Today’s Scripture Reading (May 12,
2015): Job 27
“There is no
reason why anyone who reads these words should die.” I have read these words
several times over the last few decades. The words have lied. Since I started
to notice the statement in various publications I know that a number of people
have read the words and they have also died. It is not that there was supposed
to be something magical about the words themselves. The idea that seems to
float around our culture is that medical science is quickly arriving at the
point where we can cure anything. Every disease is being defeated. How much
longer can our defeat at the hands of simple aging continue?
And while it
might appear that the sentiment of immortality is true, there is also the
reality that some diseases are proving tough to beat – and there are new
infections and diseases that are beginning to cause us problems. The defeat of
death seems to be a long way off. The reality is that even something as simple
as feeding the population of the earth seems to be beyond what we can achieve.
People are dying. Even as I write these words, a colleague is dying from cancer
– a problem to which we still have not found an answer.
We are not
immortal – maybe we were never meant to be. We live and we serve at the pleasure
of the God of this earth. Any immortality that we might possess is only due to
the connection we have with God. And this is what Job seems to be affirming. He
is alive, he is breathing only because the God of the Universe is allowing him
to breathe. It was God who breathed breath into him in the first place.
But Job is
actually say more than just that. The comment is that he is being true to the
Spirit of God which resides in him. His breath is a connection with God, and
the very words that come from his mouth are spoken in an effort to be true to
his God. Job is not sure what Spirit brushed by Eliphaz’s face (Job 4:15) but
the one that proceeds from his mouth is the spirit that God himself had placed
inside of him. And his only desire was to be true to that God.
I mourn
death. It doesn’t really matter who it is that dies, I seem to feel it deeply. Maybe
it is simply this image of mortality that I possess within body. I am a bit of
a morbid voyeur. Even as I look through history the question that often
surfaces at some point in my study is a wonder over how the person died. Was it
a good death, or was it an empty, silly one. And, because of the presence of
God, I look forward to the day when death itself will be defeated. But I know
that that can only be a reality because of God. There will be no magic pill
that will stop us from dying. Life and death continue to be, and always will
be, in the hands of the God that we serve. He reserves that power to himself. And
until the day that he decides to end the reign of death, I will continue to
cherish my own mortality, and hopefully like Job, look toward the one who holds
the keys over death itself.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 28
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