Again, the Lord draws attention to Job and essentially
taunts satan that he is wrong about Job.
Satan ups the ante, "skin for skin", afflict him personally,
make his life miserable, and everything will change. Why does the Lord allow this? There is much suffering in this book and loss
of life. All we can say at the end of
the day is that He is sovereign and whatever judgment we make is based on
incomplete information. Job's wife is
certainly willing to get past all this and forget the Lord but Job will not
speak as she encourages. We are told
here, however, not that Job didn't sin as in the first test, but that he didn't
sin with his lips. Job's friends,
initially, are good friends, they sit with him and then join in his lament. It won't last.
The opening verse of the Gospel reading is a near quote of
Isaiah 55, "Why do you spend your money for that which is
not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?" They want to know what work they may do to
find God's approval and Jesus says that the work of God is to believe in the One
whom God has sent, namely, Him. It isn't
about work, it is about grace, only believe.
They propose a test that if He passes they will believe, but He has
already passed that test once, even Gideon re-arranged the test with the fleece
from one day to the next. Again, we see
the temptation of satan to Jesus to prove Himself to them, the same temptations
come again and again but not directly as it were, through agency of
people. He can surely make bread and if
He does they will ascribe Him the honor due to Him, make Him their king. Two temptation in one. If He does their bidding doesn't that mean He
is worshipping them?
Can you imagine how terrible it was for Paul to hear those
words from heaven, "I am Jesus."
He has ascended the throne and now is in heaven and allowed to
speak. He was clearly who He said He was
and Paul, with all his rabbinic training, missed it, got it completely wrong,
and was headed out to persecute those who believed in Jesus. He surely had to believe that this was the
end for him and yet, it wasn't that simple.
Remember Jesus' prayer, Stephen's prayer, "Father forgive them, for
they know not what they do." Paul
was one of those guys they prayed for. Not
only does God not allow him to do as he planned, delivering the church from his
threats, He had grace on the man and called him to Himself. The journey begins with God acting against
Saul's physical well-being, just like Job.
No comments:
Post a Comment