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<\/a><\/p>\nJOB DESCRIPTION<\/p>\n
When comfort turns to torment
\nAnd solace leads to pain
\nThen Job will find his master and
\nReceive his life again.<\/p>\n
When ashes without number
\nBurn on the funeral pyre
\nThen suffering is consumed
\nAnd an end is made through fire.<\/p>\n
Yet through the fire a figure
\nStands golden, purified
\nThe one who once was taunted
\nHas now been justified.<\/p>\n
Not through the will of mortals
\nNor through the countless saints
\nCan come the vindication
\nOf Job\u2019s quite just complaints.<\/p>\n
Let God be God, says Scripture
\nAnd all the world be wrong
\nFor triumph comes through suffering
\nAnd life from life passed on.<\/p>\n
The world has been left hanging
\nUpon a crooked tree
\nIn Christ the microcosm
\nLife, through death, is set free.<\/p>\n
At Easter dawn a trumpet
\nBlasts from an empty tomb
\nAnnouncing sin\u2019s destruction
\nAnd death\u2019s eternal doom.<\/p>\n
\u201c I Know my Redeemer lives
\nAnd will stand upon the earth,
\nAnd in my flesh I\u2019ll see him\u201d
\nIn resurrection\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n
Darkness lasts a little while
\nBut joy comes with the dawn,
\nThen Job will see his savior,
\nAnd lament will turn to song. <\/p>\n
10\/21\/92<\/p>\n
THEOLOGICAL MUSINGS<\/p>\n
\tThe story of Job might seem an odd choice for a reflection on Easter day, but in fact no figure in the OT more bears the image of the man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief than Job, and he is also the only OT saint who speaks of seeing his Redeemer stand upon the earth at the resurrection. The parallels between his story and the Christ story are interesting and telling. Both cry out that they have been abandoned by God. Both are vindicated after great suffering, and both are unjustly suffering as righteous persons, though both Job\u2019s \u2018comforters\u2019 and Christ\u2019s tormentors assume otherwise. Vindication comes as a surprise ending in both cases.
\n\tOne of my favorite recent stories is the story of the woman who could not understand why in the last book of the OT God is called a silversmith. Since she was leading a Bible study on Malachi she decided she needed to go and visit a silversmith and see what his job description looked like. She got there in time for the day\u2019s purification of the silver. The impure silver was poured into a heat resistant cup on the end of a very long pole and then inserted into the red hot kiln.
\nThe woman noticed that once this happened the silversmith would not longer make eye contact with her, though they were still carrying on a conversation. Instead he concentrated on keeping the silver in the cup in the very hottest, the most blue part of the flame. He explained that this was necessary to purify the silver completely, and that if he took his eye off the silver even for a moment all could be spoiled for he needed to draw the silver out of the fire the very instant all the dross had been burned off. Suddenly, the light dawned in the woman\u2019s brain. God gives us trials by fire not merely to test our metal, but to purify us, but equally clearly God will not hand down more than we can handle by relying on his grace. Instantly, when the purification point has come, God will take us out of the fire. To be truly tested, and truly pure, one must go through the fire, not around it. Triumph comes through suffering, and through overcoming suffering, not by avoiding it.
\nEaster is of course about the triumph over the grave. But it only comes at a price\u2014in this case not merely of suffering but of death. God\u2019s yes to life was proved to be louder than death\u2019s no, not merely by Jesus saying he was the Resurrection during his ministry, but by his being resurrected and becoming the living proof that this was so.
\nI was once preaching in the Durham and Darlington circuit in the late 70\u2019s in England. It was Easter Sunday morning and the little Methodist chapel was decked out for the occasion. The chapel steward raced out of the door when he saw me coming up the hill at a good pace and he stopped me. He looked flustered and like he was mustering up his courage. He asked me in his ever so polite British way: \u201cI must ask you something sir, before we go in. You do believe in the resurrection don\u2019t you?\u201d I reassured him I did and the relief was written all over his face. He then said \u201cI\u2019m ever so glad to hear it because last year we had a chap who didn\u2019t and he preached such utter rubbish about the blooming of the flowers and the coming of spring, as if the resurrection was an annual natural occurrence.\u201d
\nNo indeed, resurrection is not a natural occurrence, and it requires death as its predecessor. It\u2019s something only God can bring about, the God who is the very definition of life, and who longs to give us all everlasting life. The story of Job in fact has a happy ending, but it comes at a great cost of suffering. The same can be said about the story of Christ. Real triumph comes after and sometimes through real tragedy in God\u2019s economy of things it would seem. This is something to bear in mind throughout Eastertide<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOB DESCRIPTION When comfort turns to torment And solace leads to pain Then Job will find his master and Receive his life again. When ashes without number Burn on the funeral pyre Then suffering is consumed And an end is made through fire. Yet through the fire a figure Stands golden, purified The one who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Meditations for the Lenten Season-- Part Six<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"JOB DESCRIPTION When comfort turns to torment And solace leads to pain Then Job will find his master and Receive his life again. When ashes without number\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meditations for the Lenten Season-- Part Six\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JOB DESCRIPTION When comfort turns to torment And solace leads to pain Then Job will find his master and Receive his life again. 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<\/a><\/p>\n