Friday, January 28, 2011

Job 17-20

Job 17

 1-2 "My spirit is broken,
   my days used up,
   my grave dug and waiting.
See how these mockers close in on me?
   How long do I have to put up with their insolence?

 3-5 "O God, pledge your support for me.
   Give it to me in writing, with your signature.
   You're the only one who can do it!
These people are so useless!
   You know firsthand how stupid they can be.
   You wouldn't let them have the last word, would you?
Those who betray their own friends
   leave a legacy of abuse to their children.

 6-8 "God, you've made me the talk of the town—
   people spit in my face;
I can hardly see from crying so much;
   I'm nothing but skin and bones.
Decent people can't believe what they're seeing;
   the good-hearted wake up and insist I've given up on God.

 9 "But principled people hold tight, keep a firm grip on life,
   sure that their clean, pure hands will get stronger and stronger!

 10-16 "Maybe you'd all like to start over,
   to try it again, the bunch of you.
So far I haven't come across one scrap
   of wisdom in anything you've said.
My life's about over. All my plans are smashed,
   all my hopes are snuffed out—
My hope that night would turn into day,
   my hope that dawn was about to break.
If all I have to look forward to is a home in the graveyard,
   if my only hope for comfort is a well-built coffin,
If a family reunion means going six feet under,
   and the only family that shows up is worms,
Do you call that hope?
   Who on earth could find any hope in that?
No. If hope and I are to be buried together,
   I suppose you'll all come to the double funeral!"


Job 18

Bildad's Second Attack
Plunged from Light into Darkness
 1-4 Bildad from Shuhah chimed in: "How monotonous these word games are getting!
   Get serious! We need to get down to business.
Why do you treat your friends like slow-witted animals?
   You look down on us as if we don't know anything.
Why are you working yourself up like this?
   Do you want the world redesigned to suit you?
   Should reality be suspended to accommodate you?

 5-21 "Here's the rule: The light of the wicked is put out.
   Their flame dies down and is extinguished.
Their house goes dark—
   every lamp in the place goes out.
Their strong strides weaken, falter;
   they stumble into their own traps.
They get all tangled up
   in their own red tape,
Their feet are grabbed and caught,
   their necks in a noose.
They trip on ropes they've hidden,
   and fall into pits they've dug themselves.
Terrors come at them from all sides.
   They run helter-skelter.
The hungry grave is ready
   to gobble them up for supper,
To lay them out for a gourmet meal,
   a treat for ravenous Death.
They are snatched from their home sweet home
   and marched straight to the death house.
Their lives go up in smoke;
   acid rain soaks their ruins.
Their roots rot
   and their branches wither.
They'll never again be remembered—
   nameless in unmarked graves.
They are plunged from light into darkness,
   banished from the world.
And they leave empty-handed—not one single child—
   nothing to show for their life on this earth.
Westerners are aghast at their fate,
   easterners are horrified:
'Oh no! So this is what happens to perverse people.
   This is how the God-ignorant end up!'"


Job 19

Job Answers Bildad
I Call for Help and No One Bothers
 1-6 Job answered: "How long are you going to keep battering away at me,
   pounding me with these harangues?
Time after time after time you jump all over me.
   Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this?
Even if I have, somehow or other, gotten off the track,
   what business is that of yours?
Why do you insist on putting me down,
   using my troubles as a stick to beat me?
Tell it to God—he's the one behind all this,
   he's the one who dragged me into this mess.

 7-12 "Look at me—I shout 'Murder!' and I'm ignored;
   I call for help and no one bothers to stop.
God threw a barricade across my path—I'm stymied;
   he turned out all the lights—I'm stuck in the dark.
He destroyed my reputation,
   robbed me of all self-respect.
He tore me apart piece by piece—I'm ruined!
   Then he yanked out hope by the roots.
He's angry with me—oh, how he's angry!
   He treats me like his worst enemy.
He has launched a major campaign against me,
   using every weapon he can think of,
   coming at me from all sides at once.
I Know That God Lives
 13-20 "God alienated my family from me;
   everyone who knows me avoids me.
My relatives and friends have all left;
   houseguests forget I ever existed.
The servant girls treat me like a bum off the street,
   look at me like they've never seen me before.
I call my attendant and he ignores me,
   ignores me even though I plead with him.
My wife can't stand to be around me anymore.
   I'm repulsive to my family.
Even street urchins despise me;
   when I come out, they taunt and jeer.
Everyone I've ever been close to abhors me;
   my dearest loved ones reject me.
I'm nothing but a bag of bones;
   my life hangs by a thread.

 21-22 "Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me.
   God has come down hard on me!
Do you have to be hard on me, too?
   Don't you ever tire of abusing me?

 23-27 "If only my words were written in a book—
   better yet, chiseled in stone!
Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life—
   and eventually he'll take his stand on earth.
And I'll see him—even though I get skinned alive!—
   see God myself, with my very own eyes.
   Oh, how I long for that day!

 28-29 "If you're thinking, 'How can we get through to him,
   get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?'
Forget it. Start worrying about yourselves.
   Worry about your own sins and God's coming judgment,
   for judgment is most certainly on the way."


Job 20

Zophar Attacks Job—The Second Round
Savoring Evil as a Delicacy
 1-3 Zophar from Naamath again took his turn: "I can't believe what I'm hearing!
   You've put my teeth on edge, my stomach in a knot.
How dare you insult my intelligence like this!
   Well, here's a piece of my mind!

 4-11 "Don't you even know the basics,
   how things have been since the earliest days,
   when Adam and Eve were first placed on earth?
The good times of the wicked are short-lived;
   godless joy is only momentary.
The evil might become world famous,
   strutting at the head of the celebrity parade,
But still end up in a pile of dung.
   Acquaintances look at them with disgust and say, 'What's that?'
They fly off like a dream that can't be remembered,
   like a shadowy illusion that vanishes in the light.
Though once notorious public figures, now they're nobodies,
   unnoticed, whether they come or go.
Their children will go begging on skid row,
   and they'll have to give back their ill-gotten gain.
Right in the prime of life,
   and youthful and vigorous, they'll die.

 12-19 "They savor evil as a delicacy,
   roll it around on their tongues,
Prolong the flavor, a dalliance in decadence—
   real gourmets of evil!
But then they get stomach cramps,
   a bad case of food poisoning.
They gag on all that rich food;
   God makes them vomit it up.
They gorge on evil, make a diet of that poison—
   a deadly diet—and it kills them.
No quiet picnics for them beside gentle streams
   with fresh-baked bread and cheese, and tall, cool drinks.
They spit out their food half-chewed,
   unable to relax and enjoy anything they've worked for.
And why? Because they exploited the poor,
   took what never belonged to them.

