Someone to Bring us Together

Posted on February 20, 2015 by wamplerp

The restored 'Creation of Adam' by Michelangelo Buonarroti on the ceiling of the Sistine ChapelMy days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.   They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.   If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’   I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.   Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?   Even if I washed myself with soap and my hands with cleansing powder,   you would plunge me into a slime pit so that even my clothes would detest me.   “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.   If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together,   someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.   Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot. – Job 9:25-35

The water reference in this passage is somewhat obscure, but it was such an interesting passage for me as a follower of Christ that I had to comment.  Job is continuing his responding to Bildad’s advice.

In many ways he is revealing the hopelessness that has come out in previous passages, but in this passage there is an interesting reference to “someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together”.  Job feels separated from God and he does not know how to get closer.

This is the first time I can remember where someone to mediate has been mentioned.  This someone seems different than Moses, Abraham, or Elijah.  I think the someone that Job is seeking is the “God-man” Jesus, the great mediator between us and God who will one day walk the beaches of Galilee.

The problem that Job identifies as part of the reason he is estranged from God is that he does not feel like he can get “clean enough” to come close to God.  The reality is that none of us flawed followers can get “clean enough” on our own (Leviticus (8:1-10)).  We need to let God do the cleaning.

Prayer: God You desire to be close to us.  Help us to trust your son Jesus to be the mediator between us.

 

Posted in Christian Community, Christian Leadership, Christianity, Discernment, Faith, Following God, Job, Obedience, reconciliation, The Nature of God, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Treading on the Waves of the Sea

Posted on February 19, 2015 by wamplerp

image

Then Job replied: “Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God? Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him. If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ God does not restrain his anger; even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet. – Job 9:1-13 NIV

This passage is a welcome hidden well. I had no idea that God walking on water was “a thing” in the old testament, and in the book of Job in particular. I have always thought of the book of Job, at least until now, as a somewhat depressing and destitute book. The back story is a bit perplexing, but the loving relationship between Job and God shines through in passages like this one.

Job is replying to one of his friends, Bildad, who has just directed some “friendly fire” toward Job in an attempt to explain his predicament. Job accepts Bildad’s rebuke as true, even though he knows he is an upright person before God.

Job gives God credit for many of the awesome natural wonders like the Pleiades and the heavens. Then comes the most interesting wonder of all…especially given the focus of this blog. God ” treads on the waves of the sea” in this passage recorded hundreds of years before Jesus walked out to a boat full of scared fisherman, and invited one of them to join Him — my namesake Peter.

Job’s impression is that the God who sees him passes by without seeing him. Both Peter and Job are sinking into the waves, Job in a metaphorical sense, and Peter in a tangible way. Job knows that the God who treads on water could reach out and save Him, but he feels as though God has abandoned him to the waves. Even with Jesus right in front of him Peter cannot overcome his fear of treading on this uncertain and shifting sea.

It is really hard to “walk the waves” with confidence. As I write this I am laid up with a fever and body aches. Apparently I am one of the lucky 25% who get flu like symptoms in response to a yellow fever vaccination. I got the vaccination because I am headed to Ghana west Africa in about a week to meet with contacts for a study abroad program I will be leading next summer. I am excited for the trip, but it does feel a bit like I am sinking in the waves at times. This will be a good opportunity to practice keeping my eyes on God.

Prayer: God You are the God who sees us. You reach out Your hand to us when we feel like we are sinking into the waves. Thank you for walking on water to reach us.

Posted in Christianity, Faith, Following God, Healing, Job, Obedience, reconciliation, Redemption, religion, The Earthly Realm, The Nature of God, The Spiritual Realm, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Can reeds thrive without water?

Posted on February 18, 2015 by wamplerp

cropped-imgp4755.jpg

Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned, for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow. Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding? Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water? While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass. Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What they trust in is fragile ; what they rely on is a spider’s web. They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold. They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden; it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones. But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’ Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow. – Job 8:8-19

In this passage we have the second friend, Bildad from Shuah, providing more “advice” to Job. He defends God and assumes that Job’s afflictions are the result of a lack of faith or some other failing on the part of Job. It seems that Bildad is convinced that Job is “disconnected from the spring” and godless. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to know where someone else is with their relationship with God. Yet Bildad is convinced that Job is a “reed without water”.

