Job’s comforters

As Job sits and contemplates the total destruction of his previously perfect life, he wishes he had never been born to witness such misery or that he could die now and end it, his life is now only a torment to him. His three friends come and sit with him, sharing his mourning until they feel compelled to speak.

The first comforter is Eliphaz the Temanite who reminds Job that he has often advised others to trust in the justice of God, he suggests that Job lays his case before God and accepts his correction humbly. Eliphaz has assumed that Job must have done something to deserve his suffering, that the reason for his state is hidden sin and that Job needs to uncover and repent of that sin in order to have the punishment lifted.

This is an attitude which is often hidden in prayer ministry, when healing does not happen or prayers are not answered, the question is hinted at – what secret sin is blocking God from blessing you? What did you do to bring this upon yourself? Is there an ancestral curse or sin for which you need to repent? There must be a reason for the prayers we have said to have no effect and the reason must lie with you.

This attitude is subtle and people probably don’t always know they are doing it, like the prayer team who asked me if I was stressed while pregnant with my daughter, who is disabled, the implication being that I had somehow caused her disability and that she would be changed if the root could be identified. The result is that people who don’t miraculously get healed are left feeling that the failure is theirs, their faith was not enough or they were holding out.

Eliphaz sees Job suffering, all his former blessings taken away and he assumes that Job has done something to deserve it, there must be a hidden sin for which Job is being punished. How often do we do the same? We are quick to judge and to offer simplistic solutions to the problems of others, perhaps we would be better to keep our counsel and just sit with them through their suffering as the friends of Job did to begin with.

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Job – the eternal questions

Job is a tough read, a man who is righteous in every way, blameless before the Lord, is tormented by the devil in what seems to be some kind of bet to see what it will take for him to curse God, and all with God’s permission. When poor Job finally gets an answer from God for his question “why me?”, God essentially tells him it is none of his business.

This seems harsh even by Old Testament standards and does not fit well with the image of God presented in many Christian churches, always ready to bless us, wanting the very best for our lives, showering his favour onto his children. So what is Job saying?

To begin with, the devil, here named Satan, contests that humans only love God for what they get from the deal. Essentially he says people love the gifts more than the giver and that even the upright Job will soon turn his back on God if the blessings dry up. God allows Satan to take away all that Job has, his money, his herds and even his children are stolen or killed in a series of raids. Job’s response to the news is the oft quoted verse “the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away”, he continues to bless the name of the Lord even in the face of calamity. Satan is not satisfied, he pushes God further saying that Job himself was unharmed and so God allows Satan to torment Job physically. Job sits scratching his sores and declares “shall we accept good from God but not trouble?”, again he does not sin.

This seems to demonstrate that at least some people are not blinded by the gifts of God, Job loves the giver not the gifts and he still blesses God in his sorrow. This is the first challenge Job poses to us, especially those of us with nice houses and comfortable lives, how ready are we to bless the name when we suffer loss? If we don’t get what we pray for, if our loved ones don’t get better, when we stand at a graveside do we still bless God? Do we accept trouble as readily as we do blessing? Do we consider it all joy if we are hard pressed?

Lamentations: a study in sorrow.

During the season of lent I have been reading and journaling in the book of Lamentations, not a book I had ever read before nor have I ever heard it preached on. The only verse from the book which is ever quoted is from chapter 3, v 22-23 “for his compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And I had never known the context for this quote so my study has been quite a voyage of discovery.

Lamentations is a poem written shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people of Judah and the writer, generally credited as Jeremiah, pulls no punches when he describes the devastation of the city and the degradation of her people. Judah has been overthrown by her enemies because of her sins against God, she has been faithless and has become unclean and so she has been completely destroyed, all the treasures of the temple have been looted and the people have been taken into slavery. The poet weeps over the fate of Daughter Judah and describes the torment he feels at witnessing the terrible fate of the city.

