… how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot — a human being, who is only a worm!”– Job 25:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 5, 2012): Job 25 & 26

I believe in the value of the person. It is part of my core value structure that clearly tells me that you are incredibly important. It doesn’t matter what you believe, or say – the fact that you are living on the earth is enough to indicate your value. It may be the only thing that we share, but it is enough. I may not like the things that you do, especially if you violate my core value that everyone is important, but there is nothing that you can say or do that will make me believe that you aren’t important.

On the other side of the equation I believe that God is huge. He is so far above everything that we can conceive of that we are insignificant in comparison to him. And some of my friends often wonder if maybe these two beliefs are in conflict with each other. In other words, the only way that I can believe in the worth of man is if I can disregard the existence of God. As long as God exists, humans are insignificant – at least in comparison.

And this was the core of Bildad’s theology. As long as God existed, humans were insignificant beings. We just don’t measure up. So the idea that Job thought that he meant something to God just could not have any connection to reality. Job, in the presence of God, was no more than something wriggling on the ground. And intellectually, Bildad made sense. But again, we know the beginning of the story. As different as God was from Job, God still had an interest in Job’s life. It didn’t make sense, but it was the truth.

Today is Maundy Thursday. It is on this evening Jesus would have shared his last supper with his disciples. And after supper he would move to the Garden of Gethsemane where he would be arrested, and then beaten and finally crucified. But as the disciples gathered together, they expected none of these events. It didn’t make sense that God would die, and that through his death, we would win. It didn’t make sense, but it was the truth.

Job’s life had attracted the attention God, even if Bildad couldn’t understand that. Job’s truth is that God values you enough to bother to create you. He loved enough to send his son to die on a cross for you. And none of that the Bildads of this world will ever understand, but that doesn’t stop it from being the truth.

    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 27