 20-29 "Such God-denying people are never content with what they have
      or who they are;
   their greed drives them relentlessly.
They plunder everything
   but they can't hold on to any of it.
Just when they think they have it all, disaster strikes;
   they're served up a plate full of misery.
When they've filled their bellies with that,
   God gives them a taste of his anger,
   and they get to chew on that for a while.
As they run for their lives from one disaster,
   they run smack into another.
They're knocked around from pillar to post,
   beaten to within an inch of their lives.
They're trapped in a house of horrors,
   and see their loot disappear down a black hole.
Their lives are a total loss—
   not a penny to their name, not so much as a bean.
God will strip them of their sin-soaked clothes
   and hang their dirty laundry out for all to see.
Life is a complete wipeout for them,
   nothing surviving God's wrath.
There! That's God's blueprint for the wicked—
   what they have to look forward to."

 (Job 17-20, The Message)

Job continues his deep, heart-felt lament, pouring out his utter hopelessness and helplessness before God, feeling rejection from friends and family, and hearing unwarranted rebuke from two friends.

And yet what his heart knows to be true about God cannot help but spill out in 19:23-27. Listen as Elizabeth Parcells sings Handel's rendering of Job's praise in his Messiah:



 I wonder why, though it was Job–a man–who uttered these words, Handel wrote this aria for a woman to sing. Up to this point in the book, no female names appear, but Handel had a woman proclaim this praise that gushes out of such pain.


Tonight my prayer is that God would so invade my heart that I would know His intrinsic, personal goodness to the extent Job did. I suspect he largely learned this to be true about God during the many years during which he experienced physical and material blessings–quite a feat. 

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Job 14-16

Job 14

If We Die, Will We Live Again?
 1-17"We're all adrift in the same boat:
   too few days, too many troubles.
We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt,
   transient as the shadow of a cloud.
Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps?
   Why even bother hauling me into court?
There's nothing much to us to start with;
   how do you expect us to amount to anything?
Mortals have a limited life span.
   You've already decided how long we'll live—
   you set the boundary and no one can cross it.
So why not give us a break? Ease up!
   Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.
For a tree there is always hope.
   Chop it down and it still has a chance—
   its roots can put out fresh sprouts.
Even if its roots are old and gnarled,
   its stump long dormant,
At the first whiff of water it comes to life,
   buds and grows like a sapling.
But men and women? They die and stay dead.
   They breathe their last, and that's it.
Like lakes and rivers that have dried up,
   parched reminders of what once was,
So mortals lie down and never get up,
   never wake up again—never.
Why don't you just bury me alive,
   get me out of the way until your anger cools?
But don't leave me there!
   Set a date when you'll see me again.
If we humans die, will we live again? That's my question.
   All through these difficult days I keep hoping,
   waiting for the final change—for resurrection!
Homesick with longing for the creature you made,
   you'll call—and I'll answer!
You'll watch over every step I take,
   but you won't keep track of my missteps.
My sins will be stuffed in a sack
   and thrown into the sea—sunk in deep ocean.

 18-22 "Meanwhile, mountains wear down
   and boulders break up,
Stones wear smooth
   and soil erodes,
   as you relentlessly grind down our hope.
You're too much for us.
   As always, you get the last word.
We don't like it and our faces show it,
   but you send us off anyway.
If our children do well for themselves, we never know it;
   if they do badly, we're spared the hurt.
Body and soul, that's it for us—
   a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow."


Job 15

Eliphaz Attacks Again
You Trivialize Religion
 1-16 Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time: "If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a
   windbag, belching hot air?
Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument,
   babbling baloney?
Look at you! You trivialize religion,
   turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
It's your sin that taught you to talk this way.
   You chose an education in fraud.
Your own words have exposed your guilt.
   It's nothing I've said—you've incriminated yourself!
Do you think you're the first person to have to deal with
      these things?
   Have you been around as long as the hills?
Were you listening in when God planned all this?
   Do you think you're the only one who knows anything?
What do you know that we don't know?
   What insights do you have that we've missed?
Gray beards and white hair back us up—
   old folks who've been around a lot longer than you.
Are God's promises not enough for you,
   spoken so gently and tenderly?
Why do you let your emotions take over,
   lashing out and spitting fire,
Pitting your whole being against God
   by letting words like this come out of your mouth?
Do you think it's possible for any mere mortal to be sinless
      in God's sight,
   for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?
Why, God can't even trust his holy angels.
   He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves,
So how much less we humans, smelly and foul,
   who lap up evil like water?
Always at Odds with God
 17-26 "I've a thing or two to tell you, so listen up!
   I'm letting you in on my views;
It's what wise men and women have always taught,
   holding nothing back from what they were taught
By their parents, back in the days
   when they had this land all to themselves:
Those who live by their own rules, not God's, can expect
      nothing but trouble,
   and the longer they live, the worse it gets.
Every little sound terrifies them.
   Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
They despair of things ever getting better—
   they're on the list of people for whom things always turn out
      for the worst.
They wander here and there,
   never knowing where the next meal is coming from—
   every day is doomsday!
They live in constant terror,
   always with their backs up against the wall
Because they insist on shaking their fists at God,
   defying God Almighty to his face,
Always and ever at odds with God,
   always on the defensive.

 27-35 "Even if they're the picture of health,
   trim and fit and youthful,
They'll end up living in a ghost town
   sleeping in a hovel not fit for a dog,
   a ramshackle shack.
They'll never get ahead,
   never amount to a hill of beans.
And then death—don't think they'll escape that!
   They'll end up shriveled weeds,
   brought down by a puff of God's breath.
There's a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies,
   gets lies for interest,
Paid in full before the due date.
   Some investment!
They'll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens,
   like buds sheared off before they bloom.
The godless are fruitless—a barren crew;
   a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.
They have sex with sin and give birth to evil.
   Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit."


Job 16

Job Defends Himself
If You Were in My Shoes
 1-5 Then Job defended himself:

"I've had all I can take of your talk.
   What a bunch of miserable comforters!
Is there no end to your windbag speeches?
   What's your problem that you go on and on like this?
If you were in my shoes,
   I could talk just like you.
I could put together a terrific harangue
   and really let you have it.
But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort,
   make things better, not worse!

 6-14 "When I speak up, I feel no better;
   if I say nothing, that doesn't help either.
I feel worn down.
   God, you have wasted me totally—me and my family!
You've shriveled me like a dried prune,
   showing the world that you're against me.
My gaunt face stares back at me from the mirror,
   a mute witness to your treatment of me.
Your anger tears at me,
   your teeth rip me to shreds,
   your eyes burn holes in me—God, my enemy!
People take one look at me and gasp.
   Contemptuous, they slap me around
   and gang up against me.
And God just stands there and lets them do it,
   lets wicked people do what they want with me.
I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up.
   He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around.
He set me up as his target,
   then rounded up archers to shoot at me.
Merciless, they shot me full of arrows;
   bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.
He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught,
   charging me like a mad bull.

 15-17 "I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt;
   I lay facedown in the dirt.
Now my face is blotched red from weeping;
   look at the dark shadows under my eyes,
Even though I've never hurt a soul
   and my prayers are sincere!
The One Who Represents Mortals Before God
 18-22 "O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me!
   Don't muffle my cry!
There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me,
   in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—
My Champion, my Friend,
   while I'm weeping my eyes out before God.
I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God
   as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.

