Today's Scripture Reading (September 1, 2024): Job 21
Many years ago, I had
the opportunity to talk to someone who had pastored my church a couple of
decades earlier. He had led the church for over two decades, but the ending of
his time at the church had not been a good one. He told me that the day he left
the city, he drove to the church and sat in the parking lot with his family. He
was in tears. The only things that he owned had been packed into the car. He
and his wife had no place to go; he had no job to get to. When he left that
parking lot, he didn't have a destination in mind. He would pull out and pick a
random direction. I could hear the pain in his voice. But more than that, I
believed that the church had been wrong to dismiss him in such a way.
After that discussion, I
made a decision. If the church was to move forward, we had to fix this exit. I believed
we needed to bring him back, present him with a public apology, and then honor
him for the good things he had done during his time at the church. He had put
his life back together, but this incident continued to be a weight on both the
church and the former Pastor.
It was a great idea, but
it didn't happen. The person who had been instrumental in this Pastor's removal
used all of his considerable influence to ensure that this Pastor would never
be invited back to the church. In his words, this Pastor, who had led the
church for over two decades, was inconsequential. No apology would ever be
issued. All because of one influential man. In another conversation with this Pastor,
he admitted he wasn't surprised. Evil had gotten its grip on this man, and
nothing had changed. As I hung up the phone, I realized I had to agree. The
Pastor had made mistakes, we all do, but he deserved better than he had
received.
Job makes an
observation. His tormentors had insisted that the disaster that was present in
his life was evidence of his sin. But then Job asks this question. How often
does that happen? How frequently does calamity fall on those who deserve it?
For Job, it is a rhetorical question. He knows the answer, and so do his
friends. Not often enough. The much more common story is the one I told about a
Pastor and a congregation member. Sometimes, it is the good, and even the
mediocre, who receive calamity while the evil not only achieve what they want
but also possess the blessings for which the good strive. And if that is true,
which it seems to be, then how can his friends say that the disaster in Job's
life is evidence of his sin, especially if they do not know the sin for which
Job is paying?
Maybe we wish that evil
circumstances fell on bad people and blessings would fall on the good. But that
isn't the way this world works. I don't know why, and Job has no explanation, yet
we know this is the absolute truth.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Job 22
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