Worse than the military defeat, the Lord has “abandoned his sanctuary” and “rejected his altar”, his presence has been withdrawn from the holy place and he no longer speaks through the prophets there. Judah and Israel have been utterly abandoned by the living God, they proved themselves unworthy of him and he has given them over to their enemies to be punished.

In the ruins of the city the poet describes the starvation of the children and the desperation of their mothers. The “hearts of the people cry out to the Lord”, the city repents in ashes and calls to God for help. The poet begs God to hear and answer the cries of the people, he cannot understand how God could allow the suffering he sees before him, women even eating their own children, priests being killed in the sanctuary, terrors and horror all around.

In chapter three the poet describes his feelings, he walks in darkness and dwells with the dead, he cannot escape the horror he has witnessed and his prayers are blocked from reaching the ears of God. “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed.” The poet recalls that God has been merciful in the past and that his love and mercy are new every morning, he clings therefore to the hope that, if he bears his suffering and holds onto his faith in the Lord, he will be shown compassion. The people cannot complain about their punishment for they have deserved it, but if they hold on to their faith and confess their sins, they can hope for compassion and forgiveness.

Chapter 4 returns to the themes of destruction and famine, terrible images of cannibalism and degradation, the humiliation of their sins being revealed, the shame of the slavery now imposed on them. Finally, though, the poet again sounds a note of hope, “your punishment will end Daughter Zion”, he pleads in chapter 5 for the Lord to remember his people, to accept their repentance for the sins committed against him, he proclaims the greatness of the Lord and asks for his people to be restored to their relationship with him.

This has been a very hard book to read, the idea of a loving God who will allow a whole nation to be destroyed and taken into slavery, the images of mothers eating their children, are really difficult to square with the image of Jesus on the cross. Why is God so harsh with Judah? How can a good God allow such dreadful things, not only allow but actually decree them? These are questions we ask every day, not because we are faced with starving or cooking our children, but because there are always things in our lives, on the news, in our relationships with others, which make us question – where is God in this? How is this allowed to happen to me?

The degree of severity does not diminish the feeling of injustice when we feel we have been unfairly treated or when we see the dreadful things which happen every day, wars, famines, natural disasters etc.. We want a simplistic faith where good people get good things and where we can see the wicked are the ones who suffer, we want to be safe from harm, protected against anything that can hurt us, we feel entitled to have a good life. But where does that come from? Not the bible, nowhere in the bible are we promised a life free from difficulty, in fact Jesus promises us the opposite “take up your cross” does not mean come and have a nice time! Paul talks about being pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, he describes himself as being poured out like water; Stephen preaches the gospel while he is being stoned to death and throughout history we see many saints follow his example. So where did we get the idea that bad things should not happen to good people?

Who said we were good people, come to that, for we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, none of us can stand on our own righteousness and claim that we do not deserve to suffer!

Reading Lamentations I am reminded that everything I have that is good in my life is a blessing from God, that I did not earn or deserve. I know that my sins are as filthy in His eyes as those of Judah and that my need for repentance is as great. I also know, as did the poet, that the Lord I serve is a loving God, full of compassion, and that he will hear my cries and lift me up. I have the advantage of being under the new covenant, where my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus and I have the Holy Spirit to help and guide me, to convict me when I need to repent and to strengthen me against temptation.

Lamentations has also reminded me that the enemy is the father of lies and that his greatest lie is that I am a good person who does not deserve to have troubles in my life. Believing that lie leads to pride, judgement and bitterness against God and too many times that lie is spoken over Christians so that we come to feel entitled to something Jesus never promised us and we resent him for not giving it to us. That lie is at the heart of so many broken relationships and the root of such bitterness, we want to believe the lie because it is easier than the truth, we want the simple solutions but the truth is life does not work like that. Hard truths contained in Lamentations are so much more valuable than all the easy lies in the world, because the truth is what will set us free.