   "Only a few years are left
   before I set out on the road of no return."

(Job 14-16, The Message)

As I was reading this passage, 14:15 brought me up short: "'Homesick with longing for the creature you made, you'll call—and I'll answer!'" Job says that God is homesick with longing for him, the creature God has made. How differently would I live my life if I knew that truth in my heart and not only in my head? Of course God has been calling me but I have rarely heard Him. Instead of taking the time to listen for Him, I have been much more caught up in what Job describes in 16:18: "'O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry!'"

Have I had wrong done to me? Of course, as has every other person ever born. Is it wrong to lament that wrong, to proclaim that the ones who perpetrated it had no right to do so? Of course not. The wrong done to me damaged me significantly, and I developed a strategy for protecting my heart that was appropriate for a little girl, but has become destructive in its own right has I continue to employ it in adulthood.


In 16:19 Job pleads for God to clear his name with other people: "'
There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—'" Unlike Job, though, I don't plead for family and friends to recognize my blamelessness (I am not claiming that I haven't sinned!), but that there is a reason for my particular brand of maddening behavior and that I am working to change it. Additionally, I need God to clear my name with myself. That significant damage told lies
to me about who I am and I believed them. Though I know intellectually that they are indeed lies, my heart still believes them and so I continue (for now) to live them out.

Oh, God, invade my heart a bit more each day with glimpses of You and visions of Your vast love for me that take my breath away!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Job 10-13

Job 10

To Find Some Skeleton in My Closet
 1 "I can't stand my life—I hate it! I'm putting it all out on the table, all the bitterness of my life—I'm holding back nothing."

 2-7 Job prayed:    "Here's what I want to say:
Don't, God, bring in a verdict of guilty
   without letting me know the charges you're bringing.
How does this fit into what you once called 'good'—
   giving me a hard time, spurning me,
   a life you shaped by your very own hands,
   and then blessing the plots of the wicked?
You don't look at things the way we mortals do.
   You're not taken in by appearances, are you?
Unlike us, you're not working against a deadline.
   You have all eternity to work things out.
So what's this all about, anyway—this compulsion
   to dig up some dirt, to find some skeleton in my closet?
You know good and well I'm not guilty.
   You also know no one can help me.

 8-12 "You made me like a handcrafted piece of pottery—
   and now are you going to smash me to pieces?
Don't you remember how beautifully you worked my clay?
   Will you reduce me now to a mud pie?
Oh, that marvel of conception as you stirred together
   semen and ovum—
What a miracle of skin and bone,
   muscle and brain!
You gave me life itself, and incredible love.
   You watched and guarded every breath I took.

 13-17 "But you never told me about this part.
   I should have known that there was more to it—
That if I so much as missed a step, you'd notice and pounce,
   wouldn't let me get by with a thing.
If I'm truly guilty, I'm doomed.
   But if I'm innocent, it's no better—I'm still doomed.
My belly is full of bitterness.
   I'm up to my ears in a swamp of affliction.
I try to make the best of it, try to brave it out,
   but you're too much for me,
   relentless, like a lion on the prowl.
You line up fresh witnesses against me.
   You compound your anger
   and pile on the grief and pain!

 18-22 "So why did you have me born?
   I wish no one had ever laid eyes on me!
I wish I'd never lived—a stillborn,
   buried without ever having breathed.
Isn't it time to call it quits on my life?
   Can't you let up, and let me smile just once
Before I die and am buried,
   before I'm nailed into my coffin, sealed in the ground,
And banished for good to the land of the dead,
   blind in the final dark?"


Job 11

Zophar's Counsel
How Wisdom Looks from the Inside
 1-6Now it was the turn of Zophar from Naamath: "What a flood of words! Shouldn't we put a stop to it?
   Should this kind of loose talk be permitted?
Job, do you think you can carry on like this and we'll say nothing?
   That we'll let you rail and mock and not step in?
You claim, 'My doctrine is sound
   and my conduct impeccable.'
How I wish God would give you a piece of his mind,
   tell you what's what!
I wish he'd show you how wisdom looks from the inside,
   for true wisdom is mostly 'inside.'
But you can be sure of this,
   you haven't gotten half of what you deserve.

 7-12 "Do you think you can explain the mystery of God?
   Do you think you can diagram God Almighty?
God is far higher than you can imagine,
   far deeper than you can comprehend,
Stretching farther than earth's horizons,
   far wider than the endless ocean.
If he happens along, throws you in jail
   then hauls you into court, can you do anything about it?
He sees through vain pretensions,
   spots evil a long way off—
   no one pulls the wool over his eyes!
Hollow men, hollow women, will wise up
   about the same time mules learn to talk.
Reach Out to God
 13-20 "Still, if you set your heart on God
   and reach out to him,
If you scrub your hands of sin
   and refuse to entertain evil in your home,
You'll be able to face the world unashamed
   and keep a firm grip on life, guiltless and fearless.
You'll forget your troubles;
   they'll be like old, faded photographs.
Your world will be washed in sunshine,
   every shadow dispersed by dayspring.
Full of hope, you'll relax, confident again;
   you'll look around, sit back, and take it easy.
Expansive, without a care in the world,
   you'll be hunted out by many for your blessing.
But the wicked will see none of this.
   They're headed down a dead-end road
   with nothing to look forward to—nothing."


Job 12

Job Answers Zophar
Put Your Ear to the Earth
 1-3 Job answered:    "I'm sure you speak for all the experts,
   and when you die there'll be no one left to tell us how to live.
But don't forget that I also have a brain—
   I don't intend to play second fiddle to you.
   It doesn't take an expert to know these things.

 4-6 "I'm ridiculed by my friends:
   'So that's the man who had conversations with God!'
Ridiculed without mercy:
   'Look at the man who never did wrong!'
It's easy for the well-to-do to point their fingers in blame,
   for the well-fixed to pour scorn on the strugglers.
Crooks reside safely in high-security houses,
   insolent blasphemers live in luxury;
   they've bought and paid for a god who'll protect them.

 7-12 "But ask the animals what they think—let them teach you;
   let the birds tell you what's going on.
Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics.
   Listen—the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.
Isn't it clear that they all know and agree
   that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand—
Every living soul, yes,
   every breathing creature?
Isn't this all just common sense,
   as common as the sense of taste?
Do you think the elderly have a corner on wisdom,
   that you have to grow old before you understand life?
From God We Learn How to Live
 13-25 "True wisdom and real power belong to God;
   from him we learn how to live,
   and also what to live for.
If he tears something down, it's down for good;
   if he locks people up, they're locked up for good.
If he holds back the rain, there's a drought;
   if he lets it loose, there's a flood.
Strength and success belong to God;
   both deceived and deceiver must answer to him.
He strips experts of their vaunted credentials,
   exposes judges as witless fools.
He divests kings of their royal garments,
   then ties a rag around their waists.
He strips priests of their robes,
   and fires high officials from their jobs.
He forces trusted sages to keep silence,
   deprives elders of their good sense and wisdom.
He dumps contempt on famous people,
   disarms the strong and mighty.
He shines a spotlight into caves of darkness,
   hauls deepest darkness into the noonday sun.
He makes nations rise and then fall,
   builds up some and abandons others.
He robs world leaders of their reason,
   and sends them off into no-man's-land.
They grope in the dark without a clue,
   lurching and staggering like drunks."


