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Job 21:29-34 Portrait of "having no hope and without God in the world"

Good afternoon fellow exiles,

Rejoice, again I say rejoice.  God is on the throne.  Job can be a very depressing book, but there is great hope.  We skipped the "I know my redeemer lives" chapter.  While Job struggles, he never gives up on God.  Be strong and of good courage.

Blessings,

Jeff 

Job's response to Zophar's second speech.  Concludes the second round.

In part, he appeals to "the man on the street" evidence to refute the black and white theory of only good happens to the good and only bad happens to the bad.  The man on the street will tell you examples of when nothing bad happens to the wicked.  When he dies, many come to mourn him (watch is kept over his grave).  His death is painless (the clods of the valley are sweet to him).  There is no retribution in this life for the evil he has done (who repays him for what he has done).  

I think this is the problem with the secular viewpoint.  If all there is is this life, then justice is everything coming out even in this life.  All good deeds are rewarded and all wicked deeds are punished.  Or wicked deeds (as defined by those on the receiving end) are prevented.  So to keep people of color from being targets of police violence, we need to get rid of police.  To prevent income inequality, we need to eliminate capitalism.  As long as God is excluded and there is no eternal punishment, man becomes the arbiter of "good" and "evil" and tries to figure out how to make everything come out right in the end.  Not being omniscient and omnipotent, man will fail miserably.

Why would anyone insist on this as the answer to man's problems?  Clearly the world would not be a very nice place to live in.  And God saw this dilemma, and gave us a book showing the folly.

Instruction - No political, social or economic system can bring an absolute just outcome.  Man can only produce the "city of man".  Bunyan calls it the city of destruction.  Let us look to our heavenly citizenship.  Let us look to heaven for our Savior who will redeem our lowly bodies and make them like his glorious body. (Phil 3:20-21)

Thanksgiving - the only Judge who stands at the door.

Confession - my misplaced hopes and expectations in this election season.

Petition - For all those who are unhappy with God for not making life come out the way they want it, consider Job.  He realized that abandoning God is not an answer.  That really makes things far worse.  Denying reality never works.

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