Job 4 –
Eliphaz of
Teman is the first “friend” to address Job’s woes. He speaks of Job as a man
who used to give support and words of advice to others. Now it is his turn to
be advised. Should his piety not give him strength? “Doesn’t your reverence for
God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?” (4:6)
His
advice is to recognize that God brings the unjust to destruction. “My
experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest
the same” (4:8).
“This
truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear. It came to me
in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep. Fear gripped
me, and my bones trembled. A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on
end. The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before
my eyes. In the silence I heard a voice say, ‘Can a mortal be innocent before
God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’” (4:12-17)
I quote this at some length because it intrigues me. It seems that
the inner voice of God has come to him with all the “trembling”
and “quaking” early Quakers described as a way of discerning God’s presence in
the “opening”, and what God has opened to Eliphaz is that no one on the earth
or in the heavens is guiltless before God.
Eliphaz seems to equate “integrity” with “innocence.” The idea that
Job might STILL have integrity even though he’s been treated as the guilty
would be treated by God seems impossible for Eliphaz to accept.
Job 5 – Eliphaz suggests
perhaps appealing to one of God’s angels (5:1). The anger Job is entertaining
will only bring death:
“Grief does not grow out of the earth,
nor sorrow spring from the ground.
It is man who breeds trouble for
himself
as surely as eagles fly to the height”
(5:6-7).
He
suggests Job appeal to God and lay his case before him (5:8).
“If his will is to rescue the
downcast,
Or raise the afflicted to the heights of joy
He wrecks the plans of the
artful,
And brings to naught their intrigues”
(5:11-12).
Eliphaz
encourages Job not to reject the “discipline of the Almighty [El Shaddai in the
Jerusalem Bible) when you sin”
(5:17). “For though he wounds, he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also
heal” (5:18).
The
Epistles of Ignatius [Letter to the Magnesians]
10 – “Now that we have become
pupils of His, let us learn to live like Christians. To profess any other name
but that is to be lost to God; so lay aside the old good-for-nothing leaven,
now grown stale and sour, and change to the new, which is Jesus Christ. Have
yourselves salted in Him, and then there will be no scent of corruption about
any of you. . . . To profess Jesus Christ while continuing to follow Jewish
customs in an absurdity. The Christian
faith does not look to Judaism, but Judaism looks to Christianity, in which
every other race and tongue that confesses a belief in God has not been
comprehended” (73).
Note here indicates that Ignatius’ use of the term “Christian” is
the FIRST time it was used.
11 – Referring yet again to
Docetist notions, Ignatius admits that he is “anxious” about the “pitfalls of
this shallow teaching” (73). Jesus Christ, “our Hope”, was born, suffered death
and rose again “in the days of Pontius Pilate’s governorship” (73). It is
important that we never “turn aside” from the Hope that is embodied in these
realities.
12 – Ignatius praises his
addressees completely. “[Y]ou . . . I know so well, are wholly free from pride,
having Jesus Christ within you” (73). His praise of them should not worry them,
making them feel uncomfortable – those most worthy of praise are often the ones
most uncomfortable with it.
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