Job 13

I'm Taking My Case to God
 1-5"Yes, I've seen all this with my own eyes, heard and understood it with my very own ears.
Everything you know, I know,
   so I'm not taking a backseat to any of you.
I'm taking my case straight to God Almighty;
   I've had it with you—I'm going directly to God.
You graffiti my life with lies.
   You're a bunch of pompous quacks!
I wish you'd shut your mouths—
   silence is your only claim to wisdom.

 6-12 "Listen now while I make my case,
   consider my side of things for a change.
Or are you going to keep on lying 'to do God a service'?
   to make up stories 'to get him off the hook'?
Why do you always take his side?
   Do you think he needs a lawyer to defend himself?
How would you fare if you were in the dock?
   Your lies might convince a jury—but would they
      convince God?
He'd reprimand you on the spot
   if he detected a bias in your witness.
Doesn't his splendor put you in awe?
   Aren't you afraid to speak cheap lies before him?
Your wise sayings are knickknack wisdom,
   good for nothing but gathering dust.

 13-19 "So hold your tongue while I have my say,
   then I'll take whatever I have coming to me.
Why do I go out on a limb like this
   and take my life in my hands?
Because even if he killed me, I'd keep on hoping.
   I'd defend my innocence to the very end.
Just wait, this is going to work out for the best—my salvation!
   If I were guilt-stricken do you think I'd be doing this—
   laying myself on the line before God?
You'd better pay attention to what I'm telling you,
   listen carefully with both ears.
Now that I've laid out my defense,
   I'm sure that I'll be acquitted.
Can anyone prove charges against me?
   I've said my piece. I rest my case.
Why Does God Stay Hidden and Silent?
 20-27 "Please, God, I have two requests;
   grant them so I'll know I count with you:
First, lay off the afflictions;
   the terror is too much for me.
Second, address me directly so I can answer you,
   or let me speak and then you answer me.
How many sins have been charged against me?
   Show me the list—how bad is it?
Why do you stay hidden and silent?
   Why treat me like I'm your enemy?
Why kick me around like an old tin can?
   Why beat a dead horse?
You compile a long list of mean things about me,
   even hold me accountable for the sins of my youth.
You hobble me so I can't move about.
   You watch every move I make,
   and brand me as a dangerous character.

 28 "Like something rotten, human life fast decomposes,
   like a moth-eaten shirt or a mildewed blouse."

(Job 10-13, The Message)

Job continues to pour out his lament to God, and his friends (Zophar this time) continue to completely misunderstand both him and God. Zophar's advice in 11:13-20 particularly galls me; he essentially tells Job that if he'll only repent of the sin that's obviously causing his current troubles, his life will once again be all sunshine and lollipops, with nary a cloud in the sky or a bump on the road. I want to run screaming from the room when I read that...after I pinch off Zophar's head, that is!

I absolutely love Job's sarcasm when he replies to Zophar in 12:1, "'I'm sure you speak for all the experts, and when you die there'll be no one left to tell us how to live.'" Even in the midst of feeling the pain of his friends deeply doubting his relationship with God, he doesn't devolve into victimhood, but instead tells those friends to go pound sand and continues to pursue God with gut-wrenching honesty.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Job 6-9

Job 6

Job Replies to Eliphaz
God Has Dumped the Works on Me
 1-7 Job answered:    "If my misery could be weighed,
   if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,
It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea!
   Is it any wonder that I'm screaming like a caged cat?
The arrows of God Almighty are in me,
   poison arrows—and I'm poisoned all through!
   God has dumped the whole works on me.
Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—
   so don't expect me to keep quiet in this.
Do you see what God has dished out for me?
   It's enough to turn anyone's stomach!
Everything in me is repulsed by it—
   it makes me sick.
Pressed Past the Limits
 8-13 "All I want is an answer to one prayer,
   a last request to be honored:
Let God step on me—squash me like a bug,
   and be done with me for good.
I'd at least have the satisfaction
   of not having blasphemed the Holy God,
   before being pressed past the limits.
Where's the strength to keep my hopes up?
   What future do I have to keep me going?
Do you think I have nerves of steel?
   Do you think I'm made of iron?
Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps?
   Why, I don't even have any boots!
My So-Called Friends
 14-23 "When desperate people give up on God Almighty,
   their friends, at least, should stick with them.
But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert—
   one day they're gushing with water
From melting ice and snow
   cascading out of the mountains,
But by midsummer they're dry,
   gullies baked dry in the sun.
Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink
   end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.
Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water,
   tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.
They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment!
   They get there, and their faces fall!
And you, my so-called friends, are no better—
      there's nothing to you!
   One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.
It's not as though I asked you for anything—
   I didn't ask you for one red cent—
Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me.
   So why all this dodging and shuffling?
24-27 "Confront me with the truth and I'll shut up,
   show me where I've gone off the track.
Honest words never hurt anyone,
   but what's the point of all this pious bluster?
You pretend to tell me what's wrong with my life,
   but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.
Are people mere things to you?
   Are friends just items of profit and loss?
28-30 "Look me in the eyes!
   Do you think I'd lie to your face?
Think it over—no double-talk!
   Think carefully—my integrity is on the line!
Can you detect anything false in what I say?
   Don't you trust me to discern good from evil?"


Job 7

There's Nothing to My Life
 1-6 "Human life is a struggle, isn't it? It's a life sentence to hard labor.
Like field hands longing for quitting time
   and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
I'm given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—
   months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
I go to bed and think, 'How long till I can get up?'
   I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I'm fed up!
I'm covered with maggots and scabs.
   My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,
   and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

 7-10 "God, don't forget that I'm only a puff of air!
   These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
And your eyes have seen the last of me;
   even while you're looking, there'll be nothing left to look at.
When a cloud evaporates, it's gone for good;
   those who go to the grave never come back.
They don't return to visit their families;
   never again will friends drop in for coffee.

 11-16 "And so I'm not keeping one bit of this quiet,
   I'm laying it all out on the table;
   my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.
Are you going to put a muzzle on me,
   the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?
If I say, 'I'm going to bed, then I'll feel better.
   A little nap will lift my spirits,'
You come and so scare me with nightmares
   and frighten me with ghosts
That I'd rather strangle in the bedclothes
   than face this kind of life any longer.
I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?
   Let me alone! There's nothing to my life—it's nothing
      but smoke.

