Today's Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 1 verses 6 through 12:
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
The book of Job marks a tremendous shift in human consciousness, as it challenges the ancient conception of a God who can be appeased, manipulated and controlled.
Certainly Job is into control! He himself is a righteous man, fearing God even to the point of making sacrifices on behalf of his own children -- just in case they forgot. On one hand this is beautiful and on another it is manipulative, overly-involved, obsessive and sad. Will Job ever be able to sleep at night, for fear that his children have done something unacceptable to God?
Satan enters the story with a life-shattering and religion-altering question: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" In other words, what kind of man would Job be and what kind of religion would he have if things didn't always work out for him?
What Job leaves us with is a new concept of God and God's relationship to humanity and human events. At the beginning of Job this relationship is fixed: "Do good get rewarded; do bad get punished." What Job gives us is much more complex, mysterious, and beyond our control. In other words, what Job leaves us with is life as it is not life as we think it should be.
And that is the crux of the matter. Am I serious about this whole God thing even if it isn't quite clear what I am going to get out of it? Am I still going to fear God, which means worship and try to remain obedient, even when life isn't working out the way I thought it would?
This is the end of a religion that is quid pro quo, transactionary, and substantively legalistic, and the beginning of a religion that is based on faith.
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