My Redeemer Lives!

Today is the third day in our 50th week, reading the Bible through in a year.  Our scriptures today are:  Job 18-20; Revelation 15; Psalm 141.

Merry Christmas!  Today, we celebrate the birthday of our Lord.  We remember the day that our Redeemer came to light on the earth.  

In today's reading, Job says: 

I know that my redeemer lives,

    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

26 

And after my skin has been destroyed,

    yet in my flesh I will see God;

27 

I myself will see him

    with my own eyes—I, and not another.

    How my heart yearns within me!

(Job 19.25-27 NIV)

If Easter is the day when we say, "He lives again," then Christmas should be the day that we say, "He lives!"  Though truthfully, even before He was born--even before He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus lived.  He is the eternally existent One, who was with God in the beginning and who made the world and everything in it (John 1).  

Thousands of years before Christ, Job knew that his Redeemer was already alive (he uses the present tense in verse 25).  "In the end he will stand on the earth" is a prophetic foretelling of Jesus' incarnation.  Job isn't talking about the end of time, but the end of sin's bondage and the beginning of the new age of redemption.  Job is talking about Immanuel--God With Us--who already lived without human flesh.  Job predicts that this Redeemer will initiate the final covenant with humanity when He takes on flesh and stands on the earth.  It's pretty amazing that thousands of years before Jesus, Job predicted the incarnation!

In the next verses, Job predicts the resurrection.  He seems to gloss over Jesus' death and resurrection, but he certainly looks forward to the renewal of his flesh, even after it has been destroyed.  He will see God face to face with renewed eyes--even after his eyes are no more.  

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life."  In Job's longing for the resurrection, he was longing for Jesus.  That's why he said, "My heart yearns within me!"

I hope that this Christmas, you'll thank God for His incarnation--for the miracle of Christ's birth and His taking on of human flesh.  I hope that even as you celebrate the baby in the manger, you'll remember Jesus' death and resurrection, and then look forward to your own.  I pray that your heart will yearn within you for Jesus, because He alone is your life and peace.

Merry Christmas!  May God bless you in the coming year!

The Witness of Angels

Today is the third day in our 50th week, reading the Bible through in a year.  Our scriptures today are:  Job 15-17; Revelation 14.

Chances are, either today or tomorrow you will read or hear the Christmas story from the gospels of Matthew or Luke.  Today, I want to focus on the witness of angels in the Christmas story.  In Matthew 1.20-25 (NIV), we read about the witness of an angel, who helped Joseph to deal with the news about Mary's unexpected, virginal, pregnancy.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Later, after the magi visit and are warned in a dream not to return to Herod as unwitting spies, an angel gives Joseph a message to flee to Egypt.

 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,  where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son (Matthew 2.13-15 NIV).”

In Luke 2 (NIV) we hear the witness of the angels as they tell the shepherds about Jesus' birth.

 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Throughout the Bible, angels are messengers of God's truth.  In the Christmas story, the bring good tidings of great joy.  However, in today's reading in the book of Revelation, angels give a message that is less than pleasant.

 Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people.  He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

 A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand,  they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name (Revelation 14.6-11 NIV).” 

 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.  Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”  So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

 Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.  Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”  The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.  They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.

(Revelation 14.14-20)

While angels are heavenly creatures not to be confused with human souls at all, people can still serve the function of angels in this world.  The word angel (Greek: Angelos) simply means "messenger." Any Christian can be a messenger of God to our friends, neighbors, and culture.  Sometimes this is a message that will bring joy to all people.  It will sound like "Peace on earth, good will to men."  But at other times, the message will be one of warning.

Our culture loves angels.  Because of the Christmas story, you probably hear more about angels in December than you do during the rest of the year.  We depict angels as lovely creatures full of love and goodness and cheer.  And they certainly can be.  But our culture wouldn't love the angels in Revelation, would it?  Yet, those angels have to be willing to accept whatever assignment God gives them--to share the message of love and peace, or to bring warning and judgment.  

My question for you is--As a messenger of God, are you willing to accept whatever assignment you're given--whether or not people love you for it?   

I pray that you will have a blessed Christmas this year--one filled with peace and good will.  I pray that God's angels will minister His blessing to you.  And I pray that you'll accept God's assignment to be an angel in the flesh to the world around you, delivering His message--whatever it may be.

