If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! – Job 23:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 3, 2012): Job 23

We are currently going through the Bible in a Chronological way. The Bible is not written chronologically, it is grouped into portions of books. The Hebrew Bible (or our Old Testament) begins with books of the Law, and then the History books, followed by the books of poetry, and then finally the Major and Minor Prophets. The book of Job belongs with the books of Poetry (it is actually in our Bibles the first book of the Poetry section.) So physically it is in the third section of the Hebrew Bible. But the time period of the story Job is actually around the time of Abraham. And that is why we have broken into our study of Genesis with the story of Job. And that is important because of Job’s comment in this passage. A time was coming when there would be a tabernacle, a mobile tent that would be considered to be the dwelling place of God. And after the days of the Tabernacle there would be a Temple that would be his dwelling, but Job lived before either of these existed. So his response is “I don’t know where God lives or I would go and knock on his door and ask him the question.”

But the time would come when we would be plunged back into the time of Job. Around 70 C.E., the temple would be destroyed and would remain destroyed. It wasn’t the first time that the Temple would be destroyed, but before the destruction of 70 C.E. it had always been rebuilt again. The dwelling of place would be gone for a time, but it would return. But when the Romans pulled down the Temple in 70, it would stay pulled down, and has been down now for almost 2000 years. Maybe this was the most significant act that could happen to the people of God – if it wasn’t for Jesus.

As I write this we are at the beginning of Holy Week. It is the week that we celebrate the passion, death and finally the resurrection of Jesus. And on Good Friday, one of the events of that day was that as Jesus died an earthquake hit Jerusalem and the temple, and the curtain that divided the temple sanctuary from the Holy of Holies, the actual place where God dwelled was torn. And because the Holy of Holies was for the first time open, for the first time everyone had access to God – in fact, God left the Holy of Holies and he came to us.

The emotion of Job, the one that says “I don’t know where to go, I don’t know where God lives or else I would go to him” should be one that we don’t understand - because God has come to us. He came that first Holy Week and he continues to come. And because of that, even though we live in a time that is similar to the time of Job in that we live in a time when the temple is missing, we know where to find God. He comes to us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 24