Job (Part IV)

Yup, I have finally gotten through the last 4 chapters of Job (chapters 38-42), which represents 2 days of daily reading. I am still way behind my daily reading and will be doing some mugging to try to catch up.

But before that, a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR. Here's wishing you a blessed 2008, a year of discovery, growth and blessings! In the Kewl Nitrox clan, the Christmas holidays are over and Mrs Nitrox's sisters are heading home. This morning we just sent off SBIL4 (sister and brother-in-law number 4) and their 2 boys - T1 and T2. We still have SBIL2 and their 2 girls staying with us, but already we are starting to feel the emptiness after the extended family gathering. R1 and R2 are going to miss their cousins so much when SBIL2 and their 2 girls leave on Thurs morning, the house will be empty without the 6 kids that have been so much a part of our lives for the last week.

Back to Job then, and God finally speaks. He did not really answer Job's questions, at least not in the manner that we would expect. As I read what God says to Job, it strikes me that it does not seem to be anything that Job does not already know - in short, God reminds Job that He is the sovereign God. Yet Job replies "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6) I am not sure if Job actually saw God physically (the book of Job is not very clear on whether God just spoke, or did He appear physically as well). But I think that when Job says that he sees God now and repents, it may be more that the eyes of his heart and mind are now open to who God is.

Tenuous as it is, I would still ask of your kind indulgence for me to elaborate. Often we know something in our mind, but we do not know it in our heart. Example, if the doctor says you've got a terminal illness, and the only way to survive is to take a pill every day, chances are that we would remember to take the pill every single day. This is an example where both our mind and our heart knows that we need the pill. By the same token, we may also know that reading the Bible is an important part of the process of renewing our mind, which is (1) how we put off the old self and put on the new as part of the process (and miracle) of Salvation (Ephesians 4:22-24), and (2) what we need to do to understand and benefit from God's perfect will for us (Romans 12:2). Yet it seems so easy to forget to read His Word sometimes, doesn't it? That, to me, is an example where our minds may know the benefit and necessity of reading the bible, but our heart does not.

Perhaps the only way for us to walk closer to God and to reflect His love and His will in our lives is to know Him. I mean to REALLY know Him. Nothing opens my eyes more to my own brokeness than the moments when God shows me a little more more of who He is. Unlike Job, we have the benefit of the full gospel - the Old and the New Testament. My prayer is that we (including myself) will make full use of His Word that has already been given to get to know Him. To REALLY know Him.

And while we are on the subject of His written Word, annette and her hubby is also joining the daily reading plan at http://www.bibleinayear.org/. I am humbled. I am truly humbled.

Job (Part III)

But before that... A belated Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year in advance! This Christmas, I have 6 kids in my home for a week. Yup, ST's sisters are in town and have wisely decided to deposit the kids with us. This is making training & blogging pretty much impossible, but I should not be complaining about having family over during the Christmas holidays. I have to admit that having 6 kids (between 5 to 12) in the house continues to test my patience and energy, but I am sure that the minute they leave for their homes in the USA/Australia, I will miss them real bad.

And now onto more observations about Job. Since my last post, I have read Job chapters 24 - 37, which is 4 days in the http://www.bibleinayear.org/ reading plan. It is interesting to note that even in his complaints, Job was wise beyond his time.

1. Starting with what perhaps could be trivial, Job understood some pretty profound scientic truths - e.g. earth is suspended in space (most of the rest of the civilized world then still thought that the earth rests on the back of a giant turtle) (Job 26:7), rain comes from water vapour (Job 36:27-28), etc...
2. Job longed for and anticipated one who can mediate between man and God (Job 9:32-35). Interestingly Elihu, the youngest and last of the speakers (Job 33:23-25) also alluded to the same messenger/mediator, before he fell back to the general "pattern" of Job's other 2 friends (which is that Job must have done something wrong to deserve his troubles, because God does not allow bad things to happen to good people). This mediator anticipated by Job finally came in the form of Jesus (God Himself) on Christmas Day.
3. Job longed for and anticipated seeing God at the end of his time (Job 19:25-27). Without having the promise of eternal life (that came only with Jesus much later in time), Job trusted God enough to know somehow that God will be fair to him, and will not allow him to just disappear with death. He certainly had doubts - the entire book is filled with his doubts and fears about dying without any notion of fairness from God - but HE NEVER GAVE UP.
4. Which brings me to what to me is the most moving observation about Job - He had the maturity to accept that sometimes bad people prosper while the righteous suffer, and he had the tenacity to argue with God when bad things happened to him despite being blameless before God. We live in a world where sometimes it is hard to understand why crooks amass their wealth and the rightoeous suffer at theirs hands, and this is a problem that his friends seem to overlook (Job 21:28-34). Job's friends seem overly eager to interpret Job's complaints to God as being illegitimate and ill-founded. In their zealousness, they even proclaimed that God Himself was prompting them to speak and defend His name. What's amazing about Job is that (1) he had the maturity of faith to understand that he need not jump to God's rescue when there are open issues (Job 27:5); and that (2) he had the tenacity to stubbornly pursue God for an answer even though he was undergoing all his sufferings without knowing why. How many of us give up on God when we hit issues that cannot be explained away? The book of Job tells us that if we, like Job, stubbornly pursue God for answers, He will answer us. It may not be the answer that we were expecting (just like with Job), but He will answer one way or another.