 

"Speak to the Earth, and It Will Teach You"

Today is the first day in our 50th week, reading the Bible through in a year.  Our scriptures this week are:

-Job 12-14; Rev 13; Ps 100

-Job 15-17; Rev 14

-Job 18-20; Rev 15; Ps 141

-Job 21-23; Rev 16; Ps 101

-Job 24-27; Rev 17

7 

But ask the animals, and they will teach you,

    or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;

or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,

    or let the fish in the sea inform you...

 In [God's] hand is the life of every creature

    and the breath of all mankind.

(Job 12.7-8 NIV)

When's the last time you spoke with an animal?  Or had a conversation with a bird?  Or let the earth teach you?  Or received truth from a fish?  Does the very question sound strange to you?

Christians are taught to hear God's voice in the advice of friends.  We learn to read the Bible and discern God's willl.  We allow believing teachers to influence our lives, and make the study of devotional and theological books our practice.  But what about nonverbal "books" like those we find in nature?

In the celebrated book on spirituality, Celebration of Discipline*, Quaker author Richard Foster encourages us to learn from nature, in the study of what he calls "nonverbal books."  

The easiest place to begin is with nature.  It is not difficult to see that the created order has many things to teach us.

Isaiah tells us that "...the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isa. 55:12).  The handiwork of the creator can speak to us and teach us if we will listen. Martin Buber tells the story of the rabbi who went to a pond every day at dawn to learn "the song with which the frogs praise God."* 

We bebgin the study of nature by paying attention.  We see flowers or birds.  We observe them carefully and prayerfully.  Andre Gide describes the time when he observed a moth being reborn from its chrysalis during a classroom lecture.  He was filled with wonder, awe, joy at this metamorphosis, this resurrection.  Enthusiastically, he showed it to his professor who replied with a note of disapproval, "What!  Didn't you know that a chrysalis is the envelope of a butterfly?  Every butterfly you see has come out of a chrysalis.  It's perfectly natural."  Disillusioned, Gide wrote, "Yes, indeed, I knew my natural history as well, perhaps better than he...But because it was natural, could he not see that it was marvelous?  Poor creature!  From that day, I took a dislike to him and a loathing to his lessons."**  Who wouldn't!  Gide's professor had only amassed information; he had not studied.  And so the first step in the study of nature is reverent observation.  A leaf can speak of order and variety, complexity and symmetry. Evelyn Underhill writes, "Gather yourself up, as the exercises of recollection have taught you to do. Then...stretch out by a distinct act of loving will towards one of the myriad manifestations of life that surround you...As to the object of contemplation, it matters little. From Alp to insect, anything will do, provided that your attitude be right."****

The next step is to make friends with the flowers and the trees and the little creatures that creep upon the earth. Like the fabled Dr. Doolittle, talk with the animals.  Of course, you can't really talk to each other...or can you?  There is certainly a communication that goes beyond words, and often animals seem to respond to our friendship and compassion.  I know this because I have experimented with it and so have some first-rate scientists, and we have found it to be true.  Perhaps the stories of St. Francis taming the wolf of Gubbio and preaching to the birds are not so farfetched.  Of this much we canbe sure: if we love the creation, we will learn from it.;  In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevski counsels, "Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it.  Love every leaf, every ray of God's light.  Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.  If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things.  Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. 

Now, I'm not suggesting that you go out and start hugging every tree.  But the Bible is clear that we can learn about God through the voice of nature.  Jesus said that if people cease to praise Him, the rocks would cry out (Luke 19.40).  Was this hyperbole?  How would they do this?  Psalm 19.1-4 (NIV) says:

1 

The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 

Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 

They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

4 

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.

So, even without the capacity for speech, nature is imbued with the ability to teach us about God.  Romans 1.20 (NIV) says:

...Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made...

Let me give you a personal example of what it means to learn of God from nature.  Back in March of 2009, I was hiking in the woods.  I saw something in nature--nothing supernatural, but a natural phenomenon that spoke to my heart.  Here's my journal entry from that day:

Public domain, stock photo

Overlooking a little stream that feeds into the Rivanna River, God showed me this simple and amazing sight.  The snows of recent days are melting away.  I sit in my shirt sleeves in the noon sun's warmth.  Most of the ice has melted away, and yet there is a residue still clinging to the bank.  Just a remnant of ice that still holds onto the shady spots.  God is giving me a picture of my heart.  He is melting the ice of sin and hard-heartedness away, yet those shady spots want to cling.  When will I let these melt away and break free?  Only then can the waterfall be undammed, and the Living Water flow freely.

