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The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Monday, September 3, 2012

3 September 2012




Job quickly blows up Zophar's theological mistake, "The tents of marauders are undisturbed,
and those who provoke God are secure —"  God's sovereignty is greater than Zophar believes.  The Lord has the power to raise up and take down, and no one can truly understand His ways.  Zophar has reduced God to Santa Claus, who sees if you have been good and rewards you or if you have been bad He punishes you.  Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord said that His ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts, so why do we think there is a formula for the way things work that we can sort out and apply?  Have we not enough life experience to see that Job is right?

If we would know the truth we are to "hold to Jesus' teaching."  He speaks of being lifted up and then they will know who He truly is and one wonders whether they understood the metaphor.  They have some desire to know the answer to this question of who Jesus truly is but they won't receive His testimony about the matter.  He has told them who He is and from whence He came and then given authenticating signs but they will not receive Him.  They were more stiff-necked than the people who were in Egypt when Moses returned to lead them out of bondage.  At least those were willing to receive him based on simple signs given as authentication Moses was sent from the Lord.

Some men from Cyprus and Cyrene, Syrians, went to Antioch and began to share the Gospel with the Greeks there and found an incredible response to the proclamation.  Barnabas went out to meet with the people there and discovered the Lord was doing a work there among these non-Jews and decided that the time had come for Paul to step into his call.  Paul had a problem among the Jewish Christians because he had formerly persecuted them but among the Greeks he had no such history, his commission for persecution came from the Jewish leaders, he had no such authority among the Gentiles.  Barnabas is an amazing man in that he was willing to raise up Paul and set whatever ego he had aside.  He believed in Paul's apostolic call.  The Lord was raising up and Barnabas simply wanted to bless what the Lord had done.

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