Daily Devotional • September 10
A Reading from Job 29:1-20
1 Job again took up his discourse and said:
2 “O that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone over my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 when I was in my prime,
when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was still with me,
when my children were around me,
6 when my steps were washed with milk
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I took my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose up and stood;
9 the nobles refrained from talking
and laid their hands on their mouths;
10 the voices of princes were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
11 When the ear heard, it commended me,
and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 because I delivered the poor who cried
and the orphan who had no helper.
13 The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
and I championed the cause of the stranger.
17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix;
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
with the dew all night on my branches;
20 my glory was fresh with me
and my bow ever new in my hand.’
Meditation
Someone wrote on a Facebook group I frequent that the 1970s were her favorite time. My forehead wrinkled in puzzlement; personally, I think the seventies were pretty flat. But I myself have written that the 1950s were the best time in America to be a kid, and the 1960s the best time to be a teenager. And at her 100th birthday celebration, my grandmother (1899-2000) described how wonderful it was growing up as a kid in a time before radio.
Just about everyone can look back to “good ol’ days,” and they are almost always the days of one’s childhood and youth. Such looking back is especially poignant if one is in a time of tragedy, bereavement, or even just growing older. Job looks back to some “good ol’ days” in today’s lesson.
The passage is beautifully written, its images marked by longing delight expressed in skillfully-composed poetry: “ my roots spread out to the waters … with the dew all night on my branches” Job sees those days as “the days when God watched over me” and “when the Almighty was still with me” — apparently, he thinks, unlike the days he is living now.
It is common to believe that God has abandoned you if things are going really badly; there are many Old Testament passages that protest such abandonment with hand-wringing anguish. But Job is going to find that God has not abandoned him at all.
Until the time of Jesus, it was a great mystery to believe and then discern how God is present in a time of severe grief or suffering. Such times can be indescribably agonizing, but Jesus, whose love saved the world through suffering, said, “Whoever would follow me must take up his cross,” (Luke 9:23) and “I will be with you until the end of time,” (Matthew 28:20) and “No one can take away your joy” (John 16:22).
David Baumann has been a priest for more than 50 years. He served in the Dioceses of Los Angeles and Springfield, and has been fully retired for three years. He is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Ilesa South West – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Auburn, California