Bildad is correct in his understanding that we all need to be planted by the River to grow “tall” in our relationship with God. The way Bildad puts this is very interesting…”While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass”. This suggests that our relationship with God can undergo a slow fade. We may outwardly have the appearance that we are still “growing and uncut”, but we are withering inside. Casting Crowns has a song about this that I really like called “Stain Glass Masquerade”, below are selected parts of the lyrics:

“…Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small
Cause when I take a look around
Everybody seems so strong…
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart
But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be
Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay”

Bildad has misinterpreted Job’s affliction, but he does have some important words for those who really have forgotten God. They have placed their trust in unreliable things as flimsy as a spider’s web. Even when the web fails them they cling to it…”They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden.” But this plant is sinking its roots into a pile of rocks instead of the One River.

The take home message here is to be very careful when “advising” a fellow follower of God. We often see and perceive the spiritual realm very imperfectly. It is very easy for our perception of someone else’s relationship with God to be colored by our own.

Prayer: God help us to approach others following you with grace, humility, and patience.

Posted in Christian Community, Christianity, Discernment, Faith, Following God, God's Love for Us, Healing, Job, Obedience, The Nature of God, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Vanishing Clouds

Posted on February 17, 2015 by wamplerp

IMGP4417My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.   Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.   The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.   As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.   He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more. – will complain in the bitterness of my soul.   Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?   When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,   even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,   so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.   I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning – Job 7:6-16

In this passage Job continues his reply to one of his “intermittent streams“, AKA friends.  He describes something that I have experienced, namely that time seems to go by faster and faster as we grow older….”swifter than a weaver’s shuttle”.

What is sad is that Job seems to have lost hope.  That is a lonely place to be.  He has become disconnected from the God who sees him….and “The eye that now sees me will see me no longer”

“As a cloud vanishes and is gone”…It is interesting that Job uses the imagery of a vanishing cloud.  Clouds have come up numerous times on my walk with water in the bible.  In 1 Kings 8:6-16 God showed up as a Cloud in the Temple and in 2 Samuel 22:8-14 God arrived riding on rains clouds.

In most of the old testament up to this point God has appeared as a cloud, a Godly condensate, but in this passage Job seems to be likening himself to a dissipating cloud.  His life is like a mist floating over the lake in the morning that disappears with the rising sun.  If only Job had the Hope that we can have when God provided us with his rising Son.

Prayer: God thank You that we can do more than dissipate like a vanishing cloud and that we have the rising Son.

 

 

Posted in Christian Community, Christian Leadership, Christianity, Death and Dying, Faith, Forgiveness, Job, The Nature of God, The Spiritual Realm, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eddying Out – Waterfalls

Posted on February 16, 2015 by wamplerp

IMGP1411Well this has been quite a week of rapids and turbulence.  It culminated this evening with a “waterfall”…a fundraising dinner for a club that I advise at Grand Valley State University called Students for Haiti.  The night turned out amazing thanks to all the help from the students, friends, and my lovely wife.

I will admit that there were times today, as we were trying to get the Haitian cooks situated in the kitchen to cook the meal, that it felt like I was headed over Niagara in a barrel…but God showed up for me and all came off well in the end.  We ate great food, heard some amazing stories about the earthquake in 2010, listened to beautiful singing and music, and shared about the scholarship fund for which we were raising funds (www.gvsu.edu/haiti).  All in all a great night.

Alas all this has left we with no energy for my walk with water today.  I will continue “down the river” tomorrow after I have had some time to “dry off” and catch my breath.

Prayer: God thank you for showing up for the dinner this evening and managing the “waterfall”.

SDG
Posted in Eddying Out, Faith, Following God, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Intermittent Streams

Posted on February 15, 2015 by wamplerp
Ephemeral Stream in Haiti

Ephemeral Stream in Haiti

Then Job replied: “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— no wonder my words have been impetuous. The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me. Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder? Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow ? I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill. “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life! Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One. “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?  Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.   But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,   but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.   Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.   The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.   They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.   Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.   Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,   deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’? – Job 6:1-23

In this passage the dialogue between Job and his friends continues with this reply from Job to his friend Eliphaz’s somewhat insensitive advise, which seemed to favor religiosity over relationship.  Job is still in a state of wanting to die…at one point he asks if “God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life”.  Job has certainly lost hope.  What he did not expect was to lose his friends as well.

Job is not impressed by the way his friends are consoling him….”my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels”.

As a person who has worked and studied rivers for a number of years this language holds great meaning for me.  Intermittent streams, also referred to as ephemeral streams, are streams that do not flow on a consistent basis.  They are often located in arid environments where the groundwater table is well below the surface so they dry up at times.  They can also experience flash floods when thunderstorms roll over their basins and drop abundant rain.

