Job 36-37 and Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans 2-4

Job 36 – Elihu speaks again. He speaks to “justify my Maker” (36:3) as a “man of sound opinions” (36:4).  He, like the other “friends” refuses to let Job imply that God is not a God of justice or a God who cares for the poor. These are opinions all who love God will defend. The “fates” that men endure are fates that flow from God’s justice, he says. “If they will serve obediently, they shall spend their days in happiness. . . but if they are not obedient, they shall perish by the sword” (36:11-12). These are rationales all of us who love God will probably believe at some point in our lives, but Job’s story will be the challenge.

“God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him? No one can tell him what to do, or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’ Instead, glorify his mighty works, singing songs of praise” (36:22-24).

What Elihu says is true on many levels. “”God is greater than we can know; the number of His years cannot be counted. He forms the droplets of water, which cluster into rain; they pour down on all mankind” (36:27-28).

Job 37 – Still more from Elihu: “My heart pounds as I think of this. It trembles within me. Listen carefully to the thunder of God’s voice as it rolls from his mouth” (37:1-2). God works wonders through his Voice. “He works wonders that we cannot understand” (37:5). He commands the snow and the rain; his breath forms the ice.

“Can you help him stretch out the heavens. . . Inform us, then, what we may say to Him: We cannot argue because [we are in] darkness” (37:18-19).

“Shaddai—we cannot attain to Him; He is great in power and justice” (37:23).

Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

2 – Jesus submitted himself to these things “for our sakes, [so] that salvation might be ours” (101). And he did really suffer. “His Passion was no unreal illusion, as some skeptics aver who are all unreality themselves. The fate of those wretches will match their belief, for one day they will similarly become phantoms without substance themselves” (101).

3 – “For my own part, I know and believe that He was in actual human flesh, even after His resurrection. When He appeared to Peter and his companions, He said to them, ‘Take hold of me; touch me, and see that I am no bodiless phantom’. And they touched Him then and there, and believed, for they had had contact with the flesh-and-blood reality of Him. That was how they came by their contempt for death, and proved themselves superior to it” (101).

4 – He encourages them to avoid contact with those who do not believe these things. Pray for them, but do not talk to them. “After all, if everything our Lord did was only illusion, then these chains of mine must be illusory too! Also, to what end have I given myself up to perish by fire or sword or savage beasts?” (102)

“[I]t is only in the name of Jesus Christ, and for the sake of sharing His sufferings, that I could face all this; for He, the perfect Man, gives me strength to do so” (102).

Job 34-35 and Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans - Introduction through 1

Job 34 – Elihu continues: The reason God gives us is meant to weigh arguments so that we can decide what is just and unjust. Job has declared that he is right and that God has deprived him of justice (34:5). But while he differs somewhat in how he thinks he’s come to truth, he essentially agrees that God does “repay people according to their deeds. He treats people as they deserve” (34:11).

“If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease, and humanity would turn again to dust” (34:14:15).

God rewards those who do good; He punishes those who do evil. “Why don’t people say to God, ‘I have sinned, but I will sin no more’? Or ‘I don’t know what evil I have done – tell me. If I have done wrong, I will stop at once’? Must God tailor his justice to your demands?” (34:31-33).

He thinks Job deserves “the maximum penalty” because of the way he’s denied responsibility for his fate. “[Y]ou have added rebellion to your sin; you show no respect, and you speak many angry words against God” (34:36-37).

Job 35 – Elihu continues to insist that it is crazy for Job to claim righteousness before God. “Look up into the sky and see the clouds high above you. If you sin, how does that affect God? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? If you are good, is this some great gift to him? What could you possibly give him?” (35:5-6). Nothing man does has any effect on God; only other people are effected by the deeds we do.

While it sometimes seems that each of the men who speak their minds in this great wisdom book are inconsistent or ironically consistent with those they feel they are in disagreement with, the things they discuss  are the same things people have been pondering since the beginning of human history. We are DIFFERENT from other animals on this earth – maybe by only a tiny fraction but that fraction creates and rather fathomless divide that we have been struggling with forever.

God is not affected by Job’s evil or his goodness. It is other men who bear the impact of Job’s actions. Job “mouths empty words, and piles up words without knowledge” (35:16). But surely God has heard him – He has heard Job’s case.

Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

Introduction: The letter that Ignatius writes to the church at Smyrna is mostly concerned with the dangers Docetist thinking presented to the faith community. He saw it as being a real problem in their city. But it is also just the danger of separatism and church disputes that worry him. He probably looked to the authority of church officials as being the only conceivable way to deal with what he saw as heresies.

1 – Ignatius opens his letter with praise for the wisdom of the Smyrneans. They hold firm to all the key articles of faith with respect to the material reality of Jesus as man: his being “truly of David’s line in His manhood” and “truly pierced by nails in His human flesh” (101).

Job 14-15 and Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians 8-10

Job 14 – Job continues with these amazing words: “How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear. Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me?” (14:1-3) The limits of man in the face of God are so infinite, it seems simply unfair to be so demanding. But denying human accountability to God also undermines the dignity of man – are we so frail and so passing we should not be held to any standard?

It seems clear that Job does not have a belief in any kind of afterlife: “’Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches. Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling. But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they? As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought, people are laid to rest and do not rise again” (7-12).

“Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle and I would eagerly await the release of death. You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork. For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins” (14:14-16).

