Eliphaz continues his theological treatise on sin and
suffering. He says that he is clearly in
the right, Job has no one to plead his case in the matter. The continuing suffering and God's continued
silence in the matter are all the proofs needed to establish the fact that Job
has sinned. He counsels Job to go to
God, depend on Him, confess and seek His forgiveness rather than continuing to
stand in His own righteousness. This
isn't bad counsel except we know that this has nothing at all to do with
sin. Next, Eliphaz speaks of God's
greatness and goodness, which God Himself will assert when He speaks on the
matter. Eliphaz is also telling Job he
must suffer better, that he must buck himself up and play the man in this
season of suffering and that will then stand him in better stead with the
Almighty and with men, he can be a good witness to Godly suffering. He needs to stop crying out and
complaining. If Job does all these
things, it will all turn around and it will go well with him. Sound familiar?
Is it possible for Jesus to have spoken in a more bizarre
way? Unless you eat the flesh and drink
the blood of the Son of Man you have no life in you. My flesh is true food and my blood is true
drink. What were they to make of such
statements? It seems like He is talking
about cannibalism and that indeed was what some outsiders thought happened at
communion in the early days of the church.
Is Jesus talking about what we call Holy Communion here or is there
something different in mind? If you look
back again at the scene with the woman at the well, after she departs (leaving
behind the water jug she had brought to get literal water), the disciples try
and get Jesus to eat the food they have purchased and He says “I have food to
eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one
another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish
his work. The disciples had heard this
metaphor already whether they understood it or not. John clearly remembered it, at least later
when he wrote the Gospel. He is the Word
became flesh. Feast on Him this day.
Paul does what Christians are intended to do, share the
Gospel. He began to prove that Jesus was
the Son of God in his disputations first in Damascus with the Jews in the
synagogue and later with the Greek speaking Jews in Jerusalem. Paul had an advantage in this regard in that
he knew the Scriptures because he was taught by one of the best rabbis,
Gamaliel. He was working with the
prophetic words of the Torah so he knew how to make these proofs. He was already equipped for the task but at
the time he received his equipping he had no idea that it would be for this
particular use. Paul speaks of the one
who suffered and died although He was indeed righteous. When people want to know how a good God could
allow suffering, all we need remember is that He spared not His Son, the truly
righteous man who never cried out about God's injustice in the matter. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is
much more than a little bread and a little wine.
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