He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived. – Job 18:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 4, 2015): Job 18

Henry the VIII reigned over England from April 21,1509 until his death on January 28, 1547. Henry was a renaissance king. He made his court the center of artistic and scholarly innovation in England. He could read music and played a number of instruments well, including the organ. He was an author and a poet as well as a writer of music (it is sometimes argued that Henry was the composer of “Greensleeves” although that is extremely unlikely. Greensleeves seems based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after Henry’s death. The anonymous piece is much more likely to have been written during the days of his daughter Elizabeth’s reign than written in the time of Henry or by Henry.) Henry excelled at sports. He was also involved in a number of construction projects in England during his reign.

Yet, what we most remember of Henry the VIII of England was his many wives and his split with the Roman Catholic Church – and both of these acts were a direct result of Henry’s quest for a male heir. Henry’s quest for a male heir was partially built around his own personal pride, but it was also constructed around the belief that a daughter would never be able to hold the fragile peace that had emerged after the War of the Roses (a dynastic war for the Throne of England that was fought from 1455-1487.) The peace that Henry enjoyed was one that had been hard fought for by Henry’s father, Henry VII.

To keep the house of Tudor in power, Henry believed that he needed a male heir. What we sometimes forget is that Henry the VIII had ten children by his various wives and one child who was born through a mistress. Of these eleven children, at least six were male (the sex of one of the children is not known.) Henry’s problem is that only three of his children lived into adulthood, and three of his son’s were stillborn. So Henry was on what must have seemed to be a never-ending quest for a male heir – and the quite possibly the blessing of God. One of the surviving sons was illegitimate, but he also became sick and died at the age of seventeen while a controversy raged in England over whether or not this illegitimate child of Henry could ever be crowned as king. At the time of Henry Fitzroy’s death (the illegitimate child of Henry VIII by Elizabeth Blount), Henry had no male heir to take over the throne, only two daughters had survived, Mary (aged 20) and Elizabeth (who was almost 4 years old). But all of that changed when Jane Seymour died as a result of childbirth delivering what Henry craved the most – a male heir to the throne named Edward. He would reign as Edward VI of England.

From our spot in history, I think it is often hard for us to really understand the desire for an heir in history. Oh, I am not saying that we do not want children, and that we will not go to the extreme lengths in order to finally welcome them into our homes. I am supremely thankful for my two kids and I am amazed at that the blessing that I receive from my three grandchildren, but there seems to be something more in history when we begin to talk about children and heirs. Henry’s desire seems to go beyond what we would accept as normal. Henry was willing to divorce and even execute his wives in order to find a male heir. The simple truth if you were a wife of Henry the VIII was that it was considered treason not to be able to supply the king with the heir that needed.

So Bildad’s jab, speaking in antiquity here, is very well placed here. It is not that Job never had children, but he had lost them. As Bildad speaks, Job has no heir. The material losses were bad enough, but the loss of children was catastrophic - and according to Bildad incontrovertible evidence that Job had sinned. Job’s losses were of a magnitude Henry the VIII of England never had to suffer. Even Job’s servants and their families were gone. Job has no one. And Bildad assured Job that God would not allow that to happen to one who was living life right.

Today, maybe we see these stressful times in our lives as evidence against the existence of God. And we need what no one was willing to give to job. We need to hear the words that God is still on the throne and that he is still concerned for us. Nothing that is happening in our lives can take away from that. Nothing.

And we need to know that Bildad was wrong. Even in Job’s misery, God was present and God loved his most righteous servant. No external circumstances was going to be able to change that or to take God’s love for Job away from Job.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 19