Golgotha

During the Easter weekend it is tempting to look ahead to the happy ending on Sunday and to gloss over the horror of Golgotha. It is not at all pleasant to imagine the flogging and crucifixion, as anyone who had the stomach to watch “the Passion of the Christ” can attest, but those dreadful events are as much a part of the Easter story as the empty tomb. If we skip the crucifixion because it is uncomfortable for us to dwell on the pain and anguish Jesus suffered on our behalf then we rob his resurrection of its power and significance.

Jesus offers himself as the perfect sacrifice, prefigured by the Passover lamb, we are protected from the angel of death by his blood. He is also the atonement offering whose blood is poured out in payment for our sins, and is without blemish and perfect. Isaiah foretold that by his stripes we would be healed, Jesus suffered a flogging before he was taken out to be crucified; his skin was flayed from his body by the whip which was designed, to do maximum damage with little pieces of metal and bone woven into its plaited strands to catch into the flesh of its victim at every stroke, he was striped from head to heel.

The Roman method of crucifixion was not primarily designed as a method of execution; it was predominantly a method of torture, many victims hung on their crosses for days before they finally expired. Jesus, weakened by the flogging and loss of blood, died relatively quickly but still suffered the agony of drowning in his own blood as his lungs were ruptured by the stress of hanging on the cross with the weight of his body pulling downwards. The thieves on either side had their legs broken, not for cruelty but as a mercy, so that they could no longer press their weight upwards against the nails through their feet to relieve the pressure on their lungs. With the sabbath approaching and the feast of Passover, the authorities wanted the bodies of the executed men out of sight; normally crucified criminals would be left on their crosses after death so their decomposing corpses continued to provide a reminder to others of the consequences for breaking Roman laws.

As Jesus died, he cried out to God “why have you forsaken me?” As our sins were heaped on him Heaven turned away, Jesus had to die alone. More than the physical torture, this spiritual isolation must have been the most unbearable pain. So why did he go through with it? He could have called on legions of angels at any time, he was not helpless or powerless but he emptied himself of all his divine power as he hung on the cross. The voice obeyed by the storm could have commanded his own release and struck dead all those who opposed him but he did not use his authority. He understood what CS Lewis called the Deep Magic, that a willing sacrifice defeats the legalism of the enemy, that Love cannot be killed by hate, that mercy is not weakness but strength. By choosing Love and mercy Jesus defeated death and condemnation with both hands tied behind his back! Only Love can lay down its own life to save another and hatred has no answer. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.”

May I never forget the price paid for my salvation and forever praise and worship my King who bore the cost because he loves me.

Gethsemane

Reading the account of Jesus praying in the garden before his arrest, I am struck by what a human moment this is in the story. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph as a king, led his disciples through the last supper and explained the new covenant to them as a teacher and prophet, now he prays like a real, frightened young man. All the assurance and authority has been left behind and we see the scared person facing the reality of his own death. As he will be on the cross, Jesus is alone with his pain as his followers have fallen asleep. This suggests that he told them when they woke what he had prayed and how afraid and abandoned he had felt; how many of us have the courage to be so open and vulnerable, especially those in leadership? The prayer he prays is not one of weakness, though, it is a prayer of submission; having asked if there is any other way to accomplish his mission he submits to the will of his father.

“Yet not what I will, but what you will” he says, as he prepares to greet Judas. What a short but difficult prayer! So many times we come to God with a list of requests (or demands!) full of our own needs and concerns, our will at the forefront of our thoughts; but how often do we go to our father and ask him what he wants from us?

Palm Sunday

Matthew chapter 21, Mark 11, Luke 19 and John 12.

I am reading mostly from the account of Matthew in Ch 21, but with reference to the other three gospels as well.

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is celebrated on what we now call Palm Sunday, this commemorates an incident recorded in all four gospels as happening towards the end of Jesus’ ministry and it now marks the beginning of Holy Week.