 17-21 "What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,
   that you even give them the time of day?
That you check up on them every morning,
   looking in on them to see how they're doing?
Let up on me, will you?
   Can't you even let me spit in peace?
Even suppose I'd sinned—how would that hurt you?
   You're responsible for every human being.
Don't you have better things to do than pick on me?
   Why make a federal case out of me?
Why don't you just forgive my sins
   and start me off with a clean slate?
The way things are going, I'll soon be dead.
   You'll look high and low, but I won't be around."


Job 8

Bildad's Response
Does God Mess Up?
 1-7 Bildad from Shuhah was next to speak:
"How can you keep on talking like this?
   You're talking nonsense, and noisy nonsense at that.
Does God mess up?
   Does God Almighty ever get things backward?
It's plain that your children sinned against him—
   otherwise, why would God have punished them?
Here's what you must do—and don't put it off any longer:
   Get down on your knees before God Almighty.
If you're as innocent and upright as you say,
   it's not too late—he'll come running;
   he'll set everything right again, reestablish your fortunes.
Even though you're not much right now,
   you'll end up better than ever.
To Hang Your Life from One Thin Thread
 8-19 "Put the question to our ancestors,
   study what they learned from their ancestors.
For we're newcomers at this, with a lot to learn,
   and not too long to learn it.
So why not let the ancients teach you, tell you what's what,
   instruct you in what they knew from experience?
Can mighty pine trees grow tall without soil?
   Can luscious tomatoes flourish without water?
Blossoming flowers look great before they're cut or picked,
   but without soil or water they wither more quickly than grass.
That's what happens to all who forget God—
   all their hopes come to nothing.
They hang their life from one thin thread,
   they hitch their fate to a spider web.
One jiggle and the thread breaks,
   one jab and the web collapses.
Or they're like weeds springing up in the sunshine,
   invading the garden,
Spreading everywhere, overtaking the flowers,
   getting a foothold even in the rocks.
But when the gardener rips them out by the roots,
   the garden doesn't miss them one bit.
The sooner the godless are gone, the better;
   then good plants can grow in their place.

 20-22 "There's no way that God will reject a good person,
   and there is no way he'll help a bad one.
God will let you laugh again;
   you'll raise the roof with shouts of joy,
With your enemies thoroughly discredited,
   their house of cards collapsed."


Job 9

Job Continues
How Can Mere Mortals Get Right with God?
 1-13 Job continued by saying:
"So what's new? I know all this.
   The question is, 'How can mere mortals get right with God?'
If we wanted to bring our case before him,
   what chance would we have? Not one in a thousand!
God's wisdom is so deep, God's power so immense,
   who could take him on and come out in one piece?
He moves mountains before they know what's happened,
   flips them on their heads on a whim.
He gives the earth a good shaking up,
   rocks it down to its very foundations.
He tells the sun, 'Don't shine,' and it doesn't;
   he pulls the blinds on the stars.
All by himself he stretches out the heavens
   and strides on the waves of the sea.
He designed the Big Dipper and Orion,
   the Pleiades and Alpha Centauri.
We'll never comprehend all the great things he does;
   his miracle-surprises can't be counted.
Somehow, though he moves right in front of me, I don't see him;
   quietly but surely he's active, and I miss it.
If he steals you blind, who can stop him?
   Who's going to say, 'Hey, what are you doing?'
God doesn't hold back on his anger;
   even dragon-bred monsters cringe before him.

 14-20 "So how could I ever argue with him,
   construct a defense that would influence God?
Even though I'm innocent I could never prove it;
   I can only throw myself on the Judge's mercy.
If I called on God and he himself answered me,
   then, and only then, would I believe that he'd heard me.
As it is, he knocks me about from pillar to post,
   beating me up, black-and-blue, for no good reason.
He won't even let me catch my breath,
   piles bitterness upon bitterness.
If it's a question of who's stronger, he wins, hands down!
   If it's a question of justice, who'll serve him the subpoena?
Even though innocent, anything I say incriminates me;
   blameless as I am, my defense just makes me sound worse.
If God's Not Responsible, Who Is?
 21-24 "Believe me, I'm blameless.
   I don't understand what's going on.
   I hate my life!
Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude
   that God destroys the good right along with the bad.
When calamity hits and brings sudden death,
   he folds his arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.
He lets the wicked take over running the world,
   he installs judges who can't tell right from wrong.
   If he's not responsible, who is?

 25-31 "My time is short—what's left of my life races off
   too fast for me to even glimpse the good.
My life is going fast, like a ship under full sail,
   like an eagle plummeting to its prey.
Even if I say, 'I'll put all this behind me,
   I'll look on the bright side and force a smile,'
All these troubles would still be like grit in my gut
   since it's clear you're not going to let up.
The verdict has already been handed down—'Guilty!'—
   so what's the use of protests or appeals?
Even if I scrub myself all over
   and wash myself with the strongest soap I can find,
It wouldn't last—you'd push me into a pigpen, or worse,
   so nobody could stand me for the stink.

 32-35 "God and I are not equals; I can't bring a case against him.
   We'll never enter a courtroom as peers.
How I wish we had an arbitrator
   to step in and let me get on with life—
To break God's death grip on me,
   to free me from this terror so I could breathe again.
Then I'd speak up and state my case boldly.
   As things stand, there is no way I can do it."
(Job 6-9, The Message)

Job sums up the conflict between himself and his friends quite well in 6:26, 30b when he says, “You pretend to tell me what’s wrong with my life, but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air. … Don’t you trust me to discern good from evil?” His friends’ shallow, simplistic, even impersonal view of God prevented them from loving Job well and walking with him through this incredibly painful time in his life. Bildad even had the audacity to tell Job that, since his children were dead, they had obviously sinned! (8:4) His theology said that God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Period. If Job is experiencing pain in his life there must be unconfessed sin. He cannot conceive of there being any other explanation. His God is too small, distant, and uncaring to be standing right beside Job, waiting for him to turn to Him in the midst of his anguish, to pour out his lament to the God he worships no matter what.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Job 1-5

 Sigh. Behind again. Oh, well; I wade in again and keep going...

Job 1

 1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!  4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, "Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly." Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they'd sinned.
The First Test: Family and Fortune
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, "What have you been up to?"    Satan answered God, "Going here and there, checking things out on earth."
 8 God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil."
 9-10 Satan retorted, "So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can't lose!
 11 "But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He'd curse you right to your face, that's what."
 12 God replied, "We'll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don't hurt him." Then Satan left the presence of God.
 13-15 Sometime later, while Job's children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened."
 16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened."
 17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened."
 18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened."
 20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:

 21 Naked I came from my mother's womb,
   naked I'll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
   God's name be ever blessed.
 22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.


Job 2

The Second Test: Health
 1-3 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan also showed up. God singled out Satan, saying, "And what have you been up to?" Satan answered God, "Oh, going here and there, checking things out." Then God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him, is there—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to trick me into destroying him, but it didn't work."  4-5 Satan answered, "A human would do anything to save his life. But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He'd curse you to your face, that's what."
 6 God said, "All right. Go ahead—you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don't kill him."
 7-8 Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.
 9 His wife said, "Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!"
 10 He told her, "You're talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?"
   Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.
Job's Three Friends
 11-13 Three of Job's friends heard of all the trouble that had fallen on him. Each traveled from his own country—Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuhah, Zophar from Naamath—and went together to Job to keep him company and comfort him. When they first caught sight of him, they couldn't believe what they saw—they hardly recognized him! They cried out in lament, ripped their robes, and dumped dirt on their heads as a sign of their grief. Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering.


