Week 3: Job 22-37/Matthew 12-14

Job 22-37

The first day I was struck by this passage from Job 24:
9 "There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast,
and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.
10 They go about naked, without clothing;
though hungry, they carry the sheaves;
11 between their terraces they press out oil;
they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
12 From the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

How often have we also felt this way when we look at the world and despair of God's love, care, or even existence? The Bible does not flinch from such questions. Instead it takes them head-on. Perhaps you never realized this. It is a part of the blessing of reading the whole Bible that we get to see the many facets that perhaps we were not aware of.

Starting in Chapter 32 we hear another voice, the young man Elihu. He is the only character with a Jewish name, and it is thought that this is a later addition to the text by a writer unhappy with the argument so far. He desires to give an answer to Job's issue, and we perhaps see a ray of hope when he appears on the scene. However, to quote a note from my study Bible: "Impatient with the failure of Job's friends to provide compelling answers to Job, Elihu proceeds to engage Job's ideas directly. His arguments, however, are often similar to those of the three friends."

Elihu gives the same arguments that Job's other friends do. God doesn't punish good people; only bad people are under his wrath. If God doesn't answer you, the problem is with you, and not with God. This is, of course, a common view, even today among people who believe that if you just think positive and do the right thing that good things will happen to you and you will make it through your struggles. In the East, they call it Karma.

In thinking about Job's friends, I try to remind myself about how to be with people who are suffering. It is perhaps easy to blame the person or to try and piece some meaning out of something that is obviously senseless. This week ask yourself how you would have comforted Job and how have you comforted others who were suffering.

Matthew 12-14

Matthew Chapter 12 is Jesus' first great dispute with the Pharisees. Because he heals on the Sabbath and in general is not deferring to their authority, they accuse him of being an agent of Beelzebul, another name for the Devil. Jesus saying about good and evil treasure will come up again in chapter 13. It is interesting to note that Jesus begins speaking in parables after this dispute.

Chapter 13 is the third great discourse in Matthew. We can know this because after it is done we hear again in verse 53, "After Jesus had finished..." which echoes the end of the other parables. There are many famous parables gathered here, the one about the sower and the seed, the mustard seed, the wheat and the tares. All of these are here to uncover the hidden things of the kingdom (v. 35). Only those whose eyes and ears are open to Jesus can understand them.

After we read of Jesus coming into conflict with his home town we hear the story of the end of John the Baptist. The story is also told outside the Bible by the famous historian Josephus and of course has been immortalized in various plays and even an opera by Strauss. Try to read it anew and notice the details that we fill in.

Chapter 14 also contains the only miracle story (other than the Passion and Resurrection) that is found in all 4 gospels: The Feeding of the 5000. It is a story that is central to our understanding of who Jesus is. Notice the context. Jesus, having heard of the death of John, withdraws in a boat to a deserted place by himself (v. 13) to mourn. The crowds follow him, and when he comes ashore he heals the sick. However, they are far from food, and so when the disciples cannot feed them, Jesus multiplies the food, until there is an over-abundance. Finally we have the story of Peter walking on the water and then sinking. We sometimes deride Peter for his lack of faith - but hey, at least he got out of the boat! No one else did!

As always, you can leave comments and ask question by clicking on the comments link below.

Week 2: Job 1-21/Matthew 7-11

It's a long post this week. As always leave questions and comments below by clicking on the comments link. You can expect slightly longer posts for the beginnings of new books. Be sure and take a look at the section on Hebrew poetry.

Job 1-21
This week we skip to Job. What is going on here? I thought we were reading the Bible through! Well, this particular system attempts to place the readings in a rough chronological order, which will give us a break occasionally from the book we are in. Job is a very ancient book, and the world it describes is much more like the times of Abraham than any other major section of the Bible, so it is placed here.

Job is made up of different parts, likely composed at different times and then edited into a final form. When this final form was finished is debated, but most scholars agree that the book needs to be read as a final whole.
If your Bible doesn't have an introduction to Job, check out wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Job

You will notice immediately that the book changes in the third chapter from prose to poetry, which is a great chance to introduce you to Hebrew poetry, because you are going to be reading a lot of it.