I am not sure I get Job’s logic here. If there were a life beyond what we have on this earth, surely we might be held more accountable. But he seems to see in life-eternal a hope that God would value us more and in yearning for us, hold out more assistance to us in our journey. 

Job 15 – Eliphaz now speaks: Job’s words seem like “windy opinions” to him – “useless talk” (15:2-3).  They “subvert piety and restrain prayer to God” (15:4).  He challenges Job’s ego: “’Were you the first person ever born? Were you born before the hills were made? Were you listening at God’s secret council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom? What do you know that we don’t? What do you understand that we do not?” (15:7-9)

What can he know that the “gray-haired old men” (15:10) do not? Job should be satisfied with whatever comfort God gives him. “What is man that he can be cleared of guilt, one born of woman, that he be in the right?” (15:14).

The wicked take no comfort from God. They defy Him at every turn but even though they may be prosperous in this life, they will inevitably face ruin: “Their riches will not last, and their wealth will not endure” (15:29). He sees Job as one of the wicked, full of delusions and impious.

Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians

8 – It is not that he sees the Trallians of being unfaithful or renegade-like but he is simply trying to warn them of the dangers that are out there. “So let gentleness be your weapon against them; take a fresh grip on your faith (the very flesh of the Lord) and your love (the life-blood of Jesus Christ), for there must not be any ill-feeling between neighbors” (80).

9 – It becomes plain in this section that Ignatius is warning them against docetist denials of Jesus’ humanity. “Close your ears, then, if anyone preaches to you without speaking of Jesus Christ. Christ was of David’s line. He was the son of Mary; He was verily and indeed born, and ate and drank; He was verily persecuted in the days of Pontius Pilate, and verily and indeed crucified, and gave up the ghost in the sight of all heaven and earth and the powers of the nether world. He was also verily raised up again from the dead, for His Father raised him; and in Jesus Christ will His Father similarly raise us who believe in Him, since apart from His there is no true life for us” (81).

10 – “It is asserted by some who deny God – in other words, who have no faith – that His sufferings were not genuine (though in fact it is themselves in whom there is nothing genuine). If this is so, then why am I now a prisoner? Why am I praying for a combat with the lions? For in that case, I am giving away my life for nothing; and all the things I have ever said about the Lord are untruths” (81).

Job 4-5 and Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 10-12

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. 

Job 2-3 and Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7-9

Job 2 – Again the Sons of God [and Satan] assemble, and again God praises Job. This time Satan asks to be given power to afflict Job’s “person,” or his personal “health” (2:4). Job is smitten with boils from head to foot. His wife seems annoyed at his patience with God. “’Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.’ (2:9)

Job responds to her with these words: “’You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?’” (2:10)

Three “friends” of Job learn of his trouble and come to “give him sympathy and comfort” (2:11). They sit with him seven days and nights in silence. “No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words” (2:13).

Job 3 – Then Job speaks. He curses the day of his birth:

“May the day perish when I was born

and the night that told of a boy conceived.

May that day be darkness

may God on high have no thought for it,

may no light shine on it (3:3-4).

. . .

Yes, let the dark lay hold of it,

to the days of the year let it not be joined,

into the reckoning of months not find its way” (3:6).

He sees death as a place of peace. All the unbearables of life are absent from Shoal –the torments life brings, the inequalities of human society:
“Oh, why give light to those in misery, and life to those who are bitter? They long for death, and it won’t come. They search for death more eagerly than for hidden treasure” (3:20-21).

The Epistles of Ignatius [Letter to the Magnesians]

7 – Just as Jesus acted in accord with his Father, so you “must never act independently of your bishop and clergy. On no account persuade yourselves that it is right and proper to follow your own private judgment; have a single service of prayer which everybody attends; one united supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and innocent joyfulness, which is Jesus Christ, than who nothing is better” (72).

8 – “Never allow yourselves to be led astray by false teachings and antiquated and useless fables” (72). Footnote here indicates the reference is the “heretical forms of Christianity which combined Judaistic with docetic elements” (74-75).

“If we are still living in the practice of Judaism, it is an admission that we have failed to receive the gift of grace” (72). The prophets did not simply accept Jewish rites. The reason they were “persecuted is because they were inspired by His grace, so that they might convince future unbelievers of the existence of the one sole God, who has revealed Himself in His Son Jesus Christ, Word of His own from silence proceeding, who in all that He was and did gladdened the heart of the One who sent Him” (73).

This reference to Christ’s “own silence” is very interesting and apparently a common reference in Ignatius’ writings. LOOK INTO.

9 – “We have seen how former adherents of the ancient customs have since attained to a new hope; so that they have given up keeping the sabbath, and now order their lives by the Lord’s Day instead (the Day when life first dawned for us, thanks to Him and His death. That death, though some deny it, is the very mystery which has moved us to become believers, and endure tribulation to prove ourselves pupils of Jesus Christ, our sole Teacher)” (73). Docetists denied the “outward” (material) aspects of Christ’s nature. The term dokein means “to seem”. Docetists encouraged believers to dismiss the material realities of Christ’s life and the Judaists encouraged continued reliance on traditional “forms and rules.”

But “even the prophets of old were themselves pupils of His in spirit, and looked forward to Him as their Teacher” (73). It is for this reason that Christ descended into Hell to raise them to life. This is apparently referred to also in 1 Peter 3:19.