6 September 2010
Psalm 41, 52; Job 32:1-10, 19, 33:1, 19-28; Acts 13:44-52; John 10:19-30

Elihu, the youngest of the group, suddenly appears and is ready to vent his spleen both at Job and Job’s “friends.” His main complaint is that they have impugned the integrity of God. Job has become God’s accuser and these others have failed to speak adequately in God’s defense. He begins by saying that he has held his tongue out of deference for their age and wisdom but now must speak because he has not heard wisdom. He furthers his argument not by accusing Job of sin in his life but by reminding them all that sometimes pain is, in the words of CS Lewis, God’s megaphone to get our attention so that He might speak to us. He also speaks of something no one has yet mentioned, God’s mercy. They have seen only retributive justice, God punishes for sin and then relents when we confess and repent. Elihu, however, notes God’s mercy is a way of allowing us to rejoice in having back our lives.

Jesus’ answer to his questioners and critics is plain, make up your minds based on the evidence of your eyes. What have you seen? They judge His words or claims to equality with the Father in being the Good Shepherd as though they had been given no signs to judge them by but some recall the giving of sight to the blind and remind the rest. When they ask Him plainly He answers them plainly but not in the words they have chosen. His claim to being one with the Father is plain as to His identity and the works He has done have not been done by others, particularly the miracle in John 9, but they continue to disbelieve. Belief is a difficult thing and requires the Holy Spirit to come to a settled conclusion in which we can stand.

You knew they would turn on Paul in the end and Paul shakes the dust off his shoes and determines to from now on simply go to the Gentiles, his God-given mission field. The passage he quotes is from Isaiah 49, but no one really thought of the Gentiles as being on God’s radar screen in any direct kind of way. Why should they be prepared to hear the Gospel given that they had no experience of God? It is truly a novel idea to go to them and begin to preach and yet the reaction is extraordinary, “when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Immediately there began a persecution of Paul and Barnabas by the Jews and drove them out of the city. If they rejected Paul’s message it would certainly have been objectionable to them that the Gentiles now claimed to accept the Jewish Messiah and be part of God’s covenant and blessed people because of Him.

I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.