Jesus was approaching Jerusalem with his disciples, John tells us that he was coming from Bethany where he had just raised Lazarus from the dead, it was nearing the time of the Passover feast when Jews from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem for the festival. As part of the celebrations of the Passover lambs were brought to the temple where they could be approved by the priests as being without blemish and then sold to pilgrims for their Passover meal. The day Jesus entered Jerusalem, five days before the Holy day, was the day when the lambs for the sacrifice were selected.

As Jesus came near to Jerusalem he sent two disciples to find a young donkey colt, he gave them specific instructions about where they would find this colt, later on he gives equally precise instructions about finding a suitable room for their Passover meal. Jesus mounts the colt and rides into the city in fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy “see you king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey”; the people of Jerusalem recognise Jesus, they acclaim him as the son of David, the one who comes in the name of the Lord, they cry out praise and strew his path with cloaks and palm branches. This tells me that Jesus was well known and recognised by enough people for their cheering to start others joining in, he has been preaching and teaching for three years by now and has performed signs and wonders in front of crowds of thousands during his ministry. The atmosphere of the city would have been highly charged, Passover commemorates the miraculous freeing of the nation of Israel from the yoke of slavery in Egypt, the parallels with the yoke of Roman occupation cannot have been unnoticed. The nation has been waiting for a Messiah, reading the prophets eagerly and searching for the signs that God will act to fulfil them. John’s gospel puts Palm Sunday right after the raising of Lazarus and says that the crowd includes people who had just witnessed that miracle.

The priests and Pharisees were unsurprisingly disturbed by the procession of Jesus and his followers, they were only permitted to keep their positions under Rome as long as they also kept the peace, they were also not great fans of Jesus’ teaching which often contained criticisms of their legalism and social control. The next thing Jesus did hardly made things any better; according to Matthew and Luke he went straight to the temple, Mark has him going the next morning, and cleared out the money changers and sellers of animals for sacrifice, calling them a den of thieves. Having led what would have looked like a mob through the streets, Jesus now comes into the temple and starts a riot! The Pharisees are agreed that something must be done and so their plot to rid Israel of this troublesome preacher begins to take shape.

What can we learn from this story? It is another occasion when Jesus fulfils a prophecy, adding weight to his claim to be the Messiah, it shows that he accepts the praise and worship of the crowd which would be an act of blasphemy unless he is actually God. From the point of view of the crowd it is also a warning, though; as easy as it is to get swept up in the emotion of the day, calling out hosannas and waving palm branches, how many of those worshippers were also in the crowd who shouted for Jesus to be crucified only five days later? How many of us would also have changed our cry so easily? Following Jesus is not just about the triumphs, the public worship when the band is playing a great tune and everyone is rocking out, the big meetings where emotions are high and it is easy to be part of a wonderful experience; there are also the times when everyone around us will shout “crucify”, when it will seem that victory may not come, when the darkness will surround us. For me, this story is a warning to be sure that my walk with Jesus is strong enough for me to cry hosanna when mine is the only voice raised in praise, to check that my faith is built on a strong foundation, not on the fleeting emotions of the moment. As Holy Week begins my prayer is that I will go ever deeper in my relationship with Jesus no matter what is happening around me.

Romans 5

Bible journaling this month was meant to happen as part of our weekend away but the weather had other ideas and so I have journaled at home and here are the notes. Please add any thoughts you have to the comments and also any pictures you want to share of your journals.

