Turn Away From A False View
Commentary
Most translations have it wrong. Job doesn’t repent in dust and ashes. He repents from dust and ashes, turning away from a false view of life, and turning toward a positive image of humanity.
In Hebrews we’re called to turn away from a false view of the need for the Temple. In Mark we turn away from a false view of defining people by a disability.
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Most people assume God’s answer to Job, showing him the depth and breadth of the universe is meant to cow Job’s resistance, leading him, now broken, to repent, abjectly saying “...therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (42:6).”
But when God addresses Job with the words sometimes translated “Gird up your loins like a man....(38:3) he is addressing Job as a gabor, a warrior, one who is strong enough to take this awe-inspiring vision of “the whole infinity of the universe” and his place in it. Job emerges with a new perspective.
More importantly, the Hebrew of Job 42:6 is more properly translated as saying Job repents from dust and ashes. He recognizes that his life is hard, but he’s still alive, and is ready to go back to living. He will never replace his loved ones, but he starts a new family. Meanwhile his friends repent and admit their errors. Job is vindicated. He is not told within the context of this book what actually happened in the heavenly court, but even without that knowledge he is ready to go on.
The Book of Job does not resolve the mysteries in our lives either, but it challenges us to endure, and triumph. Life remains mysterious, much is unexplained, and inexplicable. Yet we do more than endure -- we live, wounded, mourning always the losses that strike at our hearts -- but we laugh as well. It’s a big universe out there, and somehow we’re a part of it.
Despite having taken a great risk in granting us free will, God is still in the heavens, and doesn’t seem to regret having gambled on us.
The Book of Job challenges us to turn from the past and look to the future. This does not mean that you forget the past, or cease to grieve. Sorrow remains a reality for all of us who have lost someone or something. But we continue to take hold of God’s good gift of life and live on.
(Adapted from Voices in the Book of Job by Robert W. Neff and Frank Ramirez.)
Hebrews 7:23-28
The author goes to great lengths to show that the idea of the priest as essential to worship has been eliminated by the ultimate high priest, Jesus.
Ultimate is a misused word. It is often used to mean the next best version, and is easily replaced. Here there is no replacement of Jesus.
Perhaps the author of Hebrews is also addressing the fact that the Second Temple is destroyed and there is no new Temple in the offing. I am more inclined to think that the temple was still functioning as this author wrote, or perhaps there would have been no need to discuss the temple at all.
Regardless of whether your clergy are referred to as priests, ministers, pastors, or elders, we are not replacements for Jesus, the ultimate High Priest, but servants of the Lord like everyone else.
Mark 10:46-52
Not long before this passage we met a rich young man who knows the scripture well, perhaps from reading them over and over, reciting and cherishing the holy words. But when he asks Jesus what he must to do to inherit eternal life, he can’t see his way to giving all he has to the poor and following Jesus.
And in the present passage from Mark it is the blind man who sees most clearly. Despite the fact that he is an outsider in his society, considered unclean, and somehow to blame for his blindness, he is the one to proclaim Jesus the Son of David!
We are to turn away from our old way of defining people by defining them as limited in one way or another. We should “see” him as one worth to be automatically included within the body, and work to make our congregations accessible to those whose “view” of life is different than ours.
In Hebrews we’re called to turn away from a false view of the need for the Temple. In Mark we turn away from a false view of defining people by a disability.
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Most people assume God’s answer to Job, showing him the depth and breadth of the universe is meant to cow Job’s resistance, leading him, now broken, to repent, abjectly saying “...therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (42:6).”
But when God addresses Job with the words sometimes translated “Gird up your loins like a man....(38:3) he is addressing Job as a gabor, a warrior, one who is strong enough to take this awe-inspiring vision of “the whole infinity of the universe” and his place in it. Job emerges with a new perspective.
More importantly, the Hebrew of Job 42:6 is more properly translated as saying Job repents from dust and ashes. He recognizes that his life is hard, but he’s still alive, and is ready to go back to living. He will never replace his loved ones, but he starts a new family. Meanwhile his friends repent and admit their errors. Job is vindicated. He is not told within the context of this book what actually happened in the heavenly court, but even without that knowledge he is ready to go on.
The Book of Job does not resolve the mysteries in our lives either, but it challenges us to endure, and triumph. Life remains mysterious, much is unexplained, and inexplicable. Yet we do more than endure -- we live, wounded, mourning always the losses that strike at our hearts -- but we laugh as well. It’s a big universe out there, and somehow we’re a part of it.
Despite having taken a great risk in granting us free will, God is still in the heavens, and doesn’t seem to regret having gambled on us.
The Book of Job challenges us to turn from the past and look to the future. This does not mean that you forget the past, or cease to grieve. Sorrow remains a reality for all of us who have lost someone or something. But we continue to take hold of God’s good gift of life and live on.
(Adapted from Voices in the Book of Job by Robert W. Neff and Frank Ramirez.)
Hebrews 7:23-28
The author goes to great lengths to show that the idea of the priest as essential to worship has been eliminated by the ultimate high priest, Jesus.
Ultimate is a misused word. It is often used to mean the next best version, and is easily replaced. Here there is no replacement of Jesus.
Perhaps the author of Hebrews is also addressing the fact that the Second Temple is destroyed and there is no new Temple in the offing. I am more inclined to think that the temple was still functioning as this author wrote, or perhaps there would have been no need to discuss the temple at all.
Regardless of whether your clergy are referred to as priests, ministers, pastors, or elders, we are not replacements for Jesus, the ultimate High Priest, but servants of the Lord like everyone else.
Mark 10:46-52
Not long before this passage we met a rich young man who knows the scripture well, perhaps from reading them over and over, reciting and cherishing the holy words. But when he asks Jesus what he must to do to inherit eternal life, he can’t see his way to giving all he has to the poor and following Jesus.
And in the present passage from Mark it is the blind man who sees most clearly. Despite the fact that he is an outsider in his society, considered unclean, and somehow to blame for his blindness, he is the one to proclaim Jesus the Son of David!
We are to turn away from our old way of defining people by defining them as limited in one way or another. We should “see” him as one worth to be automatically included within the body, and work to make our congregations accessible to those whose “view” of life is different than ours.
