Job . . .

For those of you who are on schedule with the Overachiever's Bible Reading Program, today we whizzed through Job. And I gotta tell you, I love this book. So much of it is sheer poetry! I love the descriptions of the leviathan and the behemoth, and could easily see how they could be dinosaurs (can't you just see the behemoth being a brontosaurus?). I love the poetry in verses like 28:9 where Job talks about mining: "Man's hand assaults the flinty rock and lays bare the roots of the moutains."

I love the science in Job. Yes, a lot of this is metaphorical language, but there's also truth in it. 26:7: "He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing." Ah, and this was written before people knew the earth was a sphere suspended in space!

And this in 26:14: "And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him!"

Some of you know that I've been really focusing on the sovereignty of God in the last few years--it showed up in my writing before it showed up in my conscious thoughts. You see, I accepted Christ when I was six years old, and all through my life I nurtured this quiet kind of pride that yes, I had the good sense to choose God. Ha!

Ah, my friend, the miracle of the mercy of God is that he chose me. I don't mean to get into a debate about predestination here, but I'm still learning and seeing that all my days have been ordered by him. When I began to see this, at first I thought I was allowing God to be bigger than I'd seen him previously . . . and then I realized that the truth is that I'm much smaller than I'd previously realized.

This is what God reveals to Job. Job is a righteous man, but in the fury of his self-defense, he fails to realize that compared to God, he is a mere pot. A pot the Creator can do with as he pleases.

The book of Job destroys prosperity theology with one blow. Sometimes godly men do good and receive suffering in return because it's God's will. Job's three friends are intent upon believing that goodness equals reward, but God isn't bound by that equation. He is holy, he is Lord, He is God.

I would love to come back and meditate on this book further. God chastises Job's three friends, but Elihu, the young upstart, seems to get away scot-free. Why? Do his words contain more truth than the others? His words seem to be in line with God's, but I need to go back and read more carefully.

BTW, I still have a few open slots for Magdalene books, so if you haven't sent your address, feel free. I'll post a note when the slots are full. (Caveat: Some of you have sent Canadian addresses. I'm not sure the publisher will want to deal with customs and extra postage, but we'll see.)

Angie