Living Righteously Regardless

So many philosophical questions. So what? Just live compassionately in all situations.

We’ve come to the part where even though the pattern is still something like a back-and-forth between Job and his friends, he’s hardly acknowledging them at all. It seems like Job has moved beyond hearing the jabs of his friends and is instead, directly addressing God and injustice.

The second half of his response today is intriguing, especially in light of these powerful words from Jesus in his sermon on the plain.

Job begins to name what everyone can see but few want to admit: the wicked often prosper while the vulnerable suffer. They move boundary stones, seize flocks, drive away the donkey of the orphan, and push the needy off the road. Job’s point is not merely that suffering exists, but that injustice thrives in plain sight. And yet, despite seeing it clearly, Job cannot find God to plead his case. Look, I go east; he’s not there,
west, and don’t discover him…

Jesus speaks into a world that still looks very much like Job’s. But instead of explaining why injustice persists, he turns the attention of his listeners toward their own actions: Love your enemies. Do good. Lend without expecting return. Be merciful.

It could bring to mind that time some disciples ask Jesus about the current event that was the Siloam tower falling and killing a number of people. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t really respond to the breaking news of the moment, but that he says that everyone’s real concern should be to live righteously in any situation regardless.

It is a striking shift. Job demands an audience with God to address the injustices he sees. Jesus tells his followers that the kingdom of God begins when they refuse to mirror the world’s patterns of exploitation and retaliation. In other words, while Job searches desperately for God’s justice, Jesus invites his followers to begin embodying it.

Perhaps that is one small answer to Job’s longing. It’s not a philosophical explanation for why injustice exists, but a call for God’s people to live differently within it.

(And actually, we could consider that this is exactly what Job is doing without even really knowing it. Even in his own suffering, he as an attentiveness to the ills of others - the poor, the widow, the orphan, etc.)

Luke 6:32-36

“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.”

Job 23-24

Today my complaint is again bitter;
my strength is weighed down because of my groaning.
Oh, that I could know how to find him—
come to his dwelling place;
I would lay out my case before him,
fill my mouth with arguments,
know the words with which he would answer,
understand what he would say to me.
Would he contend with me through brute force?
No, he would surely listen to me.
There those who do the right thing can argue with him;
I could escape from my judge forever.

Look, I go east; he’s not there,
west, and don’t discover him;
north in his activity, and I don’t grasp him;
he turns south, and I don’t see.
Surely he knows my way;
when he tests me,
I will emerge as gold.
My feet have stayed right in his tracks.
I have kept his way and not left it,
kept the commandments from his lips and not departed,
valued the words from his mouth more than my food.

He is of one mind; who can reverse it?
What he desires, he does.
He carries out what is decreed for me
and can do many similar things with me.
Therefore, I am scared by his presence;
I think and become afraid of him.
God has weakened my mind;
the Almighty has frightened me.
Still I’m not annihilated by darkness;
he has hidden deep darkness from me.

Why doesn’t the Almighty establish times for punishment?
Why can’t those who know him see his days?
People move boundary stones,
herd flocks they’ve stolen,
drive off an orphan’s donkey,
take a widow’s ox as collateral,
thrust the poor out of the way,
make the land’s needy hide together.
They are like the wild donkeys in the desert;
they go forth at dawn searching for prey;
the wasteland is food for their young.
They gather their food in the field,
glean in unproductive vineyards,
spend the night naked, unclothed,
in the cold without a cover,
wet from mountain rains,
with no refuge, huddled against a rock.
The orphan is stolen from the breast;
the infant of the poor is taken as collateral.
The poor go around naked, without clothes,
carry bundles of grain while hungry,
crush olives between millstones,
tread winepresses, but remain thirsty.
From the city, the dying cry out;
the throat of the mortally wounded screams, but God assigns no blame.

They rebel against light,
don’t acknowledge its direction,
don’t dwell in its paths.
The murderer rises at twilight,
kills the poor and needy;
at night, they are like a thief.
The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
thinking, No eye can see me,
and puts a mask over his face.
In the dark they break into houses;
they shut themselves in by day;
they don’t know the light.
Deep darkness is morning to them
because they recognize the horror of darkness.
They are scum on the water’s surface;
their portion of the land is cursed;
no one walks down a path in the vineyards.
Drought and heat steal melted snow,
just as the underworld steals sinners.
The womb forgets them;
the worm consumes them;
they aren’t remembered,
and so wickedness is shattered like a tree.
They prey on the barren, the childless,
do nothing good for the widow.
They drag away the strong by force;
they may get up but without guarantee of survival.
They make themselves secure;
they are at ease.
His eyes are on their ways.
They are exalted for a short time, but no longer.
They are humbled then gathered in like everyone else;
cut off like heads of grain.
If this isn’t so, who can prove me a liar
and make my words disappear?

Prayer

God,

Is Job’s righteousness inherent or the hard result of an intentional effort he makes? I don’t want to set up a dichotomy, but I do wonder sometimes if those who live more justly and compassionately in this world sometimes do so just because of who they are.

And even so, I know this doesn’t change my own responsibility to choose what is best and right in every situation regardless.

So help me, God, to do just that.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.