Job 3

Job Cries Out
What's the Point of Life?
 1-2Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
3-10 "Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived!
Let it be a black hole in space.
   May God above forget it ever happened.
   Erase it from the books!
May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness,
   shrouded by the fog,
   swallowed by the night.
And the night of my conception—the devil take it!
   Rip the date off the calendar,
   delete it from the almanac.
Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness—
   no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
May those who are good at cursing curse that day.
   Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
May its morning stars turn to black cinders,
   waiting for a daylight that never comes,
   never once seeing the first light of dawn.
And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb
   into a life with so much trouble.

 11-19 "Why didn't I die at birth,
   my first breath out of the womb my last?
Why were there arms to rock me,
   and breasts for me to drink from?
I could be resting in peace right now,
   asleep forever, feeling no pain,
In the company of kings and statesmen
   in their royal ruins,
Or with princes resplendent
   in their gold and silver tombs.
Why wasn't I stillborn and buried
   with all the babies who never saw light,
Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone
   and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
Prisoners sleep undisturbed,
   never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
The small and the great are equals in that place,
   and slaves are free from their masters.

 20-23 "Why does God bother giving light to the miserable,
   why bother keeping bitter people alive,
Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't,
   who can't imagine anything better than death,
Who count the day of their death and burial
   the happiest day of their life?
What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense,
   when God blocks all the roads to meaning?

 24-26 "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper,
   then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
The worst of my fears has come true,
   what I've dreaded most has happened.
My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed.
   No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life."


Job 4

Eliphaz Speaks Out
Now You're the One in Trouble
 1-6Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
"Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
   that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
   put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you're the one in trouble—you're hurting!
   You've been hit hard and you're reeling from the blow.
But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now?
   Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?

 7-11 "Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap?
   Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
It's my observation that those who plow evil
   and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
One breath from God and they fall apart,
   one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them.
The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily,
   but when he's toothless he's useless—
No teeth, no prey—and the cubs
   wander off to fend for themselves.

 12-16 "A word came to me in secret—
   a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
It came in a scary dream one night,
   after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
Dread stared me in the face, and Terror.
   I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot.
A spirit glided right in front of me—
   the hair on my head stood on end.
I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there—
   a blur...and then I heard a muffled voice:

 17-21 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God?
   How can humans be purer than their Creator?
Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants,
   doesn't even cheer his angels,
So how much less these bodies composed of mud,
   fragile as moths?
These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow,
   and no one even notices—gone without a trace.
When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses—
   we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'"


Job 5

Don't Blame Fate When Things Go Wrong
 1-7 "Call for help, Job, if you think anyone will answer! To which of the holy angels will you turn?
The hot temper of a fool eventually kills him,
   the jealous anger of a simpleton does her in.
I've seen it myself—seen fools putting down roots,
   and then, suddenly, their houses are cursed.
Their children out in the cold, abused and exploited,
   with no one to stick up for them.
Hungry people off the street plunder their harvests,
   cleaning them out completely, taking thorns and all,
   insatiable for everything they have.
Don't blame fate when things go wrong—
   trouble doesn't come from nowhere.
It's human! Mortals are born and bred for trouble,
   as certainly as sparks fly upward.
What a Blessing When God Corrects You!
 8-16 "If I were in your shoes, I'd go straight to God,
   I'd throw myself on the mercy of God.
After all, he's famous for great and unexpected acts;
   there's no end to his surprises.
He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth,
   sends water to irrigate the fields.
He raises up the down-and-out,
   gives firm footing to those sinking in grief.
He aborts the schemes of conniving crooks,
   so that none of their plots come to term.
He catches the know-it-alls in their conspiracies—
   all that intricate intrigue swept out with the trash!
Suddenly they're disoriented, plunged into darkness;
   they can't see to put one foot in front of the other.
But the downtrodden are saved by God,
   saved from the murderous plots, saved from the iron fist.
And so the poor continue to hope,
   while injustice is bound and gagged.

 17-19 "So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!
   Mind you, don't despise the discipline of Almighty God!
True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;
   the same hand that hurts you, heals you.
From one disaster after another he delivers you;
   no matter what the calamity, the evil can't touch you—

 20-26 "In famine, he'll keep you from starving,
   in war, from being gutted by the sword.
You'll be protected from vicious gossip
   and live fearless through any catastrophe.
You'll shrug off disaster and famine,
   and stroll fearlessly among wild animals.
You'll be on good terms with rocks and mountains;
   wild animals will become your good friends.
You'll know that your place on earth is safe,
   you'll look over your goods and find nothing amiss.
You'll see your children grow up,
   your family lovely and lissome as orchard grass.
You'll arrive at your grave ripe with many good years,
   like sheaves of golden grain at harvest.

 27 "Yes, this is the way things are—my word of honor!
   Take it to heart and you won't go wrong."

(The Message)

I have an on-line atheist, formerly believing friend who says Job is his favorite book of the Bible because (if I remember correctly) it's just so human. I agree with his assessment, and can put a specific face on and hear a specific voice for Satan, the Designated Accuser, in chapters 1 and 2. I cast this person in the role because of his abundant cynicism and his "no good deed goes unpunished" approach to life. Ugh. I do feel sad for him because, though I suspect he realizes he's fallen prey to that mentality, he seems trapped in it and has yet to reach the point of having had enough of it, being willing to let go of it, and allowing God to protect his heart instead of this damaging strategy for living.

Having written that, I recognize that I have my own protective mechanism that was once legitimate but has become increasingly less so over the decades of my adulthood. I've been, with the help of someone who "gets" me like few others do, laying the foundation to let go of it. I might very well be on the brink of doing exactly that. In this moment I can taste a bit of the freedom that has eluded me for so many years. Oh, Lord, I invite You to turn that mere taste into a craving that I cannot squelch!

I am so far from Job's reaction in 1:20-22 and 2:10!

