Job’s
Redeemer
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the December 17, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“I
know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself
will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within
me!” Job 19:25-27, NIV
If, like me, you have had the opportunity to walk across
a field of clay soil that has been super saturated after a heavy rain or a
beach that is more clay than sand, you know how difficult that can be. Every
step I would manage to take is accompanied by a sucking sound as the ground
tries to hold onto my shoes and not allow them to leave its sticky grasp. It
can get to the point where it holds me fast and the only way to leave the spot
is to remove my shoes in hopes of reclaiming them later. If am fortunate enough
to be wearing rubber boots, I may make better progress than with simple shoes
or even leather boots. Nonetheless, with each step more and more of the clay
mud will cling to my boots, first to the soles and then to the sides and tops.
The accreted mud quickly adds to the weight of each foot, and not only wears me
out, it causes my feet to sink deeper with each step
due to the added weight. If I am unable to rinse off the boots as I walk, I
will still eventually find myself stuck fast as the mud on my boots bonds with
the mud in the ground with neither willing to turn loose of their hard-earned
prize. Interestingly, once the mud manages to remove my boots and leave me in
bare feet, it does not seem as intent on clinging to my skin as it did to the
boots. But there is still danger of getting stuck if I allow my feet to sink
too deeply into the mud. Experiences like this have taught me that it is often
a good idea not to hike alone. Even without mud, this can be a good idea as
life can quickly change direction and throw unexpected challenges at us, even
when things seem like everything should proceed without incident.
I rarely found it pleasant to get stuck. Even when I had
the safety of numbers when hiking with traveling companions, getting unstuck
usually comes accompanied with a fair amount of chiding and ribbing by those
who, thanks to my example, avoided falling into the same trap I did. In spite
of the embarrassment, though, the help of my fellow hikers is welcome and
needed and the joking at my expense is a small price to pay for the security of
their presence. Besides, it is experiences like this that provide the photos
and memories that we will all reminisce over for years to come, memories that
bond friends together.
So what do my muddy boots have to do with Job? They seem
to me to be a metaphor for life. I am halfway through my seventh decade now,
and I have noticed that as we travel life’s road, a lot of things tend to cling
to us as well. Some of those things like education and skills that grow over
time through exercise are good to have. They enhance our ability to not only
provide for ourselves and our families but also allow us to be contributing
members of a greater community that extends beyond the walls of our homes and
our family circle. For doctors, police, and fire fighters, we can readily see
how their contributions can have immediate impact on our life quality, impacts
that can last for generations. But even those who are involved in less obvious
areas of influence can, by their example, touch the lives of others in deep and
meaningful ways. Too often we lose sight of our impact on the lives of those
around us. It becomes too easy to become time servers, at work on Monday
wishing it were Friday and doing whatever is minimally necessary to get from
one to the other. However, if we looked at the daily tasks that we have become
so accustomed to repeating and asked ourselves, “How would Jesus do that task?”
our lives could change dramatically.
Many years ago, I worked in the washing machine section
of a commercial laundry, and I decided to apply that idea. I had noticed how
listless many of the workers had become, simply watching the clock and loading
and unloading the machines without much energy or effort. I decided that Jesus
would give his best effort to His work, so I decided to do the same. I found that
if I put more effort into my work, I could do an extra load of laundry each
hour or if the laundry had all been washed, I could help out the sorters in the
next room. They were a fun crew to work with, and having the opportunity to
join them every so often was reward enough for my extra effort. But to my
surprise, about a week after I began working with more energy and dedication to
the job, I was offered an assistant manager position. Since I had already
accepted an offer to be a pastor in the Midwest, I turned the laundry offer
down, but I had learned an important lesson about how our approach to work and
life in general can affect us and those around us. We only need to offer others
the best service we can.
However, it is not only good things that cling to us in
life. As the story of Job reminds us, suffering and persecution can accumulate
and cling to us as well. This is not only true for each of us individually, but
history teaches us that the course of mankind over time has been a difficult
slog with far too much opposition even when the right direction would seem to
be abundantly clear. Before every war ever fought it seems there were those who
could see the tragedy coming on and spoke against initiating hostilities.
Recently, here in the United States, we have revisited the tragedy of the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Even though
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was convinced of the foolishness of war with the United
States and made that argument to the Japanese high command, he was chosen to
lead the attack and felt bound by his obligation to his country and emperor to
follow through. The result was many, many lives lost not only in Hawaii, but
throughout the Pacific theatre as well over the next four years.
Perhaps it is far too easy to convince ourselves that if
we stand in the breach and say the evil shall not happen, it will do no good. Like
me with my muddy boots, we become weighed down with what we feel is the
overwhelming rush to evil all around us. We see no way to pull ourselves free,
and we allow ourselves to become held fast by what in reality is only dirt and
water. Like a muddy bog that has no power to reason, a mob mentality can take
over society, and when it does it falls to those still able to reason to find a
way to overcome. But how do we do that? How do we avoid grabbing our pitchforks
and torches and getting swept along with the mob? The answer may be as simple
as not traveling alone.
In our verse above, Job shares that he knows that he has
Someone to pull him out of the mud. He knows that no matter how bad things may get,
he can count on God. Job’s “friends” came to see him, but not to truly comfort
or help him. Instead they wanted to sway him to accept their perspective on how
God works and what they felt was Job’s failing that resulted in his suffering.
We are bombarded with that kind of nonsense continually. Media, social and
otherwise, are constantly attacking reason and common sense with outlandish conspiracy
theories, false news reports, and propaganda with an agenda to promote their
interests over our well-being. In the face of that chaotic cesspool washing
over everything around us, we need a secure Rock we can hold fast to. Without
that security, we can easily be washed along with the tide. The Redeemer Job
wrote of can be found in the pages of the Bible.
I have read the Bible through many times in my life.
Each time I complete it, I turn around and begin again. It is a unique tome.
Unlike reading a novel, when I read the Bible, each time it speaks to me
differently. It has such breadth that no matter what I am experiencing in life,
it speaks to that situation and gives me hope, courage, and wisdom. As I allow
it to speak to me, I see the power of the words it contains. Every situation it
brings me safely through increases my faith in its ability to continue to do
so. As a favorite author of mine once wrote, “We have nothing to fear for the
future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us.”[i] This memory sustained Job through
his trials; it can sustain us through ours as well.
