19 August 2010
Psalm 131, 132; Job 1:1-22; Acts 8:26-40; John 6:16-27

The author tells us that Job is blameless and upright and then we hear from God that he is indeed blameless and upright. We know from the start that none of what happens to Job is a punishment for sin or a result of sin in his life. In our day we are told that such blessing of prosperity that Job enjoyed would surely be a sign of God’s favor for his righteousness or simply for his faith but what explanation would it give for his suffering? He deals with the loss of his possessions, his servants, and his children with such aplomb and righteousness in thought and word that we can hardly imagine it. This man knows the truth, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Everything we have comes from God and we can know that and rejoice in it when times are good but what do we say, pray and at least partially believe when we lose those things?

For the second day in a row people ask the wrong question. The people know that there was only one boat and Jesus had gotten into it to cross the lake but they didn’t ask “how” He crossed but “when.” We know the inside story on the crossing, he walked on the water most of the way in the midst of the storm, but they ask Him the wrong question so they never learn the truth, only the disciples know how He has gotten there. Sadly, Jesus knows that what Satan has said of Job’s faith in God is true, that Job believed because God provided for him. These have not come because they believed the signs, they have come because He has provided food to eat at no cost. His offer to them, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life…” is from Isaiah 55.1-2.

Philip’s work in Samaria is done and for his obedience God continues to use him, this time in a miraculous way. The Ethiopian eunuch is a seeker, he is reading the scriptures and has a question but until Philip miraculously shows up next to the chariot he has no one to ask. The Lord provided for this eunuch who was seeking to know Messiah promised by Isaiah. Interestingly, one of the groups who are promised an inheritance by God at the coming of Messiah are those eunuchs who have remained steadfast (Isaiah 56). Clearly Isaiah’s prophetic words are fulfilled here in this remarkable encounter. He cannot come into the covenant of Israel due to his physical deformity but he can enter the new covenant through baptism and now he has a family of his own, the family of the church.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvellous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.