Who Shall Separate Us From God's Love?

Job's friends offer little comfort. They say, "If you lived a righteous life all would be well. As it is, you must acknowledge your sin and change. Then God will bless you."

But this advice seems foolish to Job, for he struggles with the God who remains hidden and far beyond him. He cannot contend with God,

"For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both."Job 9:32-35

So many questions. So much confusion. And amidst it all how helpless is Job. God does indeed demand a righteous life.

"Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. - Job 9:2-3 

How puny and helpless is Job before God, the Creator of earth and sky.

He is wise in heart and mighty in strength --who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?-- he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea; who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number. Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, 'What are you doing?' - Job 9:4-12 ESV 

Turning to his friends, Job continues, imagining himself in a court room with God. Before Him Job admits his own mouth would condemn him.

How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause; he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. - Job 9:14-20 ESV 

He has no way to justify himself. Turning back to God, he says,

If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me. - Job 9:30-31 ESV 

What is left for this poor sinner? Back and forth, round and around go his thoughts. God is completely in charge. Job is His puppet, yet Job cries out that he is innocent.

Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years, that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? 

Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose. 

If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me. You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me. - Job 10:3-17 ESV 

Finally this confused, suffering man cries out in despair. Death, doom, gloom and darkness is all that awaits him.

"Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer before I go--and I shall not return-- to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness." - Job 10:18-22 ESV

 Are you familiar with Job's struggle? Can anyone understand God's ways? Why suffering, sickness, sadness, sorrow and finally death? Only by gazing upon the cross is there an answer. The apostle Paul

from Pinterest

urges us to consider Abraham, that great man of faith. Everything depends upon our believing in the undeserved mercy of God. So old man Abraham clung to the promise that he was to become the father of many nations and that through his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. - Rom 4:18-21 ESV 

In the days ahead we will continue to walk with Job and hear his pitiless friends. Perhaps in all these words we will find our own answers, answers from the God who forces us to struggle that we may grow in our trust in His promise that in all things He is at work for our good, the promise that began to be worked out in the manger of Bethlehem. So the Apostle teaches,

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. - Rom 8:28 ESV 

Those Useless Old People

Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. He writes a regular blog on behalf of that organization. Sadly there are many who are urging the passing of new laws that support euthanasia and assisted suicide. This organization works to resist the passing of such. You can read more about their important work on their website. What interested me was what I read in Schadenberg's blog for May 25, 2010, "5 Reasons Why People Devalue the Elderly." I want to respond to what his guest columnist, Kitty Holman, wrote on that date.

She begins,

"All around us in modern Western society is evidence that elderly adults who cannot care for themselves on their own are being abused and neglected. I believe that much of this is a result of a general social disregard for this vulnerable population group. This broad disregard is such that many of them—especially those with disabilities and those living with chronic pain—would rather have their lives ended for them than go on living in a world where they perceive they are not valued."

As a pastor one of my several duties was to visit the elderly in nursing homes. Frankly, I went there with mixed feelings. That is to say, it sometimes tore my heart out to see old, frail men and women sitting in wheelchairs with their heads hung low, spittle dripping out from their mouths as they mumbled unintelligible words or said nothing while they stared blankly with unseeing eyes at their surroundings. Was this all that awaits each one of us?

Of course, there are always those delightful, loving folks who welcome one's visits, the reading of God's Word and prayer. But what about those with disabilities, sickness, pain and suffering? I was tempted to avoid any contact with them even though it was my pastoral responsibility. These are the folks Ms. Holman speaks about as she asks the inevitable question. Why does our society, our culture in general, feel it is acceptable to devalue these people? She posits five answers.

1) Social Role Valorization - SRV is a concept coined by Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger. He calls it "the application of what science can tell us about the enablement, establishment, enhancement, maintenance, and/or defense of valued social roles for people" (Wolfensberger, 1995a). He says that in North America there are as many as ⅓ of the population who are devalued and subjected to systematic neglect and abuse. This is because they are perceived as different and deviant. Such would include people with physical or functional impairments or low competence. That would certainly include many of the elderly who are put away in some of the frightening nursing homes I have visited.

2) The tendency to "shoot" our weak and wounded.  If evolution is your dominant view of the world that may fit in. Does the theory of evolution not say that the strong survive and the weak pass away? I certainly agree with Ms. Holman that this is the dominant way the business world works. A savvy CEO cannot afford to keep non-productive employees. He has to answer to the share holders who demand that the company makes money for them. So the elderly—crippled, diseased, with failing eyesight, hearing and memory—have got to go. What else can a thriving business do? This is how the world works.

3) Lack of compassion.  I have certainly seen some deep commitments to elderly parents and relatives among many I have known. The closest that Sylvia and I came to dealing with this was when her polio-disabled aunt grew weak and elderly. We were the closest relatives and the responsibility to care for her fell upon us for several years. Yet I have known of an instance when elderly mother was  considered a great burden—and the caretaker despised the task of caring for her. Both of them made life miserable for one another.

4) One's value is based on what one can contribute. Surely many of us know that caring for elderly parents is not always easy. Several senior citizens I've known were angry and frightened about getting old. Their arthritic pains increased their discomfort and they became demanding, complaining, troublesome people. They went out of their way to make everyone around them in the family feel their misery. Day after day they bemoaned their condition. When they died, their families sighed great sighs of relief. The only worth these people had in their eyes was the inheritances they left behind.

5) The U.S. is obsessed with youth. Indeed. You see it at every turn, in every ad, every magazine, every movie. Our children are worth fighting for, saving, helping, but the seniors—well, they've lived a "full life" and all they have to look forward to is more pain, more suffering and probably becoming a burden to their children. On the other hand, there are the young people. They are the future. They have the new ideas, the energy, the passion.

All this is rather dismal I know. Perhaps that's what Kitty Holman meant it to be when she made her comments. According to the Schadenberg blog you can contact her @ kitty.holman20@gmail.com . Perhaps she wants to shock us into more compassion. I've not seen that happen by making others feel guilty or angry. In my observation people learn compassion by example and the encouragement of God's mercy in Christ. Compassion comes from the heart of the one in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells, as the Apostle says,

We love because he first loved us. - 1Jo 4:19 ESV

I'd like to explore this business of getting old further. One of the fascinating areas of study these days is that of discovering why we age in the first place. More on that another time.