Pro 9:10-12
NKJ "The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11 For
by me your days will be multiplied, And years of life will be added to you. 12
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, And if you scoff, you will bear it
alone."
[This
post is a work in progress. I wanted to use Reftagger to study His Grace's
post before adding my own comments. Have a look at His Grace's post with Reftagger
and come back in a day or two, Lord willing, for my comments.]
"Why does it always rain on me ?"
The
title of this meditation is taken from a song by the Scottish band Travis. In
the subsequent line, he asks: "Is it because I lied when I was
seventeen?" – an expression of the pervasive belief in exact
retribution, consistent with Proverbs 9:10-12. The perfect equation of sin with
judgment is as prevalent in 20th-21st-century pop culture as it was in Job’s
day. The principal plea of those who suffer disaster and trauma is "Why
me?" or "What have I done to deserve this?", and the easy and
comforting answer is to believe that the suffering is deserved; that some
personal wickedness or sin was its cause, because associated guilt places the
catastrophe in a comprehensible universal order, namely that suffering is
explicable in terms of punishment.
Job
shares the premise of his friends that because God is just, He rewards the
righteous and punishes the guilty, which is why Job can make no sense of his
own suffering (Job 10:5-7). "Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not
heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment’ (Job 19:7).
It is
not easy to square God's promises of prosperity for the faithful and hardship
for the disobedient with the reality that Travis sings about. How does one
equate Psalm 146:1-10 with Job 24:1-12, or Deuteronomy 30:15-20 with Ecclesiastes
8:14-9:4? The author of the Book of Job clashes directly with the ideology of
Proverbs, and so, many conclude, "the Bible is just full of
contradictions". Proverbs seems to say, “Here are the rules for life; try
them and find that they will work.” Job and Ecclesiastes say, “We did, and they
don’t.”
But Job
isn’t necessarily a contradiction to Proverbs; more a modification or
qualification. Proverbial expressions of natural retribution are something most
will understand: eating junk food results in heart attacks, or smoking gives
you lung cancer. But Proverbs does not attempt to reconcile the contradictions
of experience. Thus when poverty is linked to laziness or folly (Prov 6: 6-11;
10:4f; 21:17,21,25), it is easy to conclude that laziness results in poverty;
or worse, that poverty is always the result of laziness.
But this
is to ignore that righteous people are afflicted by suffering (Psa 13:1-6). By
separating calamity from moral wrongdoing, there is an alleviation of
associated guilt, and thus illness and disease, death or disaster need not
necessarily cast discredit on the victim. Proverbs speaks truth, but the lesson
from Job is not to apply it dogmatically or simplistically.
Job’s
friends repeatedly state that all humans are flawed by sin and none is pure (Job
4:17-21, 15:14, 25:4-6), and Job shares this view (Job 1:5, 14:1-4), and does
not therefore claim to be sinless (cf Job 7:21, 13:26, 14:16f). This appears to
contradict his claims elsewhere (Job 9:15,20, 10:1-7) to be innocent. It has to
be assumed that the prevailing theory of retribution held by Job and his
friends was that God’s punishments and rewards were in proportion to man’s sin
or righteousness - a theory which has been perpetuated throughout church and
literary history: "I am a man more sinned against than sinning",
cries King Lear.
Job
clings to the deeply-held belief that he is innocent of anything which may have
deserved calamity and suffering on such a massive scale. His experience moves
him beyond a limiting theology, and opens his eyes to the fact that the wicked
are rarely punished (ch [Job 21:1-34]) and the oppressed are rarely comforted (Job 24:1-12).
Job ultimately allows his experience to modify his theological dogma, while his
friends cling to their dogma against all the evidence.
His
Grace has received an email telling him that these present floods and
interminable downpours are God's judgment upon a sinful and rebellious nation.
No, they
absolutely and unequivocally are not.
Firstly,
God promised never to do that again (Gen 9:11-17); and secondly, the books of
wisdom found in the Bible suggest that the wicked may prosper while the
righteous suffer. Job’s counsellors were of most use when they sat with him in
silence for seven days (Job 2:13). Though their understanding of suffering was
partial, in their silence they moved towards empathy and understanding.
Mankind
is unable to locate and obtain wisdom (Job 28:12-22), but God ‘established it
and searched it out’ (vv [Job 28:23-27]) when he created the universe. In this
context, wisdom appears to be the deepest principle underlying the cosmos, and
silence is perhaps an appropriate reverent response. Communication with the
Divine is, however, possible throughout suffering. God may be the justifiable
object of wrath, impatience or grief, and He may rightly be blamed, for He is
ultimately the origin of the suffering (Job 42:2), so if a victim’s encounter
with God is pierced with hatred and resentment, so be it. It is, at least, an
honest encounter and is commendable (Job 42:7f).
Job 33:1-33 is said to contain the one real insight into a human understanding of woe:
Elihu’s constructive view of suffering (vv [Job 33:14ff]), and the need for a
mediator to help make sense of it all (vv [Job 33:23-28]) - a gracious minister
of rebuke and guidance, leading the sufferer to joyous restoration. Elihu
contributes the idea that suffering can be a discipline (vv [Job 33:16-30] cf Job
36:9-15), and thereby makes a valuable contribution to its positive and
constructive aspects.
But
theodicy - the justification of God - is a complex area of theology. Job clings
to the notion that, contrary to appearances, God is just. He is absolutely
certain that he will be vindicated (Job 19:25) and it is possible that he
believes his vindicator to be God. Job’s world may lie in ruins, but there is a
deeply held conviction that ultimately God acts justly. He may be a present
enemy (Job 19:8-12), but Job’s complete human isolation turns him to God as the
only possible source of his vindication. Reaching out to the supernatural is a
normal human reaction when faith in humanity and earthly order has been
destroyed by trauma and isolation.
There
are many struggles involved in any journey from despair to trust. Although God
avoids all the questions that Job and his friends threw up, He lovingly leads
his son beyond the horizons of his own world of suffering. By God’s word the
healing is effected. Christians are charged with instilling a hope in those who
suffer loss or bereavement, to help them find meaning for a continuing
existence in a world of fading certainties.
No one
is comforted or helped by the crass assertion that tempests and floods are the
result of God sitting in judgment upon our rebellion.
Posted
byArchbishop Cranmer at 11:25 am Permalink [ http://bit.ly/1kiHfEB
] [My emphasis and my minor marked or unmarked changes largely for Bible
reference compatibility with Reftagger on my web log copy.]
"ABOUT HIS GRACE: [/] Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: [Secretary of the Cabinet under UK Prime Minister Jim Hacker] ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ [] It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues. "
I2C
140104a Pro 9v10to12 pp C Undeserved Suffering / I2C / 140104 1616 / Proverbs
9:10-12 ++C Undeserved Suffering
