Genesis 1:26-31
God Saw All that He Created and it Was Very Good
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Luke 12:6-7
God Knows the Very Number of Hairs on Our Heads
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Job 38:1-41
God Questions Job
1 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2
“Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?
3
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
4
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
8
“Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
12
“Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
13
that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
15
The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
16
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19
“What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
20
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21
Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!
22
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23
which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
24
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
26
to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
27
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
28
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
29
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
34
“Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36
Who gives the ibis wisdom
or gives the rooster understanding?
37
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38
when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?
39
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40
when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
41
Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
Job 42:1-17
Job Replies to God
1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver[a] and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
Lamentations 5:1-22
Lamenting Over Israel
1 Remember, Lord, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
2
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3
We have become fatherless,
our mothers are widows.
4
We must buy the water we drink;
our wood can be had only at a price.
5
Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are weary and find no rest.
6
We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7
Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
and we bear their punishment.
8
Slaves rule over us,
and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9
We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10
Our skin is hot as an oven,
feverish from hunger.
11
Women have been violated in Zion,
and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12
Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
13
Young men toil at the millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14
The elders are gone from the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15
Joy is gone from our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16
The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17
Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim
18
for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
with jackals prowling over it.
19
You, Lord, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
20
Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
21
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
22
unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is a Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Why did Job suffer?...Why did God allow Job to suffer?...When I read and again when I reread Job I have sometimes wondered if God was mad at Job...When God comes out of the storm, and He asks Job who is it that darkens His Counsel with words without knowledge –I had thought that maybe God was angry at Job...But what if God wasn’t angry with Job, at all?...What if God wants Job to brace Himself for the questions He is about to ask, because God is looking down and now seeing a suffering and broken world, and it includes one of His children -Job?...A time maybe where God is more sad than angry...There was once a time when the creation of God and all that He had made was very good...We know that when one sparrow dies God laments and not one of those sparrows are forgotten...So when Job and his friends try to come up with their answers on why we suffer, Job's friends give us the answer that sin causes suffering...God does not accept this answer from them...God in the end tells us that Job’s friends have not spoken of Him correctly, but His servant Job has...Maybe in God’s questions to Job He is lamenting about our lost and sinful and suffering world...God is saddened that Job has suffered, and yet, that is the kind of world we live in...Job suffers and God sees and He is reminded of our Fall from Grace and leaving Eden...Our sinful nature maybe makes God lament with thoughts of the past and His Beautiful Garden of Eden...A place where God had seen and said the Garden is Good...In fact, a created world where God did say that everything was very good...But things changed and we became more disobedient with God...
Job suffered deeply...But Job's friends never spoke directly about how Job felt and was handling his suffering...They were looking for the cause of his suffering...Job's friends saw the root cause of his suffering as sin, but God says that is not it at all...Maybe there is this deeper level of hope in suffering that Job's friends never spoke directly about and we just do not understand...God alone knows the reasons for all things, and that includes why we have pains and sufferings...
So maybe there is a time for lamenting as Jeremiah does for his country in his Lamentations book (In fact, when I look at the Book of Lamentations in this Light, I am better able to understand it, a little better)...Maybe there are times when we need to lament, and it is good for us...Job laments and God maybe is lamenting, too...Maybe the time for lamenting and suffering as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything under heaven -even lamenting on things...Maybe there is an importance to lamenting on things...And maybe as God lamented gently to Job, Job felt His great power, His great mercy, and His great healing powers and now was he gets better and is healed...I now I wonder if God was angry at all at Job, when I reread Job's story...