Saturday, December 06, 2008

The Scandal of God

Job 8

Job's other mate weighs in with his thoughts. A bit more of the same. But this time not only is Job wrong doing but also the sin of his children (v 4) that has brought God's judgement on him.

It is said that Job in history predated Abraham and surprise surprise the same rubbish that Job's mates trotted out then we trot out today. We think if someone is going through a difficult time or is ill or some terrible atrocity happens it is God's judgement for sin.

If we can't find something he has done wrong then it must be someone else who is related to you. A few years ago I became sick on holiday in a Greek Island. Not unusual but a guy that was with me decided that the sickness was caused by some sin in my past not that I had committed but someone had sinned against me. Now my memories needed heeling. I had no recollection of this whatsoever so was unsure how I needed my memories healing when I did not have the memory. Sometimes Christians are crazy!

Well the biggest scandal of God he is not fair. He chooses to treat us with fairness he chooses to treat us with Grace. Through that grace he does not send calamity into our lives because of our sin (although we sometimes invite it by ourselves) let alone another persons sin.

I like what Matthew Henry says about this passage:

"Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, sometimes they are the trials of extraordinary graces: in judging of another's case, we ought to take the favorable side."

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