Job is disappointed with his friends.  They were supposed to be perennial, perpetually flowing, streams but they have turned out to be intermittent.  I suspect that this is because deep down they are not truly connected to the spring or planted by the river that is God so that they can provide others, in this case Job, with consistent living water from God.  They are not able to pour out part of their living water for Job because they are experiencing it only intermittently themselves.

So what is the take home message here?  Don’t trust your friends?  I am not sure it is quite that simple.  I think God wants us to love one another and lean on each other when we encounter trials like Job is experiencing, but I think the key point is that God wants us to love Him more.  I am thankful that God provided Living Water that was sufficient for Job, even in the midst of his Despair and the unreliable waters provided by this friends.

Prayer: God provide deep springs of Living Water for us when encounter trials and help us to provide reliable water for others.

SDG
Posted in Christian Community, Christian Leadership, Christianity, Discernment, Discipleship, Faith, Following God, God's Love for Us, Healing, Job, Life Together, religion, The Nature of God, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Religiosity over Relationship

Posted on February 14, 2015 by wamplerp

But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.   He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.   He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside.   The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.   He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.   He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.   Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night.   He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.   So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth. – Job 5:8-16

And so begins the “consoling” by Job’s friends.  In this passage Eliphaz the Temanite is responding to Job’s lament about the condition he finds himself in.  The pattern of Job is an ongoing dialogue between Job, who has been afflicted with sores, and his friends who, though well meaning, cannot see into Job’s soul.

Job has just cursed the day he was born and he does not want to live anymore.  He feels like he is in the shadow of a great and all encompassing cloud.  Eliphaz’s response is to tell him to appeal to God.  We are not told much about Job’s friends, but they do seem pretty quick to step in and try to solve Job’s problems.

I must admit that is typically my first instinct..to step in and start trying to solve problems.  This does not usually work out well and it does not work out so well for Job and his friends.  It seems they are talking to one another but there is not so much genuine communication going on.

The language that Eliphaz is using seems somewhat impersonal, insensitive, and distant.  Instead of reassuring Job with accounts of a God who carries him like a son or daughter or provides rain on “tender plants”, Eliphaz speaks of  “rain for the earth”…and “water on the countryside”.  This feels like someone resorting to “religiosity” over “relationship”.

I have encountered Christians in my walk who did something similar to what Eliphaz is doing and I am sure I have done it as well.  Why is it easier to resort to comfortable aphorisms?  I think it is because we often feel the need to speak even when we do not know what to say.  As I get older and wiser I am learning that there are times when we are called to say nothing.

Prayer: God help us to discern when we should speak and when we should stay silent.  

 

 

Posted in Christian Community, Christian Leadership, Christianity, Discernment, Faith, Following God, Job, Life Together, Obedience, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Groans Pour Out Like Water

Posted on February 13, 2015 by wamplerp

IMGP5105Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,   to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,   who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?   Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?   For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.   What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.   I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil. – Job 3:20-26 NIV

Job is an interesting float so far.  It feels very personal and multi-layered.  The language is rich with meaning and depth.  Sort of like a deep pool of clear water.  There are some very deep questions posed here.  Why is light given to those in misery?  It seems the answer is that God loves us and He gives us His light when we are in misery and when we have joy.

Job is describing someone for whom living has become unbearable…”a man whose way is hidden”.  What is meant by this?  Is there something equivalent about not knowing our way and losing our desire to live?  This would imply that we can only find meaning in life when we know the way.

Then comes the water reference in this passage “For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.”  This sounds like someone who has become accustomed to indulging in their disappointment.  Groans that pour out like water…what would that look like?  It does not sound like something I want to experience. It sounds almost like a soul that has sprung a leak.

Job has definitely encountered turbulent water and is stuck in a rip current that he is unable to get out of.  I have a feeling that the book of Job may be more difficult rapids than I thought…

Prayer: God help us to navigate the rapids that threaten to flip our boats and mire us in turbulent water.

Posted in Covenant, Death and Dying, Discernment, Faith, Following God, Healing, Job, Obedience, The Spiritual Realm, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

In the Shadow of a Cloud

Posted on February 12, 2015 by wamplerp

The Adversary departed from the Lord’s presence and struck Job with severe sores from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. Job took a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself and sat down on a mound of ashes. Job’s wife said to him, “Are you still clinging to your integrity? Curse God, and die.”  Job said to her, “You’re talking like a foolish woman. Will we receive good from God but not also receive bad?” In all this, Job didn’t sin with his lips.  When Job’s three friends heard about all this disaster that had happened to him, they came, each one from his home—Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuah, and Zophar from Naamah. They agreed to come so they could console and comfort him. When they looked up from a distance and didn’t recognize him, they wept loudly. Each one tore his garment and scattered dust above his head toward the sky. They sat with Job on the ground seven days and seven nights, not speaking a word to him, for they saw that he was in excruciating pain.  After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said:   “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’   That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it.   May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it.   That night—may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months.   May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it.   May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. – Job 2:7 to 3:8

Well we have crashed headlong into the book of Job on our float through the bible.  I feel like Ezra and Nehemiah were sort of an overland portage between the turbulent and troubled water of 1 and 2 chronicles and kings and the book of Job.