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome was written from Corinth in AD57 while Paul was staying in Corinth, collecting offerings from the churches in Greece and Asia Minor which he returned to Jerusalem before setting off for Rome. Paul is writing to clarify his theology and possibly to counteract reports which may have reached Rome about the nature of his teachings. He had experienced trouble in Galatia and Corinth and was concerned that the church in Rome should know the truth about what he was teaching ahead of his planned visit there. It is not stated how the church in Rome was started, it consisted by this time of groups meeting in houses, there may have been Jews from Rome in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who took the gospel back with them. Priscilla and Aquila, who are mentioned as leaders of a house church, met Paul in Corinth and Ephesus after Jews were expelled from Rome in AD49 by the emperor Claudius and returned some time after AD53. Rome was, at this time, the centre of the great Empire and Christianity was just beginning to be seen as separate from Judaism by those in authority. Paul argues strongly in the letter to the Romans that both Jews and Gentiles can be followers of Jesus, and that conformity to Jewish law is not a requirement, indeed it is more of a hindrance, to accepting Jesus as Saviour.

Chapter 5 is the conclusion to Paul’s opening argument in chapters 1-4 in which he establishes the need for salvation for both Jews and Gentiles. So far he has shown that God is perfect, his perfection is evident to all, whether through knowledge of the law or through the revelation of nature. By the same process we can see that mankind is sinful, we are all slaves to the darkness of our own hearts, and Jews are no better off than Gentiles because their knowledge of the law only serves to emphasise their sinfulness, no one can keep all of the law and if you fail one part then you have failed all. Those who are ignorant of the law still sin and are powerless to save themselves. The Good News is that God has provided us all, Jew and Gentile alike, with the means of salvation through Jesus Christ, we must put our faith in him and his works and we can be made righteous just as Abraham was made righteous when he placed his faith in God’s promises to him, even though he was old and could not see how the promise could be fulfilled.

Chapter 5 opens with the conclusion that now we can have peace with God, we no longer need to strive or fight or defend ourselves, Jesus has taken all of our cares onto himself. By placing our faith in Jesus we can have access to Grace and now we have hope of glory with him. We can also now see how the troubles we face in life have served to develop our faith and demonstrate to us the power of Grace to redeem our sufferings and to build our character and strengthen our faith. We are not being punished when we suffer, we are being perfected! How can we truly know Gods power and love unless we need it?

Jesus died for us because we were helpless to save ourselves, while we were still sinners, essentially enemies of God, at war with him, he showed his love for us on the cross. The death of Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin which is death, we can now share in eternal life. But there is more! The life of Jesus, risen from the grave, saves us from the slavery of sin, we no longer are bound to sin, we can repent and turn away from our sinful lives, Jesus gives us the strength to resist temptation, Grace is the power of God in us working to transform us. Now we obey God from desire to please, we no longer need to rebel against him as he is no longer our judge but our loving Saviour.

Just as death entered the world through Adam and the rebellion in the Garden, so life comes through Jesus and submission on the cross. We were “in Adam” when he sinned, he represents all of us and so we are all guilty because of him; equally we are “in Christ” when the debt is paid, Jesus represents us on the cross, our sins are laid upon him, and so we are all forgiven because of him. Jesus brings the gift of life, a free gift which is ours by Grace, the power to justify not just one sin but ALL of them! Life reigns!

Where the law existed to demonstrate the depths of our sinful nature and shows how we can never reach God’s perfect standard while we are “in Adam”; when we are “in Christ” his Grace abounds and overflows and is more than enough to justify us all. “In Christ” means that, when I stand before the throne, God does not see my sin, he only sees Jesus. No matter what the Accuser says, he can throw all the mud he likes at me, nothing will stick because Jesus stands with me, I am “in him” and clothed in his righteousness, not my own, because I trust him to do what I cannot do for myself. While I am “in Jesus” I can truly say that I am holy, righteous and redeemed and no one can change that!

Genesis chapter 3: the Fall.

This month we followed our study of God’s perfect creation with the story of how it all went wrong! The story of the Fall is a familiar one but, once again we found new insights and much to think on.

