Job 11:1-14:22
“Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him” is probably one of the more famous phrases in Job, riven as it is with authenticity and insight. What struck me more today though is Job’s interrogation of Zophar which begins “will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf?” and goes on to say “will you argue the case for God?”. Job seems to be suggesting to Zophar that he should keep his prying nose out of a business that doesn’t involve him and that he certainly doesn't understand. Zophar, rather than sympathising with Job’s pain and pointing him to the Lord for ailments and answers, decides he will step in and defend the good name of the Most High. And Job reprimands him for it. It seems to me that Job understanding of true faith is not to provide water-tight arguments for the actions of God but to show compassion to others and to point them to the hope they can find in the Lord. Now that sounds appealing, and like something that I can do!
Matthew 20:1-19
Doesn’t this just hack you off? Those who were at the marketplace at the end of the day would almost have included some who were just plain lazy as well as those who were poor or unfortunate. Why should the layabouts get the same deal as the conscientious? I suspect Jesus was being deliberately provocative (again!) to snap the complacent Jews out of their comfortable sense of privilege. What he was emphasising here, as so often, was that his thing is always about drawing in new ones, often shocking ones, under his protective canopy. He seems to have this annoyingly unshakable obsession with finding new people to whom he can be generous. His yearning to provide his care and his comfort to others seems to never be quenched. Is that how people would describe me?? I seriously doubt it. But I hope and pray that Jesus would indeed make me open to others, more willing to take interest in them and more keen to give away to them the abundant treasures that I have received.
Psalm 17:6-12
Once again we see the sweetest of intimacy - “keep me as the apple of your eye” - alongside the most un-Christian-like of tirades - “they close up their callous hearts and their mouths speak with arrogance”. It’s almost as if the psalmist didn’t just include these contrasts as a teaching point for his readers, but that the raw expression of disgust, pain and hatred was as much at the core of his relationship with his God as was the expression of admiration and devotion. I wonder whether we, by instantly toning down our expressions of anger to God, find that our sense of intimacy with him is similarly weakened. I suspect that the more we surrender the whole of ourselves to Him in completely frank and unabashed exchanges, the more we will know his love and comfort washing over every part of our beings; even those parts that are grotty or embarrassing.