Job's friends started out so well in 2:11-13; they just sat with him, grieving with him, saying nothing, not trying to figure it out for him. But then Eliphaz, in 4:8-5:27, began the descent into telling Job how he ought to be reacting and what he ought to be feeling. Based on an instance in which I (similarly) poorly loved a friend who was going through intense pain, I'd guess that Eliphaz had never experienced such a deeply disruptive experience and so had never been motivated, as Job was, to question everything he thought he knew about God and life. There was a fair amount of truth in his lecture to Job, but little grace or acknowledgment that Job's emotions were valid, much less encouragement for Job to continue clinging to God while being present to the incredible pain. Eliphaz was, in essence, encouraging Job to instead block out the pain, not realizing that continuing to feel it would lead Job to increased intimacy with God.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Genesis 8-11

Genesis 8

 1-3 Then God turned his attention to Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him on the ship. God caused the wind to blow and the floodwaters began to go down. The underground springs were shut off, the windows of Heaven closed and the rain quit. Inch by inch the water lowered. After 150 days the worst was over.  4-6 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship landed on the Ararat mountain range. The water kept going down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains came into view. After forty days Noah opened the window that he had built into the ship.
 7-9 He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn't even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.
 10-11 He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.
 12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn't come back.
 13-14 In the six-hundred-first year of Noah's life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.
 15-17 God spoke to Noah: "Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that brimming prodigality of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth."
 18-19 Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons' wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds—every creature on the face of the Earth—left the ship family by family.
 20-21 Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, "I'll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I'll never again kill off everything living as I've just done.
 22 For as long as Earth lasts,
      planting and harvest, cold and heat,
   Summer and winter, day and night
      will never stop." 


Genesis 9

 1-4 God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don't eat that.  5 "But your own lifeblood I will avenge; I will avenge it against both animals and other humans.
 6-7 Whoever sheds human blood,
      by humans let his blood be shed,
   Because God made humans in his image
      reflecting God's very nature.
   You're here to bear fruit, reproduce,
      lavish life on the Earth, live bountifully!"

 8-11 Then God spoke to Noah and his sons: "I'm setting up my covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with everything alive around you—birds, farm animals, wild animals—that came out of the ship with you. I'm setting up my covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood destroy the Earth."
 12-16 God continued, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I'm putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth."
 17 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I've set up between me and everything living on the Earth."
 18-19 The sons of Noah who came out of the ship were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah; from these three the whole Earth was populated.
 20-23 Noah, a farmer, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank from its wine, got drunk and passed out, naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his two brothers who were outside the tent. Shem and Japheth took a cloak, held it between them from their shoulders, walked backward and covered their father's nakedness, keeping their faces turned away so they did not see their father's exposed body.
 24-27 When Noah woke up with his hangover, he learned what his youngest son had done. He said,
   Cursed be Canaan! A slave of slaves,
      a slave to his brothers!
   Blessed be God, the God of Shem,
      but Canaan shall be his slave.
   God prosper Japheth,
      living spaciously in the tents of Shem.
   But Canaan shall be his slave.

 28-29 Noah lived another 350 years following the flood. He lived a total of 950 years. And he died.

 

Genesis 10

The Family Tree of Noah's Sons
 1 This is the family tree of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After the flood, they themselves had sons.  2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
 4-5 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Rodanim. The seafaring peoples developed from these, each in its own place by family, each with its own language.
 6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, Canaan.
 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca.
   The sons of Raamah: Sheba, Dedan.
 8-12 Cush also had Nimrod. He was the first great warrior on Earth. He was a great hunter before God. There was a saying, "Like Nimrod, a great hunter before God." His kingdom got its start with Babel; then Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the country of Shinar. From there he went up to Asshur and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and the great city Calah.
 13-14 Egypt was ancestor to the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, the Pathrusim, the Casluhim (the origin of the Philistines), and the Kaphtorim.
 15-19 Canaan had Sidon his firstborn, Heth, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanites spread out, going from Sidon toward Gerar, as far south as Gaza, and then east all the way over to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and on to Lasha.
 20 These are the descendants of Ham by family, language, country, and nation.
 21 Shem, the older brother of Japheth, also had sons. Shem was ancestor to all the children of Eber.
 22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
 23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, Meshech.
 24-25 Arphaxad had Shelah and Shelah had Eber. Eber had two sons, Peleg (so named because in his days the human race divided) and Joktan.
 26-30 Joktan had Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab—all sons of Joktan. Their land goes from Mesha toward Sephar as far as the mountain ranges in the east.
 31 These are the descendants of Shem by family, language, country, and nation.
 32 This is the family tree of the sons of Noah as they developed into nations. From them nations developed all across the Earth after the flood.

 

Genesis 11

"God Turned Their Language into 'Babble'"
 1-2 At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.  3 They said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and fire them well." They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.
 4 Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let's make ourselves famous so we won't be scattered here and there across the Earth."
 5 God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.
 6-9 God took one look and said, "One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they'll come up with next—they'll stop at nothing! Come, we'll go down and garble their speech so they won't understand each other." Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That's how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into "babble." From there God scattered them all over the world.

10-11 This is the story of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he had Arphaxad. It was two years after the flood. After he had Arphaxad, he lived 500 more years and had other sons and daughters.

 12-13 When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 14-15 When Shelah was thirty years old, he had Eber. After Shelah had Eber, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 16-17 When Eber was thirty-four years old, he had Peleg. After Eber had Peleg, he lived 430 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 18-19 When Peleg was thirty years old, he had Reu. After he had Reu, he lived 209 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 20-21 When Reu was thirty-two years old, he had Serug. After Reu had Serug, he lived 207 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 22-23 When Serug was thirty years old, he had Nahor. After Serug had Nahor, he lived 200 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 24-25 When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he had Terah. After Nahor had Terah, he lived 119 more years and had other sons and daughters.
 26 When Terah was seventy years old, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Family Tree of Terah
27-28 This is the story of Terah. Terah had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.     Haran had Lot. Haran died before his father, Terah, in the country of his family, Ur of the Chaldees.
 29 Abram and Nahor each got married. Abram's wife was Sarai; Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran. Haran had two daughters, Milcah and Iscah.
 30 Sarai was barren; she had no children.
 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son), and Sarai his daughter-in-law (his son Abram's wife) and set out with them from Ur of the Chaldees for the land of Canaan. But when they got as far as Haran, they settled down there.
 32 Terah lived 205 years. He died in Haran.

(Genesis 8-11, The Message)


God saved Noah and his family from the otherwise total destruction of the Great Flood. He spoke of each one's preciousness to Him (9:5-6), encouraged them to celebrate life, to party!!! (9:1-4, 7) He made an everlasting covenant with them (9:8-17). Life was good; all was set for living happily ever after, right? Wrong; Canaan almost immediately violated his father, setting up apparently life-long conflict with Noah (9:20-27). And shortly thereafter, everybody decided to build themselves a city that God had not decreed, and then that they could make themselves equal to God by building the tower of Babel (11:1-9). God mercifully intervened and thwarted their schemes to make life "work" apart from Him.

They had everything God could possibly offer them to meet every single, solitary one of their needs, but it wasn't good enough, He wasn't enough…or so they thought. So God stood in their way, kept His covenant with them, and continued to pursue them through all their silliness and sinfulness.

I am grateful that He does the same for me. 