First, you will notice that the lines go jaggy, as opposed to being laid out across the page. This is your first hint that you are reading something poetic. Hebrew poetry is not like our poetry. It is not based primarily on rhythm, and certainly has very little rhyme. It is based, rather, on a certain consonance of ideas, on a parallelism of concepts and images that are paired together in groups of twos and (occasionally) threes.

You can see this couplet pairing in the first poetic lines of chapter 3:

Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said, "A man-child is conceived"

Here we have a pairing of time: day/night and the idea of birth: I was born/A man-child is conceived.

Verse 4:
Let that day be darkness
May God above not seek it, or light shine on it!

Here we have the idea of darkness paired with two ideas of darkness and abandonment: God does not seek it/light does not shine on it.

There are also larger structures of the poetry as well. Verses 3-10 are verses about the day of his birth, and how horrible it was. Verses 11-19 discuss his wish that he would have died at birth.

Obviously, Job is upset about something, and so we come to meat of the issue for this book: How do God and evil relate? The first two chapters setup the situation and then we have the poetic discourse between Job and his friends about his suffering: its causes and remedies. Finally in Chapter 38 (March 4) God speaks, and we'll have more to discuss then.

Clearly the opening chapters of Job will give us plenty to discuss at our meeting on the 24th.

For the passages you will be reading, notice the argument between Job and his friends. It is not a friendly discussion! His friends are telling Job, "Shape up! This is you own fault! Does God punish the righteous?" Job's reply is basically 1. Who can argue with God, but I'm willing to try! 2. I'm not worse than you! Why am I the one suffering! 3. You guys are as comforting as a cactus chair!

You will also, towards the end of the week, read the famous passage: "I know my Redeemer lives..." You need to understand that the entire book is set up as a kind of court case. In the opening prose sections, the Devil - the Adversary - is not the character we usually think of. He is a kind of prosecuting attorney, accusing the righteous before God. The Redeemer, or Vindicator, is the one who is on the Defense Team, arguing and saving the accused.

Matthew 7-11
In Matthew this week we finish up the Sermon on the Mount and move on to Jesus' deeds of power and his second great discourse in Matthew. Chapter 8 sees him doing great works of healing and his power over the elements, including demons. Chapter 9 shows the beginnings of tension with those in religious leadership, but Jesus again casts out demons and even resuscitates the dead.

Chapter 10 is the second great discourse in Matthew in which Jesus gives the Twelve his instructions and teaches them of the realities a disciple will encounter. Chapter 11 lets us know Jesus has finished the discourse: "Now when Jesus had finished..." (compare the end of the Sermon on the Mount: 7.28 - Now when Jesus had finished...; also 13.53; 19.1; 26.1). Then we have the story of Jesus and John the Baptist (read last month in church) and Jesus expresses his frustration with the places he has been ministering. This tension is carried over into Chapter 12 where Jesus has his first great conflict with the religious leaders represented by the Pharisees.

Week One - Gen/Matthew

We begin at the beginning. The first 11 chapters of the Bible retell the ancient stories passed down for generations about the prehistory of the world. These are all stories we have read and heard before, yet they remain amazingly fresh: the creation, the fall, the violence of Cain, the faithfulness of Noah, the arrogance of the people at Babel. The question we should be asking is “What do these stories tell us about this God and about humanity?” They are not history, as we would understand it, but rather lay the groundwork for what we can expect from God and people throughout the rest of these writings.

Then we come to Abraham's story. These 10 chapters 12 – 22, cover the core of Abraham's life, his struggle to gain an heir and his relationship with Lot. Notice Abraham is described as an alien. He was a stranger in this land, a “wandering Aramean,” as he is described later in the Torah.

Speaking of Torah, that is what the first five books are called. You can find out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentateuch

The stories in Matthew should sound familiar because we have just read most of them in Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. We also will get into the Sermon on the Mount (5-7) the first of five great discourses in Matthew. Jesus ascends a mountain, like Moses to distribute the new Law of the Kingdom. If you get the chance, read chapters 5-7 in one sitting.

Now is your opportunity to develop you own reading style. Will you read every day? Will you read at the same time everyday? It is certainly easier to develop a habit if you try to do the same thing at the same time every day. At the end of a week, if you have read at the same time everyday, you are well on your way to developing a good habit If you find you have some time and inclination to read ahead, do so. It is always easier to read ahead than to catch up.