The serpent is introduced as a crafty or devious creature, it approaches the woman in the garden and uses the three basic methods of temptation;

1. Questioning what we know to be true, “did God really say…?”. Just as the devil asks Jesus in Matthew 4 “if you are really the son of God…”, the enemy likes to make us question the truth.
2. Denying the consequence of sin, “you will not certainly die”, the fruit doesn’t kill them immediately but it does condemn them to death. Jesus is tempted to test God’s promise to protect his chosen one, the devil denies the testing itself is wrong.
3. Appeal to pride, “you will be like God”, compare to the devil offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

The serpent twists the truth and then draws the woman’s attention to the fruit, he does not tell her to eat it, she makes that choice, but now she is looking at the fruit she notices how good it seems. Sin is always dressed up to look good, no one advertises alcohol with pictures of street drinkers clutching a bottle of White Lightning! Now she is looking at the tree she is halfway to falling, where you are looking is the direction you will travel. Fix your eyes on Jesus and you will be travelling in the right direction, start focusing on sin and that is where you are headed.

The immediate result of the sin is fear and shame, the man and the woman eat the fruit together and realise that they are naked, they make themselves covering and hide; sin and shame separate us from God, we feel uncomfortable in his presence, our relationship breaks down. God comes to walk in the garden in the cool of the evening; we had quite a discussion over whether this is a physical manifestation of God, a pre incarnate Jesus, or a turn of phrase signifying a time of day when the man felt close to God. We all shared how good it is for us to walk with God in the cool of the evening, to find the quiet time to hear his whisper or to spend time in companionable silence with him, that we all try to find that time at the end of our day to share with God. How much better if we can also manage to start the day in that quiet place as well!

Adam and Eve are soon called to account by God, they play the blame game, as do we all when we are caught out! Then the consequences become clear; the snake is cursed first of all and so is the ground. No longer will the earth provide food easily for mankind, weeds and thistles will grow, pests and parasites will bother us, disease and death have entered the world. For the woman childbearing will be a source of pain and difficulty, not just the actual bearing of children but the pain of miscarriage, still birth, infertility as well as all the problems our reproductive system causes us throughout our lives. The man and the woman, however are not cursed themselves.

God shows grace and mercy, even as he banishes them from the garden, he makes them clothes and he stays interested in them, he does not abandon them, but they do have to live with the result of their sin. They are banished from the garden so that they cannot reach for the tree of life and try to usurp further the place of God, a flaming sword is placed at the gate to ensure that there is no way back into the garden.

So, through one man, Adam, sin and death reign in the world but God already has a plan, that through one man, Jesus, grace will abound to all who believe in him. We have to accept that we share Adam’s guilt and deserve the penalty so that we can also accept the gift of life through Jesus. When we re enter the garden it will be via the Cross and we will then be permitted to taste the fruit of the tree of life at God’s invitation, not as thieves but as children and co heirs with Jesus.

Your Word is a Lamp to my Feet

 

acrylic paint on canvas, the lamppost is inspired by pictures from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and the lettering is done with Faber Castell black pen.

As well as journaling in my bible I am starting to experiment with doing larger images, concentrating on a single verse, meditating as I paint and revisiting the work as I build up the layers of colour. This verse sums up so much of what I have been studying and journaling about over the Christmas season, Jesus is both the Word and the Light and when my focus is on Him, he guides and illuminates my path and dispels the shadows the world tries to throw in my way. Just as the lamppost drew Lucy into the magical world of Narnia where she met Aslan, the light of salvation draws me to Jesus, where all my hopes are met in the light of His presence. In a dark and cold landscape, the lamppost acts as a beacon, guiding travellers to warmth and safety; in a world of darkness, Jesus commands us to act as beacons, as lighted lamps on lampstands, to guide others to the safety and warmth of His Kingdom.

Praise book

I received a praise book for Christmas, a space to explore creative praise . This is my first experiment using a clear overlay. I started with the people in darkness.

Then I used the clear overlay to add light to the picture

I used my black lettering pen and my funky new glitter brush pens to write the verse on the facing page. I am quite pleased with this as a first project.