While we are on the subject of Job, http://tryathlete.blogspot.com/ has a different (and rather profound) intepretation which he expresses beautifully. You may want to check it out here.

Job (Part II)

I am making good progress trying to catch up with my bible reading - managed to cramp in 3 days' reading since Wed (chapters 14-23). And yes, that handsome duo on the right are indeed R1 & R2, they must take after their Dad. ;-)

The book of Job is interesting and yet tricky to understand because there really is just a fine line between what Job and his friends say.

But first, a quick synopsis: Job is a very wealthy/successful (Job 1:3) and righteous man - God calls him a "blameless and upright man" (Job 1:8). Satan asks and gets permission to test him severely, taking from Job his riches, children and even health. At his lowest point, Job suffered both physical (Job 7:5) and mental/spiritual (Job 7:13-14) torment. It is also at his lowest point, that his friends came to him with noble intentions of comforting him (Job 2:12-13). However when Job starts voicing his grievances to the Lord, it seems his friends felt that as good believers, they should jump to the defence of God, and in doing so, they can only conclude that Job has brought his sufferings upon himself simply because he is not truly blameless and upright. Finally, God answers Job, but He did not explain why He allowed Satan to test Job. He merely reminded Job that He is God. Job repents and reconciles with God (Job 42:5-6). The Lord also finds Job's friends guilty of speaking falsely of Him, and they had to receive intercession from Job (Job 42:7-8). The book of Job ends with God restoring everything and more to Job, and he lived a blessed life to a ripe old age (Job 42:12-17).

To me, the tricky bit in Job is to figure out what Job's friends said about God that was declared to be false (by God Himself)? It is tricky because there is actually a lot of truth in what Job's friends said (which Job agrees to), for example:
1. God is almighty and omnipotent - He is always in control.
2. God is perfect and beyond reproach, compared to Him we are all sinners.

3. God is just - the unrighteous do not profit forever, neither do the righteous suffer forever. (The limitation with them was the length of time - Job and his friends did not have the benefit of the New Testament message of eternal life, and thus judged only by what transpired during their time on earth).

Perhaps the big difference between what was said by Job and his friends is that his friends insisted that bad things don't happen to good people - i.e. if bad things happen were happening to Job, there must be something wrong with him. This is clearly not the case with Job, whom God Himself calls a "blameless and upright man" (Job 1:8). Job couldn't understand why the bad things were happening to him either, but he stubbornly refused to give up on God - he never stopped pouring out his grievances to Him. How kewl is that? More on that in Part 3...

Talking about kewl stuff, robtherunner has also signed up for the email bible reading plan. I am humbled.

Job

Please excuse the pun, but this week, my job is keeping me from reading the book of Job. :-) Yup, my daily bible reading (http://www.bibleinayear.org/) jumps from Genesis to Job because I chose the chronological reading plan. And at work, I travel to 4 cities this week - Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok. As you can imagine, this is wrecking havoc to my bible reading and training. :-( Oh well, at least I am contributing to Singapore Airlines' growth. :-)

I am trying to catch up on the daily readings emailed to me, so this post is gonna be my thoughts after getting through Job 1 - 13 (which covers 3 days).

The book of Job has been a favourite of mine since 7 years back when R1 was born. He had a congenital problem at birth and subsequently required surgery at one year old. As you can imagine, having our 1st baby who was not quite completely and perfectly made (so we thought) was immensely stressful. At my lowest point, I made the painful confession to Mrs Nitrox that if I had known that our baby would have congenital problems, I would have elected not to have any children. Thankfully, God did not let go of me, despite my weakness and lack of faith. He brought me to the book of Job, and through it, I was immensely encouraged, because I learnt two fundermental truths - (1) that we can (and are required) to pour our honest, no-holds-barred thoughts/grievances to Him, and that (2) He will not test us beyond what we can bear, and at the end of the period of testing, comes complete and perfect restoration. Just to finish the story about R1, the Lord brought us to a fantastic surgeon, more than that, His hands restored R1 beyond the expectations of even the doctors, and we continue to trust Him in completing His miracle of restoration in R1.

Finally a quick shout out to CP, who is also joining the email bible reading plan (http://www.bibleinayear.org/). Thanks so much for sharing that CP, I am immensely encouraged - if this blog touches just one person, then it would already be worth my sporadic efforts. May the Lord bless you in your journey in re-discovering His word!