Job 29-38 As we have done each week, let’s look at the context of the assigned verses this week.  We left Job in Chapter 28 having moved past the loss of everything in his life and He has arrived – but without his friends coming with him – to the realization that he – like all of us – was made for another world and that our true country is where our Redeemer lives. For the moment his eyes are off his loss and focused on the hope of once again having a relationship with God that will be beyond his suffering. But the opening verse of Chapter 29 tells…

We ended last week with Job’s certainty that he needed more than an advocate to plead his case or an intermediary to come between him and God. So that is why he calls for a Redeemer.   “Job is no longer asking for an intermediary or someone to plead his case but for a Redeemer to rescue his life. He is not asking for a friend but for a family member who will claim him before God. While everyone in his immediate family has either been taken from him or deserted him he is asking for a family member he cannot see not just to plead his case before God but…

Again, we need to see the context of our assigned passage this morning. Last week we met Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. It’s not exactly our definition of friendship, is it? They sit with him silently for seven days but then their responses to his misery grow increasingly harsh. This morning is no exception. In fact, it is growing hard to believe that they have ever been friends. It almost seems like they have been waiting for years to discover some hidden sin in him that would bring him down. If there ever was even a shred of compassion or mercy it is gone and all that is…

We left Job last week with him having experienced the loss of everything but in spite of that his response was not numb shock or anger. It was simply “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” We are in Chapter 14 this morning but I think it is important to give the context before we get there. The final words of Job in Chapter 1 might have been the end of Satan’s test but it wasn’t. He insists on upping the stakes and while staying faithful after losing everything is not insignificant it is too easy.  The real test will be when…

For a number of reasons I have never taught the book of Job. The easiest excuse is it has never been assigned in the curriculum. But even now that it has I have been tempted to skip it and go with something easier and less intense. After all, how many of us want to spend the next several weeks talking about suffering? Haven’t we had enough suffering in the last year? Wouldn’t we rather have something more upbeat and affirming? Another reason is almost superstitious for me and maybe for you as well. It is the sense that if you start talking about something bad then it may happen to…

The Beatles’ album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” begins with these lyrics: “It was twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play They’ve been going in and out of style But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile So may I introduce to you The act you’ve known for all these years Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Well, almost to the day it has been 24 years since Carol and I started teaching this class in 1997. It was not long before there was almost a complete turnover in the people attending. Early on one of the original members said to me, “Well, you’ve about cleared…

After an earthquake, scientists work to find both the epicenter and the hypocenter.  We know what the epicenter is: It is the point on the earth’s surface vertically above the initial quake.  It is not the origin of the quake but the spot directly above it on the surface. The actual quake begins deep below the epicenter in what is called the hypocenter. It is the point in the crust of the earth where the rupture actually occurs. The epicenter is the visible evidence of the hypocenter. In the crucifixion, we have both. The quake of the victory over sin and death is located here – at the cross. You…

With the exception of John, all of the Gospels have an account of the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. While Luke has something of an abbreviated version both Mark and Matthew give us more detail. So, again, let’s read from Matthew’s account. Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep…

For years, I had it in my mind this was a meal for thirteen that was relaxed and while full of symbolism was much like any other meal Jesus might have had with his disciples. They were, as was the custom, all reclined supporting themselves on cushions and not like most of the paintings portray them now sitting upright at a table. Everything had been set up ahead of time by two of his disciples outside the Twelve so there was no rushing around getting things ready. The table was set and everyone was looking forward to the meal that evening. But, according to Mark, as soon as they had…

Now we come to another parable with the common theme of others. The master puts responsibility in the hands of men and then goes away. He expects a return and by not getting what is rightfully his he punishes those who are unproductive.  Again, like we did last week, I want to use Matthew’s version of the parable in Matthew 21:33-46. Of course, this is a bit different from the parable of the minas in that these are not servants but tenants renting the land from the owner and while they are not unproductive they become arrogant about who owns the land and the produce. The end is the same.…