Today's reading in the book of Job, along with many other passages of scripture, implore us to pay attention to the witness of nature around us.  If you listen, you may hear the rustling of leaves calling out God's name.  If you pay attention, you might read the message of the heavens in the winter sky...because the heavens declare the glory of God.

* Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.  20th Anniversary Edition.  (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1998.), p. 73.
**Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim:  Early Masters (New York: Schocken Books, 1948), p. 111.
*** Andre Gide, If It Dies, trans. Dorothy Bussey (New York: Random House, 1935), p. 83.
****Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism (New York: World, Meridian Books, 1955), pp. 93-94.

Job's Friends - Bildad and Zophar

Today is the final day in our 50th week, reading our Bible through in a year.  If you read this blog regularly, you'll notice that I missed Friday--but one of the beauties in a 5-day reading plan is that if you miss a day, you can make it up later.  So this evening's blog post makes up for Friday.

Our scriptures today are:  Job 8-11; Revelation 12.

Friends are full of all kinds of advice--some of it good, and some of it bad.  Once, a friend told me that I shouldn't even consider renting a particular house.  We did anyway, and for a long time we wished we hadn't.  Another time, a different friend invited me (trusting and inexperienced) to go hunting with him--neglecting to tell me it was illegal in Virginia to hunt on Sundays.  We went, and thankfully, there were no repercussions--either for us, or for the deer that we never saw.  Not all advice that friends give you is good.  Some friendly advice should be followed, and some should not.

Job's friends were also full of advice.  When Job's suffering brought his friends to his side, they had to tell him what they thought about it.  Bildad said that Job should repent of whatever sin he had committed that had brought such trouble on him.  Certainly, Job couldn't be as innocent as he claimed, could he?  Zophar took it a step further, and said that in his guilt, Job actually received better than what he deserved.  

When you're going through tough times, it's good to seek the advice of friends.  Proverbs 15.22 (ESV) says:

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

Similarly, Proverbs 11.14 (ESV) says:

 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

But it's important to know whether your friends have godly insight in the matters they're advising you on.  James 1.5-7 (ESV) says that wisdom is a gift from God, and it's there for those who seek it.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

I pray that when you need wisdom, you seek it from the right source.  Listen to your friends, but filter what they have to say through the wisdom that God grants you.  Maybe, unlike Job, you won't take forty-two chapters in order to get to the truth!  

When it's Your Turn to Suffer

Today is the fourth day in our 50th week, reading the Bible through in a year.  Our scriptures today are:  Job 4-7; Revelation 11; Psalm 99*.

I know a pastor who faithfully tended her flock, comforting the sorrowing and caring for the wounded.  She was full of wisdom and grace, binding up the brokenhearted and lifting the needy from the trash heap.  She declared freedom to the prisoners and justice for the oppressed.  She provided for those who grieved, bestowing on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (Isaiah 61).  

Until it was her turn to suffer.

When tragedy struck her family, it rocked her world.  

Those who care for others are not exempt from personal apocalypses themselves.  We need encouragement just like anybody else.  When Job began to wallow in his suffering, he needed his friend Eliphaz to offer support.  The Temanite had these words for Job:

Think how you have instructed many,

    how you have strengthened feeble hands.

 

Your words have supported those who stumbled;

    you have strengthened faltering knees.

 

But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;

    it strikes you, and you are dismayed... 

Blessed is the one whom God corrects;

    so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

18 

For he wounds, but he also binds up;

    he injures, but his hands also heal.

(Job 4:3-5; 5:17-18)

Even the strongest believers, those who have strengthened many others, need to be cared for now and then.  Perhaps you've been a caretaker for many, but now it's your turn to suffer.  What can you do when doubt clouds your vision and threatens your faith?  What can you do to regain your balance in life?  Psalm 99 gives a recipe for jump-starting a stalled faith.

First, remind yourself who God is.  

...He sits enthroned between the cherubim (v. 1)...

Great is the Lord in Zion;
    he is exalted over all the nations (v. 2).

The King is mighty, he loves justice—
    you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
    what is just and right (v. 4).

God is holy.  God is great.  God is enthroned and exalted.  God loves justice and equity and does what's just and right.  When you've been through times of suffering, it helps to remind yourself who God is.  Because sometimes (usually) we don't see the big picture.  We only see a small part of what God is doing.  We see our suffering over here, but don't see what God is accomplishing through it over there.  Reminding yourself who the Lord is helps you regain perspective and trust in our good God.

