Sunday 6 February

Job 38:1-40:2

If you have got any hecks I think you better start flipping them right now.  Before we even get onto looking at what the Lord was saying, isn’t it just completely gob-smacking, heart-thumping and saliva-sapping that He would even speak to Job at all?  That the matchless, infinitely powerful, infinitely wise and infinitely pure creator of all substance and matter, who has lived forever and will rule forever would address a man staging a serious grumpathon - well, it beggars belief.  What an incredible sign of God’s commitment to each and every individual being.  And what a display of his mercy that he would whittle down his universe-expanding presence to such an extent that a human mind could actually contemplate it and not seize up or explode.

And then we come to what he said.  It’s as if he pointed Job to a salt shaker, asked him to take out one tiny grain and to drop it into the pacific ocean.  That is about the comparison between the miniscule, monochrome man and the infinite, iridesent God who is fronting up to him.  But it is not only size that God is pointing to.  I think he is also pointing Job to the complexity and harmony of nature that God himself has instilled and which points to the immense goodness and power of God. That is the kicker - that God is great and he can be trusted, even in the bitterest of times.  He is the ultimate harmony-maker and, while there may be discord for a while, we should know that he is well able and fully intends to bring his peace, restoration and redemption to all those who seek him.

Matthew 24:32-25:13

I know scholars have shown that the “return of the Son of Man” was a common Jewish phrase that may have had symbolic more than literal meaning (similar to our phrase “all hell will break loose”) but I do think that a few bits in this passage (vs 36 - “date not known” - and vs 42 - “your Lord will come”) make it impossible to separate it from a description of the Second Coming.  So, while we are venturing into that territory, I’d like to suggest that any interpretation of this passage as a description of a rapture is just plain perverse.  Those who are being taken away are surely the ones who are under judgement, not those who are left. When a thief visits a house you want him to take nothing, not everything!  The thief/master acts as the agent of God’s judgment, dragging some away (presumably to imprisonment) and cutting others to pieces.  The more positive side of the same coin is then presented in the parable of the ten virgins with the bridegroom representing God’s agent of redemption, opening the door to the wise virgins.  All the images point to the same thing though - there will be a day of reckoning where the faithless and arrogant will be permanently cast away while the faithful and the God-seekers will be warmly welcomed into the great Wedding Banquet of God.

Psalm 18:37-42

What a heart-warming tale! And what weird editing from the “bible-in-a-year” publishers (the rest of the psalm is actually quite nice).  I think I might just mark this bit down as one of the hymns we are least likely to sing in church.