Proper 24
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Our sometimes sentimental, always lenient religious faith bumps up against this text for the morning. Here we have a man named Job who has suffered horribly. He has lost everything he loved and of worth to him, his family, his friends (who turned out to be no friends at all), his material goods and home, his esteemed name in his community, his health, and even his physical appearance. We would expect, therefore, that the Lord God's approach to such a suffering man would be one of compassion and tenderness, like a good shepherd caring for a crippled lamb. But no. When God answers Job in this text and those passages that follow in the next two chapters, it is not with tender words of love, but initially in our text with the most scathing sarcasm. And the answer given is accompanied by the noise and power of a whirlwind. That's a great contrast to the way the Lord spoke to Elijah, not in wind or earthquake or fire, but in a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11--12), and it's rather disturbing to our sensibilities. God almost blows Job away here in this text, and it leaves us wondering why.
Job is a man who demanded to speak to God. He had earlier said that he would lay his court case before the Almighty and make God listen to him and acquit him like any reasonable person would (cf. 13:18--19; 23:4--7). And so God here asks that thundering question, "Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge?" (v. 2). God is not going to be questioned here; Job is (v. 3). And then God fires off his interrogation. In other words, Job needs to be recalled to the knowledge of just whom he is talking to, as we often need to be recalled. We're not approaching a namby--pamby little deity when we approach God. We're approaching the Lord of the universe. And Job first has to come to that recognition.
So the Lord fires his questions at Job in the verses that follow. Was Job present when God created the world, measuring out its dimensions and anchoring it firmly with pillars in the cosmic sea so that it would not move (vv. 4--5)? Did Job hear the song sung by all the heavenly hosts of stars, celebrating the Lord's very good work (v. 7)? Or, in verses 34--38, can Job control the rain and thunderstorms with their lightning, or count the clouds in the heavens? And does Job reign over the animal kingdom, providing food for lion and raven (vv. 39--41)?
Contrary to the limits of our scientific understanding of the universe, God does all of those things. The creation doesn't run by natural law. It runs by the power of God, who in faithfulness keeps its processes orderly and recurring (cf. Genesis 8:22), so that our scientists may study them. And we, like Job, need to learn that the God whom we approach is Creator and Master of the marvels of the natural world, so that we gain some understanding of our dependent place in God's universe.
Does that mean, then, that we should not question God, that we should not raise our voices in pleas and demands from the agonies that we suffer? Does it mean that, from the depths, we should not cry out for answers and mercy and care? Is God an unheeding Master who will not abide such cries, but who will reply to them only with manifestations of his almighty power? No. We have only to read the cries of the Psalmists to know that we can pray in all sorts of ways to God. And from the very beginning of the witness of the scriptures, the Lord is one who hears our groaning, and sees our condition, and knows our sufferings (cf. Exodus 2:23--25; 3:7--8). Indeed, so aware is he of our agonies that he takes them all upon himself in his Son - all our suffering, all our groaning, and even our death. And the greatest witness of his almighty power is his loving defeat of suffering and death.
But what of Job? Should he not have demanded of God his confrontation with him? Job obviously has to learn some humility before the Lord, just as we always should remember our humble station. But Job has to learn something else also. He has to learn further trust, just as that is always the requirement God asks of us. God does speak in the whirlwind and answer his desperate servant Job. The Lord of the universe lowers himself to speak to a suffering man on a garbage dump. And that which the Lord tells his servant Job is that he always cares for his creation. He fixes the foundations of the earth. He causes the rain to fall and the clouds to gather. He feeds the lion and the raven, he says in our text, and he goes on in Job 39--40 to enumerate his care for all his creatures. Job therefore should know that God also cares for him.
The Lord is not some awesome, unfeeling Master, running his creation by divine fiat. He is the caring Creator and Sustainer, who watches and preserves every one of his creatures, including us. And in the deepest depths of any despair, we can count on that sustenance and watchful strength and care of our God. Trust your Maker. That is the message of our text.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 53:4--12
This text forms a portion of the passage that is known as the Suffering Servant Song of Second Isaiah, who proclaimed his message to the Babylonian exiles of Israel sometime between 550 and 538 B.C. The whole passage of 52:13-53:12 is the stated Old Testament text for Good Friday in all three yearly cycles of the Revised Common Lectionary. The preacher may therefore want to refer to those expositions also.
The speakers in our text are the nations, who are first mentioned in 52:15. The Suffering Servant's identity has been endlessly debated by scholars, but most probably is to be understood as an ideal, corporate embodiment of Israel, who is called by the prophet to give his life as a sin--offering (vv. 6, 10, 12) for all peoples, including the rest of his Israelite compatriots. Because the Servant is sinless (vv. 9, 11), his death atones for the sin of all others (v. 11). He bears the punishment for others' iniquities (vv. 4--6) and thus justifies them in the eyes of God.
But it is God himself who calls the Suffering Servant to such a course (v. 10). And because the Servant takes upon himself suffering for others, he will in the end be shown by God to be vindicated. The Servant will finally be exalted by God and prosper (vv. 52:13; 53:10--12), and his way will become the victorious way of all. Such is the suffering and yet ultimately triumphant role to which Second Isaiah calls the faithful in Israel in the sixth century B.C.
Israel never lived up to that role. But the son of Israel, Jesus Christ, did. Willingly taking upon himself the mission of suffering to which his people had been called by the prophet, Christ gave his back to the whip--stripes (v. 5) and became like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb (v. 7). He was cut off from the land of the living (v. 8), and his grave was borrowed from a rich man (v. 9). But his death atoned for the sins of us all, and his resurrection exalted him to victory over sin and death. And we, if we trust his work and live by faith in him, share in the benefits of his justifying and saving grace.