Next, remember what God has done.

Moses and Aaron were among his priests,

    Samuel was among those who called on his name;

they called on the Lord

    and he answered them.

He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;

    they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

Lord our God,

    you answered them;

you were to Israel a forgiving God,

    though you punished their misdeeds.

(vv. 6-8)

Countless times in God's Word, we read about people of faith who called on God, and the Lord rescued them.  But it isn't just in the Bible that God has shown Himself faithful.  No doubt, you can recall instances in your own life and in the lives of your loved ones, when God has demonstrated His deliverance.  By remembering what God has done for His people in the past, you reassure yourself that He will be with you in this present suffering, and will carry you into the future.

Finally, rhapsodize about God Himself.  

Let them praise your great and awesome name—

    he is holy (v. 3).

Exalt the Lord our God

    and worship at his footstool;

    he is holy (v. 5).

Exalt the Lord our God

    and worship at his holy mountain,

    for the Lord our God is holy (v. 9).

When you're suffering, you might not feel like praising God.  Worshiping may be the last thing on your mind.  But do it anyway.  In Job 1:20, we read that after he suffered so much destruction, Job got up and tore his robe, shaving his head in grief.  Then he fell to the ground in worship.  It was in worship that he gained the perspective that he needed, and the strength to withstand the temptation to curse God for his pain.

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship  and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

    and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Worship lifts you above the circumstance and sets your feet on God's territory rather than on your own battleground.  Our problem when we suffer is that we linger too long in our own pain, and run too rarely to the Lord who brings relief.  

Perhaps you've always seen yourself as the strong one, able to take care of everybody else when they struggle.  You've observed suffering from the sidelines, and you've been able to detach yourself from other people's pain as you tend to their needs.  But maybe now it's your turn to suffer.  What will you do?  When tragedy strikes, will it rock your world?  Or will you it force you to remind yourself who God is, remember what God has done, and rhapsodize about God Himself?  I pray that you can avoid suffering altogether, but if you do suffer, I hope you'll run to God rather than away from Him.  Because it's only when you run toward Him that you can receive the healing that you need.

*Today's scriptures are taken from the NIV. 

The Problem of Suffering

Today is the third day in our 50th week, reading the Bible through together in a year.  Our scriptures today are:  Job 1-3; Revelation 10; Psalm 29.

When tragedies enter our lives, we tend to ask why.  What's the meaning of all this?  How could God allow this to happen?  While I would not presume to gaze into the heavenlies and descry God's purposes in individual cases, I do find comfort in the book of Job, that I want to share with you.  This book has some teachings about human suffering that touch all the situations of our lives.

Job 1:1-5 describes Job as a righteous man who lives in covenant relationship with God.  From the onset of the book, it is clear that suffering comes to all.  No one is exempt from suffering--not the great and not the small.

In 1:6-12, we see that Job's suffering comes at the hands of Satan.  This is a disturbing passage for many people to read, for it appears that God is playing a game with Satan, using Job and his household as divine chess pieces.  Yet the reader must look beyond this scene in heaven, to a fuller understanding of God and His loving character.  God takes delight in the success of His people, as we see in the Lord's boast about the blessedness of Job.  Verses 8-12* say:

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

On the surface, this passage bothers us, presuming that Satan can tempt God to do evil to His saints.  It looks like God, who is holy, doesn't want to get His hands dirty and so entrusts the mistreatment of Job to the work of Satan.  This view implicates God in a crime against Job, in the same way a person would be found guilty of murder, though they hired a hit man instead of pulling the trigger themselves.  Since God cannot be tempted and cannot sin, and since God is love (1 John 4:8), we must understand this scene differently.  

God, who is the author of all life, does not sin when He takes life.  Life and death alike are justly in God's hands.  While Satan's purpose is to invite God to do evil, the Lord does no evil in proving Job's faithfulness.  God knows that some suffering works out for a greater good.  Romans 8:26-30 says that God allows some weaknesses to enter our lives so that we can be made like Christ--that God is working His good purposes out in us, through the instrument of suffering.  All the pain that ever befalls us goes through the filter of God's loving permission, before it ever enters our lives.  

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

In Job 1:20-21, we see Job's initial response to the horrors that befall his family, his workers, and his industry.  When all is destroyed in uncanny satanic attacks (Note that it is Satan, not God, who lifts a hand against Job), Job responds with remarkable wisdom.

