Inspecting the Long Held Beliefs

I have heard all my life, as have you, that if you do good, you will be rewarded.  If you do bad, act selfishly or sin or disobey, there are consequences.  Have you ever stopped to think that through? I mean, as an extreme example, Hitler was blessed.  He was rewarded in this life for all his deeds, were they good?  Was he good? Then, there are really righteous, loving people who lose their children suddenly or who lose baby after baby in miscarriage.  Are they reaping consequences from sin?

You can bet that's what they think, at first.  What did I do wrong? Why is this happening?

But, the Bible says "if you obey, you will be blessed."  If you disobey, all these curses will come upon you. Yet, this simply isn't reality.  If you allow yourself to think about all the people who obey and all the suffering they have, or the pedophiles who are continually blessed, you have to see this is not reality.  I mean, unless you are delusional.

Sure, you can say all the typical defenses, they will be blessed in the next life, or they're not blessed, look at their internal suffering.  I mean, how happy can they be without God or Jesus?  I know those thoughts are automatic and help ease the confusion.  I am not saying those thoughts are wrong.  They are comforting and being comforted when you're hurting is hugely important.

But, what if those theologies are needing to be changed?

Let's look at Job.  Sure, that's the go to when something doesn't make sense.  I'd like to take a different look at Job. It's 42 Chapters.  The first one indicates that Satan, the adversary, is actually on Gods council, wait what?  Yeah, read it again. He came with the sons of God to present himself. God starts talking to him, like at the same table, about Iyyov (Job).

So, that is one and a half chapters of God and Satan arguing about why Iyyov is so good and so obedient it's only because God blesses Iyyov, that Iyyov is good.  And God concedes to let Satan harm him... a lot...

In the end, Iyyov gets it all back, and more.  So, that's supposed to make all the trauma "worth it" and explain it all.  Okay.  Maybe it does.

But there are 40, yes 40 Chapters of something else.

Job complains the whole time.  He wishes he were never born.  He gets spitting mad when his friends tell him he must have sinned.

I propose that this book is much more about, given the amount of chapters devoted to it, the jerk friends and their false theology, than it is about Satan or righteousness or God and Satan arguing or any of that.

Elifaz comes in quoting "recall now, who that was innocent ever perished?" He immediately comes out with the old, well, you MUST have done something wrong.  God rewards good and punished bad.  That's it. You have to have sinned in some way, you need to really look at yourself.  He even says my favorite "a word came to me".  So now, it's more than just his friend talking,  he is being guided by a word and if Iyyov doesn't listen, he certainly doesn't hear God and is just "not ready."  Heard that before?  Yeah, it is not new.

This goes on for 39/40 Chapters.  His friends start getting mad, really mad and dismissive toward him.  Bildad says he "preverts words".  Then, they get even madder and accuse Iyyov of being "righteous in his own eyes".  Man, the blows just don't cease.  They spend all this time accusing Job of wrongdoing and insist he must have done something to deserve all this suffering.  All he needs to do is figure out what he did wrong, and God, in His goodness, will restore it all to him.  God must be good and always do good to those who obey.  Job just needs to say he is a "worthless sinner" and describe his trespass and all will be well again.  Heard that message before?

So, guess what?  God shows up.  He is matter of fact and says to all of them, including God "you don't know".  You weren't there, you didn't create this or that.  You don't know if anyone will be rewarded after this life and Job is, in fact innocent.  The best part?  He offers no explanation for what happened to Job.  He is God. That's it.

And he is pissed at those friends.  Those friends were WRONG.  That theology was WRONG.  They misrepresented God and God himself said so.  So, why does this still happen so much? It is right there?  I don't know.  I simply don't know.

If you are one of those people who have to know, who always have an answer, who have to fit what people say inside your preconceived box, please stay away from people in the middle of trauma.  Better yet, just do not speak.  Go be with them.  Cry with them.  Bring them food and offer to take their children so they can cry and work it out (work out their salvation with fear and trembling).  That is love, that is ministry.  Just be there with those who suffer.  Job did NOT deserve what happened to him, and your theology needs re-examining if you think there is always an answer.

An alternative way of seeing things is that we are partners with God.  That Tikkun Olam (Repair the World) is up to us, not just God.  When bad things happen, we respond, not wait for Him to do something.  When someone is in pain, we go to their aid. We chose to be involved with things that help the fatherless, the torn by war, the abused, the stricken by natural disaster.  Then, when our friends are in pain, we won't need to speak cliches, or say we "heard God", we will already know how to help.