If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. – Job 14:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 30, 2015): Job 14

I love the story of Moses the Black. Moses was one of the Desert Fathers, but his roots were not within any religious system of belief. Moses was a servant of a government official in Egypt, but the official dismissed him from his post for theft, and for the suspicion that he had committed a murder. So Moses, a physically big man, left the comforts of Egyptian society and became the leader of gang that roamed throughout the Nile Valley, spreading both terror and violence to anyone that Moses and his gang met. 

But one day Moses was attempting to carry out a theft when he was stopped because a barking dog alerted the community to his presence. So the frustrated Moses decided to take his anger out on the owner of the dog. He swam across the river with his weapons in his mouth, intending to kill the dog owner. But his intended victim was once again alerted to Moses presence, and he ran and hid in a place where Moses would not be able to find him. Moses had to satisfy himself with the slaughter of a few sheep. By then the authorities were on to Moses, and he ran and hid with some desert monks. Moses was so impressed with the monks’ teachings and their commitment to peace that he decided to join their community. He gave up his former way of life, was baptized and joined the monastery.

One night, a gang of robbers accosted Moses in his cell at the monastery. The big man fought back against the robbers and quickly overpowered them. But he was unsure of what to do next, and so he decided to go to the other monks for advice. The dragged the group of would be robbers into the room where the other monks were praying and announced to them the events that had taken place, but then also told the monks that he didn’t think a Christian should hurt the robbers. Moses was confused about what to do next, and apparently so were the would-be robbers. The failed thieves repented of their sins, and like Moses, decided to join the monastic community.

But maybe the most important story of Moses life was the account of his death. Moses became aware that some rebels planned to attack the monastery. At the time, Moses was seventy-five. He quickly sent the most of the monks away from the monastery to safety, but he, along with a small group of seven other monks, decided to stay behind and wait for the rebel fighters. But they were going to refuse to take up arms against them. When the rebels approached the monastery, Moses and his seven friends opened the doors and welcomed the rebels with open arms. The rebels slaughtered all eight monks. The man of violence who had become a man of peace died at the point of a sword because he refused to pick up a weapon and defend himself.

Experts have argued over the answer to Job’s question – if someone dies, will they live again. Many have argued that as far as Job was concerned, the answer had to be no. Their argument is that the doctrine of resurrection wasn’t developed until much later Jewish history. So Job’s rhetorical question had to be answered with a no. But others argue that that can’t be quite true. For one thing, Job seems to connect the idea of renewal to the idea of death. Whether or not Job really believed in the idea of resurrection, he definitely hoped for a resurrection.

But they also note that Job’s contemporary seems to have believed very strongly in the idea of resurrection. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son because he trusted that with God death was not the final act. The author of Hebrews writes these words – ^“Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:19). And if Abraham believed in resurrection from the dead, why not Job. The stories come from the same time period.

We hold on to life, sometimes maybe too tightly. But we can be assured that the answer to Job’s question is yes, even if Job didn’t believe that that was possible. And for the many who have died over the course of history following Christ, they were sure that their sacrifice was not a permanent one, that God holds the keys of life and death – and that they will rise again.

For Moses the Black, it was all the assurance that he needed to meet his death as he believed his Saviour would want him to – with his arms open in peace toward the ones who wanted to do him harm.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 15