Today's Scripture Reading (August 3, 2021): Job 37
In the early morning hours of Thursday, June 24,
2021, the twelve-story
Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida, collapsed. Almost
immediately, rescue efforts began trying to find any possible survivors. The
problem was you couldn't just get in the scene and start digging. If anyone was still alive under
the pile of rubble, any rash movements could cause the debris to shift, killing those who might have survived or endangering those working at
the site. Rescue efforts moved forward, but they did so at a slow pace, as the experts did what had to be
done in an attempt
to free anyone who might be trapped, but without causing any more damage. The loved ones
of the disaster
victims waited for news nearby, but very quickly, there appeared a rift between the workers and the
relatives. Conflicting reports began to arise. Relatives pleaded for more
workers to help with the task, while those working at the site turned down assistance because they couldn't make use of any more people and maintain the site's stability. One family member finally had had enough, and she
let loose. The searchers were moving too slow. They could work faster; they just didn't want to. They were being slowed down by red tape while
their relatives were dying.
Was there any truth in the assessment? Probably not. No one actually seemed hindered by
any red tape. What slowed the rescuers in the performance of the duty was the
physical situation. Sometimes
it is hard for those on the outside to understand what is going on in any particular circumstance, but that pressure is only raised when human lives hang in the
balance. There are
probably good questions that need to be asked in any situation, but often, we just don't know what
the questions are. And in pressure situations, we begin to draw our own assumptions,
partially because we don't understand and partly because we don't trust the
so-called experts to answer our queries honestly. The result is that we make unwarranted
accusations about those who are in control of the situation.
Elihu confronts what he sees as Job's arrogance. Job believes not only that he knows the
questions to ask God but that he deserves an answer from the Almighty. Job thought that God owed him an explanation about everything
that has taken place. But Job's response is a push back against the accusations of
his friends and now Elihu. So, Job's questions were not
really aimed at God; they were aimed at his accusers. If Job was suffering because he has sinned, then he needs to
understand what precisely that sin might be because he honestly doesn't know
what his friends find so evident in their evaluation.
Elihu's response is intended to be
sarcastic. "Job, if you know the questions we should be asking, if you can
see through the darkness that pervades this situation, then go for it. But I
don't even think you know the right questions to ask, let alone have a right to
get an answer from God. You are lost in the darkness, and you have no desire to
listen to any of us who are trying to help you to understand."
George Bradly sums up the heart of
the situation for Job as he listens to the many words of Elihu.
"These
chapters intensify the sense of the loneliness and solitude of Job. He stands
there, silent and alone, with none to sympathize with him, none to enter into
his perplexities; condemned as impious, heretical, and even blasphemous, by the
concordant voice of friends and bystanders; alike by his own generation, and by
that which was growing up to take its place; yet 'enduring to the end,' …
and awaiting with trust and confidence the verdict of his God."
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 38
No comments:
Post a Comment