goes on to discuss his justification for translating annul and it is essentially that the power behind the English word “curse” has lost its emphasis whereas annul still conveys the intended meaning expressed in the original writings.[3]

Much like when a man repents for sin, and he begs God to remove that blot, to take away the stain and ugliness, to erase the wrong, to annul the sin, Job is asking (or maybe even commanding) that his birth be reverted. However it is important to note that he is not asking for the event to actually be removed, he is not Richie Rich, wishing he had never been born. He is lamenting, mourning his pain and expressing his feelings in a powerful way to all listening, especially his creator.

As read earlier, Job finishes the statement of verse three by not only cursing the day of his birth, but also the night of his conception.  In Clarke’s Commentary on Job and Song of Solomon, Adam Clarke points out that this paralleling statement is for the poetic nature of the work seeing as “it is perfectly unlikely that the night of conception should be either distinctly known or published.”[4]But the animation of words is still noticed, power normally has some scent of beauty to mankind; here is it shown through the style of poetry being used to tell the story.

Instead of stopping with this already imposing statement, Job continues with verses 4-6: “That day – may it turn into darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it. May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it. That night – may it not be included among the days of the year nor it be entered in any of the months.”

In his commentary on the book of Job, Habel makes the connection of light and darkness going back to the creation of light in Genesis 1:3. He also reminds readers that darkness is symbolic of death and chaos.[5] Therefore, Job does not stop with simply cursing the day of his birth and evening of his conception, but suggests that it be enveloped in blackness.

The metaphor of darkness and blackness is a vast pool of options. Sometimes it is metaphorical of sin, wrongdoing, painful/bad emotion, nighttime, or danger. The overall metaphor for darkness, however, is being apart from God. God is often described as light so anything that is not light is not of him. Which means Job is asking for his birth to be removed from God. He is still not cursing God, but it would not be a far leap from the command he articulates in his monologue.

But even with the words Job speaks in his first speech, God is more powerful, and his word is most powerful. God does not separate himself from the day of Job’s birth or the moment of his conception. Instead God continues to consider Job to be good and righteous. However, that does not stop God from becoming irritated with Job during his self-pity. YHWH does not enter into the dialogue for a long time, but once He starts speaking, he speaks from chapter 38-41 with no pause.

During His monologue challenging Job to answer the mysteries of the Universe, he still does not revoke the title given to Job in the beginning of the narrative and in the end bestows to this man more than he originally had. There is something to be said for being steadfast to God; something that Job learned through perseverance even after complaining and cursing events ordained by God to happen. Just as Job persevered through his suffering to be a witness of God’s goodness, we are called to the same.

1 Peter 4:13 says “But rejoice inasmuch as you participated in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed to you.” These words are just important as the curse which Job proclaims in Job 3:3. These words reveal that those who maintain the perseverance of Job, and endure the suffering as blameless and upright, then the glory of God is revealed. Considering the traditional Christian answer to the “meaning of life” question is to glorify God, this is a huge deal! If we endure through testing, tempting, pain and suffering and do so in order to glorify the Father, we are rewarded with seeing the fruit of our labors and actually seeing God’s glory.

Job, even though he cursed the day of his birth was very well rewarded by God in the end of his trial. He received more than he had taken away and through gaining a new family and herds, the glory and goodness of God was revealed to him. In the same way, once we are guided through the fire, glory will be made manifest through some form.

If the story of job were not an epic poem, formulated and crafted by a cautious designer, but were instead a series of pictures, the story would lose its power. Potentially, it would still stir emotion, but there would be no way to parallel it to New Testament teachings, or applications to our own lives. The monologue from God, the scene in Heaven would not be known to the world. The story would not be complete to man’s eyes. Thankfully, God decided to share words, powerful words, with his creation allowing the work of this poem to be applicable to generations to come. Because Job has been preserved for years, it has been used as a great resource for being faithful to God during both the good and the bad. Job, before, during, and after his first words in the story truly was a upright and blameless man. He made his mistakes like all humans do, but in the eyes of the Lord he was worthy to see Glory. I challenge you today, whatever your trial is, be blameless and upright, do not curse God, instead be worthy of seeing his Glory.

Works Cited

Alter, Robert. A Translation with Commenty: The Wisdom Books Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. New York, NY : W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. , 2010.

Arnold, Bill T, and Bryan E Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament . Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Publishing, 2008.

Clarke, Adam. The Old Testament Vol III: Job- Solomon's Song. New York, NY: Abingdon Press, n.d.

Habel, Norman C. The Book of Job. New York, NY: Cambridge Press, 1975.

Pope, Marvin N. Anchor Bible Comentary: Job. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1965.

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[1] Arnold, Bill T.; Beyer, Bryan E. Encountering the Old Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Publishing) 2008. (p 298).

[2] Pope, Marvin N. Anchor Bible Commentaries: Job (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company Inc.) 1965. (p 28).

[3] Alter, Robert. A Translation with Commentary: The Wisdom Books Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. (New York, NY; W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.) 2010.

[4] Clarke, Adam, The Old Testament Vol III –Job to Solomon’s Song. (New York, NY: Abingdon Press) p 31.

[5] Habel, Norman C. The Book of Job. (New York, NY: Cambridge Press) 1975.