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job realizes that all the good that we gain is from God, and that when it is taken from us no evil may be imputed to the Lord.  Our very lives are God's, and to God they will return.  When he experiences even more suffering in chapter two, his body is afflicted with painful sores.  His wife tells him to go ahead and get it over with--to curse God and die.  But he replies that she's speaking foolishly.  "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"  

Here, let me pause and discuss these two words, "good" and "evil." We use these two words in two different ways.  We use the word "good" to indicate anything moral (helping a neighbor), or anything generally pleasant (a beautiful waterfall).  The word "evil" can mean anything immoral (bands of raiders), but it can also point to general unpleasantness not caused by moral action (death by hurricane).  There is, however, a huge difference between what theologians call Moral Good and Moral Evil on the one hand, and Natural Good and Natural Evil on the other hand.  While God is certainly morally good, He is incapable of immorality.  Natural Good and Natural Evil would be better labeled as Natural Pleasantness or Natural Unpleasantness, so that we don't get confused about whether anyone made moral decisions in these matters.  When Job says, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" he isn't accusing God of moral wrongdoing, but simply saying that painful and pleasant alike come from God.

Jesus made it clear that "good" and "evil" happen to everyone, for God  "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45b)."  In Luke 13:1-5, Jesus references two disasters that his hearers all knew about.  One was Moral Evil, and the other was Natural Evil.  He says that neither of these took place because the people deserved it.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

The repentance Jesus speaks of here doesn't alleviate natural suffering or death.  It alleviates eternal suffering that may take place when a person meets his Maker unprepared for judgment.  Jesus makes it clear that all of humanity benefits from natural and moral good.  It also suffers from natural and moral evil--regardless of merit.  Further, Jesus says that in this world, good and evil grow up together, like wheat and tares in the same field.

24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn    (Matthew 13:24-30).”’”

In Jesus' parable, you can't even tell the difference between the wheat and the tares, they look so similar.  The Master's advice is this--don't try to tell the difference.  Don't try to separate out good from bad here on earth.  Wait til the end, and let the Master do the sorting.  He's the only one who really knows, anyway.

So, we return to Job 2:10, where our titular character asks, "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"  Perhaps it would be better to use words like "pleasant" and "painful," without assigning moral values like "good" and "evil" to the circumstances of life.

There's an old story about a farmer whose horse ran away.  His sympathizing neighbor said, "Oh, that's bad!"  The farmer simply replied, "Maybe."  The next day, the horse returned, leading a whole herd of wild horses with it.  The farmer and his son corralled them, and stood to make a fortune from their sale, once they were trained.  The neighbor said, "What good fortune smiles upon you!"  The farmer simply said, "Well, maybe."  The following day the farmer's son was trying to break a wild stallion, fell from the horse's back, and broke his leg.  The neighbor said, "You are so unlucky, that your son got hurt!"  The farmer answered, "Maybe."  The next day, the army came through the village, conscripting soldiers into military service.  As the army departed, carrying with it the neighbor's son and others toward a battle that was doomed, the neighbor wept on the farmer's shoulder, saying, "You are so fortunate that your son's broken leg kept him from the draft!"  To which the farmer replied, "Well, maybe..."

What's the point?  That you never know whether the misfortunes that happen will turn out for good, or whether the perceived blessings will show themselves to be curses instead.  Or perhaps that it's a matter of attitude and perspective.

Finally, Job chapter two closes with three friends who come along to bring the suffering man some comfort.

11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

In the midst of tragedy and suffering, the moral good of friendship triumphs.  It is true that there is pain in the world; it is also true that wherever there is pain, there are those who work to see that pain ended.  For every moral and natural evil, there is moral good that seeks to comfort, console, and resolve injustice.  Here, Job's friends mourn with him.  They go camping with Job for a solid week, allowing him his time in silence and patiently waiting with him.  In the next chapters, we'll read about the advice that they give.  Sometimes their insight is good, and sometimes it's not so good.  But it begins with quiet waiting, with comforting, with listening.  And that's what everyone needs from their friends in times like these.

Has life brought you tragedy lately?  Take the time to wait in silence.  Seek the comfort that family and friends give.  Open your hands to God, receiving whatever His perfect love has for you.  Trust Him.

Has a loved one of yours gone through struggles lately?  Just be there.  You don't have to share any wisdom at all.  Quiet comfort is generally better than witty words anyway.  Count on the fact that, while tragedy and joy happen to all, God is bringing blessing to those who trust Him.


*Scriptures taken from the ESV.