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Genesis 4-7

Genesis 4

 1 Adam slept with Eve his wife. She conceived and had Cain. She said, "I've gotten a man, with God's help!"  2 Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer. 3-5 Time passed. Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn't get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk.
 6-7 God spoke to Cain: "Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it."
 8 Cain had words with his brother. They were out in the field; Cain came at Abel his brother and killed him.
 9 God said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?"
   He said, "How should I know? Am I his babysitter?"
 10-12 God said, "What have you done! The voice of your brother's blood is calling to me from the ground. From now on you'll get nothing but curses from this ground; you'll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You'll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You'll be a homeless wanderer on Earth."
 13-14 Cain said to God, "My punishment is too much. I can't take it! You've thrown me off the land and I can never again face you. I'm a homeless wanderer on Earth and whoever finds me will kill me."
 15 God told him, "No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over." God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.
 16 Cain left the presence of God and lived in No-Man's-Land, east of Eden.
 17-18 Cain slept with his wife. She conceived and had Enoch. He then built a city and named it after his son, Enoch.
   Enoch had Irad,
   Irad had Mehujael,
   Mehujael had Methushael,
   Methushael had Lamech.
 19-22 Lamech married two wives, Adah and Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, the ancestor of all who live in tents and herd cattle. His brother's name was Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and flute. Zillah gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who worked at the forge making bronze and iron tools. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

    23-24 Lamech said to his wives,
   Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
      you wives of Lamech, hear me out:
   I killed a man for wounding me,
      a young man who attacked me.
   If Cain is avenged seven times,
      for Lamech it's seventy-seven!
 25-26 Adam slept with his wife again. She had a son whom she named Seth. She said, "God has given me another child in place of Abel whom Cain killed." And then Seth had a son whom he named Enosh.
   That's when men and women began praying and worshiping in the name of God.

Genesis 5

The Family Tree of the Human Race
 1-2 This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.  3-5 When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was just like him, his very spirit and image, and named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, having more sons and daughters. Adam lived a total of 930 years. And he died.
 6-8 When Seth was 105 years old, he had Enosh. After Seth had Enosh, he lived another 807 years, having more sons and daughters. Seth lived a total of 912 years. And he died.
 9-11 When Enosh was ninety years old, he had Kenan. After he had Kenan, he lived another 815 years, having more sons and daughters. Enosh lived a total of 905 years. And he died.
 12-14 When Kenan was seventy years old, he had Mahalalel. After he had Mahalalel, he lived another 840 years, having more sons and daughters. Kenan lived a total of 910 years. And he died.
 15-17 When Mahalalel was sixty-five years old, he had Jared. After he had Jared, he lived another 830 years, having more sons and daughters. Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years. And he died.
 18-20 When Jared was 162 years old, he had Enoch. After he had Enoch, he lived another 800 years, having more sons and daughters. Jared lived a total of 962 years. And he died.
 21-23 When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he had Methuselah. Enoch walked steadily with God. After he had Methuselah, he lived another 300 years, having more sons and daughters. Enoch lived a total of 365 years.
 24 Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.
 25-27 When Methuselah was 187 years old, he had Lamech. After he had Lamech, he lived another 782 years. Methuselah lived a total of 969 years. And he died.
 28-31 When Lamech was 182 years old, he had a son. He named him Noah, saying, "This one will give us a break from the hard work of farming the ground that God cursed." After Lamech had Noah, he lived another 595 years, having more sons and daughters. Lamech lived a total of 777 years. And he died.
 32 When Noah was 500 years old, he had Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6

Giants in the Land
 1-2 When the human race began to increase, with more and more daughters being born, the sons of God noticed that the daughters of men were beautiful. They looked them over and picked out wives for themselves.  3 Then God said, "I'm not going to breathe life into men and women endlessly. Eventually they're going to die; from now on they can expect a life span of 120 years."
 4 This was back in the days (and also later) when there were giants in the land. The giants came from the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men. These were the mighty men of ancient lore, the famous ones.
Noah and His Sons
5-7 God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, "I'll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I'm sorry I made them."  8 But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah.
 9-10 This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
 11-12 As far as God was concerned, the Earth had become a sewer; there was violence everywhere. God took one look and saw how bad it was, everyone corrupt and corrupting—life itself corrupt to the core.
 13 God said to Noah, "It's all over. It's the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I'm making a clean sweep.
 14-16 "Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. Build a roof for it and put in a window eighteen inches from the top; put in a door on the side of the ship; and make three decks, lower, middle, and upper.
 17 "I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
 18-21 "But I'm going to establish a covenant with you: You'll board the ship, and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives will come on board with you. You are also to take two of each living creature, a male and a female, on board the ship, to preserve their lives with you: two of every species of bird, mammal, and reptile—two of everything so as to preserve their lives along with yours. Also get all the food you'll need and store it up for you and them."
 22 Noah did everything God commanded him to do.

Genesis 7

 1 Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.  2-4 "Take on board with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and a female; one pair of every unclean animal, a male and a female; and seven pairs of every kind of bird, a male and a female, to insure their survival on Earth. In just seven days I will dump rain on Earth for forty days and forty nights. I'll make a clean sweep of everything that I've made." 5 Noah did everything God commanded him.
 6-10 Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters covered the Earth. Noah and his wife and sons and their wives boarded the ship to escape the flood. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and all the crawling creatures came in pairs to Noah and to the ship, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. In seven days the floodwaters came.
 11-12 It was the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month that it happened: all the underground springs erupted and all the windows of Heaven were thrown open. Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.
 13-16 That's the day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, accompanied by his wife and his sons' wives, boarded the ship. And with them every kind of wild and domestic animal, right down to all the kinds of creatures that crawl and all kinds of birds and anything that flies. They came to Noah and to the ship in pairs—everything and anything that had the breath of life in it, male and female of every creature came just as God had commanded Noah. Then God shut the door behind him.
 17-23 The flood continued forty days and the waters rose and lifted the ship high over the Earth. The waters kept rising, the flood deepened on the Earth, the ship floated on the surface. The flood got worse until all the highest mountains were covered—the high-water mark reached twenty feet above the crest of the mountains. Everything died. Anything that moved—dead. Birds, farm animals, wild animals, the entire teeming exuberance of life—dead. And all people—dead. Every living, breathing creature that lived on dry land died; he wiped out the whole works—people and animals, crawling creatures and flying birds, every last one of them, gone. Only Noah and his company on the ship lived.
 24 The floodwaters took over for 150 days.

Part of Cain's story resonates with me today, specifically the portion that is his response to God's punishment for him murdering his brother (4:13-14). He had murdered his brother, and yet he had the audacity to complain that God banishing him to the life of a nomad instead of requiring his life was too harsh a punishment. Wow. Beyond that ingratitude, though, I see myself reflected in his stated desire to hide from God. He sorta-kinda knew that he'd screwed up, but instead of embracing God's grace and mercy he is afraid to face Him. That indicates a lack of repentance to me, or at least incomplete repentance. I need to spend some time sitting with this concept, asking God to show me how this plays out in my relationship with Him and other people, asking Him to renew my heart and mind. I am afraid I have been tone-deaf in this area.

And then comes the account of Noah and the Great Flood (chapters 6-7). A severe judgment, to be sure, but by no means devoid of grace and redemption. Perhaps this is a picture of what God is doing in my sanctification: drowning the sin and preserving what follows after Him. Ya think???