But first, we have to confess that we are sinners, don't we? We have to acknowledge that we are unrighteous in the sight of our God, and that we need redemption from sin and from the death that our sin deserves. For the wages of our sin is death, and only God can deliver us from that payment. But the price has been paid. The sinless offering has been made. The final Suffering Servant has died and been exalted. And we, if we will, can now be counted forgiven, righteous, justified, redeemed, saved by our God, the past wiped out, a new beginning given, a new life made possible, if we will, dear friends, if we will.
Job is a man who demanded to speak to God. He had earlier said that he would lay his court case before the Almighty and make God listen to him and acquit him like any reasonable person would (cf. 13:18--19; 23:4--7). And so God here asks that thundering question, "Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge?" (v. 2). God is not going to be questioned here; Job is (v. 3). And then God fires off his interrogation. In other words, Job needs to be recalled to the knowledge of just whom he is talking to, as we often need to be recalled. We're not approaching a namby--pamby little deity when we approach God. We're approaching the Lord of the universe. And Job first has to come to that recognition.
So the Lord fires his questions at Job in the verses that follow. Was Job present when God created the world, measuring out its dimensions and anchoring it firmly with pillars in the cosmic sea so that it would not move (vv. 4--5)? Did Job hear the song sung by all the heavenly hosts of stars, celebrating the Lord's very good work (v. 7)? Or, in verses 34--38, can Job control the rain and thunderstorms with their lightning, or count the clouds in the heavens? And does Job reign over the animal kingdom, providing food for lion and raven (vv. 39--41)?
Contrary to the limits of our scientific understanding of the universe, God does all of those things. The creation doesn't run by natural law. It runs by the power of God, who in faithfulness keeps its processes orderly and recurring (cf. Genesis 8:22), so that our scientists may study them. And we, like Job, need to learn that the God whom we approach is Creator and Master of the marvels of the natural world, so that we gain some understanding of our dependent place in God's universe.
Does that mean, then, that we should not question God, that we should not raise our voices in pleas and demands from the agonies that we suffer? Does it mean that, from the depths, we should not cry out for answers and mercy and care? Is God an unheeding Master who will not abide such cries, but who will reply to them only with manifestations of his almighty power? No. We have only to read the cries of the Psalmists to know that we can pray in all sorts of ways to God. And from the very beginning of the witness of the scriptures, the Lord is one who hears our groaning, and sees our condition, and knows our sufferings (cf. Exodus 2:23--25; 3:7--8). Indeed, so aware is he of our agonies that he takes them all upon himself in his Son - all our suffering, all our groaning, and even our death. And the greatest witness of his almighty power is his loving defeat of suffering and death.
But what of Job? Should he not have demanded of God his confrontation with him? Job obviously has to learn some humility before the Lord, just as we always should remember our humble station. But Job has to learn something else also. He has to learn further trust, just as that is always the requirement God asks of us. God does speak in the whirlwind and answer his desperate servant Job. The Lord of the universe lowers himself to speak to a suffering man on a garbage dump. And that which the Lord tells his servant Job is that he always cares for his creation. He fixes the foundations of the earth. He causes the rain to fall and the clouds to gather. He feeds the lion and the raven, he says in our text, and he goes on in Job 39--40 to enumerate his care for all his creatures. Job therefore should know that God also cares for him.
The Lord is not some awesome, unfeeling Master, running his creation by divine fiat. He is the caring Creator and Sustainer, who watches and preserves every one of his creatures, including us. And in the deepest depths of any despair, we can count on that sustenance and watchful strength and care of our God. Trust your Maker. That is the message of our text.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 53:4--12
This text forms a portion of the passage that is known as the Suffering Servant Song of Second Isaiah, who proclaimed his message to the Babylonian exiles of Israel sometime between 550 and 538 B.C. The whole passage of 52:13-53:12 is the stated Old Testament text for Good Friday in all three yearly cycles of the Revised Common Lectionary. The preacher may therefore want to refer to those expositions also.
The speakers in our text are the nations, who are first mentioned in 52:15. The Suffering Servant's identity has been endlessly debated by scholars, but most probably is to be understood as an ideal, corporate embodiment of Israel, who is called by the prophet to give his life as a sin--offering (vv. 6, 10, 12) for all peoples, including the rest of his Israelite compatriots. Because the Servant is sinless (vv. 9, 11), his death atones for the sin of all others (v. 11). He bears the punishment for others' iniquities (vv. 4--6) and thus justifies them in the eyes of God.
But it is God himself who calls the Suffering Servant to such a course (v. 10). And because the Servant takes upon himself suffering for others, he will in the end be shown by God to be vindicated. The Servant will finally be exalted by God and prosper (vv. 52:13; 53:10--12), and his way will become the victorious way of all. Such is the suffering and yet ultimately triumphant role to which Second Isaiah calls the faithful in Israel in the sixth century B.C.
Israel never lived up to that role. But the son of Israel, Jesus Christ, did. Willingly taking upon himself the mission of suffering to which his people had been called by the prophet, Christ gave his back to the whip--stripes (v. 5) and became like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb (v. 7). He was cut off from the land of the living (v. 8), and his grave was borrowed from a rich man (v. 9). But his death atoned for the sins of us all, and his resurrection exalted him to victory over sin and death. And we, if we trust his work and live by faith in him, share in the benefits of his justifying and saving grace.
But first, we have to confess that we are sinners, don't we? We have to acknowledge that we are unrighteous in the sight of our God, and that we need redemption from sin and from the death that our sin deserves. For the wages of our sin is death, and only God can deliver us from that payment. But the price has been paid. The sinless offering has been made. The final Suffering Servant has died and been exalted. And we, if we will, can now be counted forgiven, righteous, justified, redeemed, saved by our God, the past wiped out, a new beginning given, a new life made possible, if we will, dear friends, if we will.
