Today’s Scripture Reading (May 9,
2015): Job 23
Could you
imagine being summoned to the Oval Office at the White House? No reason given,
just a notice that an appointment has been made and that you will appear before
the President at this specific time. So you get on a plane and fly to
Washington, D.C., maybe get a hotel room (I know I would need more than just
the airport restroom for me to get ready for this meeting.) The day and the
time arrives. You make your way to the White House. You go through security and
are ushered from room to room. This is unfamiliar territory. Finally you are
brought to the Office of the President. You walk through one of the two doors in
the office without frames (never sure I understood why.) Maybe the president is
not there and you are instructed to sit for a moment on one of the couches in
the center of the room. A bowl of apples sits in front of you, but I can’t
imagine daring to eat one of them, no matter how hungry you might be.
The
president hurries into the room. What do you do? How do you feel in this
moment? You stand, but do you extend your hand to the President? Or maybe just
stand there and wait hoping that the President will make the appropriate move
toward you?
Even just writing
this description makes my stomach feels a little queasy. The experience would
be overwhelming. Not many people are ever get to visit that office. And there
would have to be more than a little fear in the experience. It is not that
there is something wrong with the President (as I write this Barak Obama is
finishing his second term as President of the United States.) I can almost see
his smile, hear his words of welcome and explanation for why I have been
summoned to this place. And I can feel my fear. This is a man of great power.
To not fear him in many ways would be to disrespect him. The President of the
United, no matter who occupies the office, deserves my respect.
The same
goes for any World Leader. If I was summoned to the office of Vladimir Putin in
Russia, or Hassan Rouhani in Iran, they would deserve the same
respect that I would give to Barak Obama. And they would deserve my fear. I may
not agree with their political agenda, or their religious positions, but I
would still respect and fear them.
So it should not be surprising that Job fears God. Job recognizes
that he is not God, and that all that has happened around him is because of
God. Only a fool would refuse to fear him. The writer of Proverbs declares that
“the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
(Proverbs 9:10). It is not because Job disagrees with God, although there is no
doubt that he would rather have not gone through all that he was going through.
But who could not fear the one with enough power to accomplish all that had
happened in Job’s life. Job understood that God was a being of power, and
therefore he deserved his fear and his respect.
We are foolish when we lose sight of that. I understand that God is our
friend. He is the lover of our souls. But he is also the one in control. And to
forget that dishonors his name. And so we come to him with respect – and with
fear. It can be no other way.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 24
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