The preceding passages are a familiar story to many.  Job, described as “that man was honest, a person of absolute integrity; he feared God and avoided evil” is tested by “the adversary”, presumably the deceiver…Satan…the devil…an evil spirit….a fallen angel.  All the worldly things that Job could place before God are taken from Him to see whether His ability to faithfully follow God will falter.  First his sons and daughters are taken, then his worldly wealth, then finally in this passage his health is taken.  He is afflicted with severe sores from head to toe.  His wife is ready to give up on God but Job is not.

Three of Job’s friends arrive to “console” him.  As we will see the input from the friends is far from consolation—more like condemnation at times.  When they see Job from a distance they weep.  The tears that are samples of their souls reveal a deep emotional response to the man before them.  He is not the man they knew from an earthly perspective.  Job is quite literally stripped down to the soul.  They sat with him for seven days in complete silence.  This could not have been easy.

The silence is broken by Job cursing his own existence and the day of his birth in particular — “That day—may it turn to darkness”.  He also invokes a cloud to settle over it.  The hyperbole here is extreme, but I suppose so was the state of Job’s soul at the time he was saying this.  He must have felt utterly helpless and worthless.  The image I am getting is the change one feels on a sunny spring day when the sun is obscured by a cloud.  The cold and sense of loss at the disappearing sun can be profound and palpable.  I think this is the way Job feels at the moment.  The sun has been obscured by a very large cloud…a “leviathan” of a cloud in fact.

The very last bit of the passage contains a reference to a “leviathan” and those that “curse days” being ready to rouse leviathan.  I have had serious conversations with Christians who wanted to point to this verse as evidence that dinosaurs (leviathan) are mentioned in the bible.  I think this is a stretch beyond reason.  The leviathan in this hyperbolic passage is not describing the dinosaurs that roamed the earth and are preserved in many locations around the world.

As a christian who is also a geologist I see no reason or justification for a connection between the leviathan described here and dinosaurs.  What is the meaning of leviathan?  I don’t know, but I am confident that it is referring to something, probably in the spiritual realm, that is not intended to be taken literally.  Perhaps it is merely the overwhelming darkness and depression that is attempting to overtake Job.  A “dark cloud” that makes all his days dark and could darken even days gone by if he were to let it.  Only by trusting God can Job slay this leviathan.  He will never do so with swords or shields.

Prayer: God comfort those who feel as though they are afflicted and covered with a dark cloud of depression and discouragement. 

 SDG
Posted in Christian Community, Christianity, Conflict, Covenant, Death and Dying, Following God, God's Love for Us, Healing, Job, Miracles, Obedience, religion, Satan, Sin, The Earthly Realm, The Spiritual Realm, Trusting God | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Excluding Foreigners

Posted on February 11, 2015 by wamplerp

Us and ThemOn that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.   Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests. – Nehemiah 13:1-5

Well the celebrating is over and so is the book of Nehemiah.  I have to confess I have been scouting ahead into Job to see if there are more interesting rapids in store.  I am glad to report that that there are plenty of rapids, funny water, and rich water imagery in Job…but back to the passage at hand.

The last bit of advice the Israelites glean from Ezra’s reading of the Book of Moses is a bit odd.  The message they are getting, or at least they think they are getting, is to exclude foreigners from the assembly of God and Israel.  This was apparently based on a statement that “no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water”.  Quite a grudge to hold.

Interestingly, before they had this revelation to “exclude from Israel all who were of foreign descent” they were charged with taking care of the storerooms and “grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil”.  I wonder if there was a connection between the two events beyond the obvious temporal one?

Can a preoccupation with worldly things, even things associated with the exercise of our religion, result in an “us” versus “them mentality?  I think so…When Jesus showed up he turned the “us” and “them on their heads and the one who had formerly excluded ended up excluding themselves from the New Covenant that Jesus offered.

Prayer: God thank You for including us in the New Covenant.  Help us to invite others to come in too.  

Posted in Following God, Nehemiah, Obedience, religion | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment