Job 2:1-13

Attack on Job’s Health

2:1 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 3 The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” 4 Then Satan answered the LORD, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. 5 But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job’s Three Friends

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home--Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. 13 They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

The following comments are repeated here from August 25, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year Two):

In another meeting of the heavenly council, “[the] Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD” (Job. 2:1). Does the word “also” (NF!W0!h1-Mg1, gam-haśśātān, “also the Satan”) mark the Satan as an outsider, or merely emphasize his presence? In any case we are presented with a deju vu of the earlier scene, in which the LORD asks the Satan, “Where have you come from?” (v. 2a; cf. 1:7a), and the Satan responds in the same manner (v. 7b; cf. 1:7b). The LORD again presents Job as a model of righteousness (2:3a; cf. 1:8), but with this time with a note of triumph, “He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason (MN!H9, chinnām)” (2:3b). Robert L. Alden notes the repetition here: “‘Without cause’ [‘without any reason’ NIV, followed by Alden; ‘for no reason’ NRSV] is an adverb the author used in 1:9. There the Satan asked whether Joab feared God ‘for nothing’ [MN!H9, chinnām]. Here it is ‘for nothing’ that the Satan incited Yahweh to destroy Job. God and good people do not do things ‘for nothing’; Satan does” (Job, The New American Commentary, vol. 11, p. 84 on Job 2:3).

But undaunted, the Satan presents a new challenge. “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face” (vv. 4-5). Again, the LORD gives permission to the Satan. “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life” (v. 6). This time, the Satan “inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” (v. 7), and Job is left to scrape himself with broken pottery (the “potsherd”) and sit among the ashes. (v. 8).

At this point, we meet Job’s wife, who says, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die” (v. 9). LeAnn Snow Flesher says,

These are the only words spoken by a female in the story, and they do not bode well for women as she berates Job for his integrity and exhorts him to curse God and die. Job’s wife does not have the capacity for disinterested faith. But let us be aware of her literary function in the text. Her words serve as a foil for the words that Job speaks next: ‘Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?’ (The IVP Woman’s Bible Commentary, 2002, p. 275 on Job 1-2).

Carol A. Newsom characterizes this “wager in heaven at Job’s expense” as “quite outrageous,” but adds, “to dismiss the book as unworthy would be to miss an important experience. The book of Job is rather like a parable in that it tells its frankly outrageous tale for the purpose of disorienting and reorienting the perspectives of its readers” (Women’s Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox Press, expanded ed., 1998, p. 139). She finds Job’s wife to be “of most interest as a female character [i.e. of more interest than Job’s daughters]”:

Her words to Job are radical and provocative: ‘Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die” (2:9). What she says echoes God’s assessment of Job as one who persists in integrity (2:3b), but the course of action she urges would end the wager on the satan’s terms (2:5). There is an ambiguity in her words, however, that is seldom recognized, one that revolves around the thematically crucial word ‘integrity.’ The term ‘integrity’ (tummah [hm0!Tu]) denotes a person whose conduct is in complete accord with moral and religious norms and whose character is one of utter honesty, without guile. Job’s wife’s disturbing question hints at a tension between these two aspects of the word. Her question could be understood in two different senses. She could be heard as saying, ‘Do you still persist in your integrity (= righteousness)? Look where it has gotten you!. Give it up, as God has given you up. Curse God and then die.’ Or she could be understood as saying: ‘Do you still persist in your integrity (= honesty)? If so, stand by it and say what is truly in your heart. Curse God before you die.’ However Job has understood his words, his reply, criticizing her in the strongest terms (‘you speak as any foolish woman would speak,’ 2:10) has generally set the tone for her evaluation by commentators from ancient times to modern. (ibid, pp. 139-140)

Newsom does take note of some less harsh evaluations of Job’s wife, ranging from an addition in the Septuagint and the ancient Testament of Job to modern treatments such as Robert Frost’s “A Masque of Reason” and Archibald MacLeish’s play J.B. She concludes, “Both in the original Hebrew book of Job and in many of the retellings of the story, Job’s wife is the prototypical woman on the margin, whose iconoclastic words provoke defensive condemnation but whose insight serves as an irritant that undermines old complacencies” (ibid., p. 140).

Today’s reading ends with Job and his three friends, who wept and tore their robes when they saw him (v. 12), sitting on the ground in silence “seven days and seven nights,” for “they saw that his suffering was very great” (v. 13). Mayer Gruber says, “Sitting on the ground for seven days resembles the Jewish mourning practice of ‘sitting shiv’ah’ (sitting for seven [days]),” and refers to Genesis 15:10 (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, p. 1508 on Job 2:13).

Acts 9:1-9

The Conversion of Saul (Acts 22.6-16; 26.12-18)

9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. (Acts 9:1-9, NRSV)

On July 6, 2007 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 29, Year One), comments were repeated with some editing and supplement from August 25, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year Two), when comments were repeated from July 1, 2005 (Friday of the week of the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Year One). They are repeated again here:

After the ministries of Philip to the Samaritans, blessed by Peter and John, and to the Ethiopian Eunuch, we find Saul “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). With letters from the high priest (vv. 1-2), he sets out for Damascus, planning to “bring them [any who belonged to the Way] bound to Jerusalem” (v. 2). Christopher R. Matthews says, “The Way stands for Christianity (18:25; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Acts 9:2). According to Beverly Roberts Gaventa, “The report of Saul’s proposed trip to Damascus, about sixty miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee, assumes that Christianity has spread there; it also moves the persecution of the church well beyond Jerusalem” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Acts 9:1-2). From the historical observation, as she puts it, that it is “unclear how the high priest in Jerusalem would have had authority over synagogues at Damascus, which,” she says, “suggests that Luke may be exaggerating Paul’s activity for dramatic effect” (ibid.). But Paul (Saul) himself, puts it this way. “You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it” (Gal. 1:13).

In any case, Saul was interrupted by “a light from heaven” which suddenly “flashed around him” (v. 3), and the voice of the risen Lord saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (v. 4). The Lord replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (v. 5), and instructed Saul to enter Damascus and wait for further instructions (v. 6). The others “heard the voice but saw no one” (v. 7), but since Saul was blinded by the experience, “they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus” (v. 8), where “For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (v. 9). “The passage,” says Matthews, “incorporates various features of theophanies (e.g. 2 Macc. 3; Acts 2:2n.) And stories of the call of prophets (e.g., Isa. 6:1-13)” (op. cit., on vv. 3-9). Matthews refers to his note on “Rush of a violent wind” which he characterizes as a feature typical of theophanies (op. cit., on Acts 2:2).

Luke provides two more accounts of Saul’s conversion experience, in scenes where the apostle Paul speaks to the people in the temple at Jerusalem (Acts 22:4-21) and to King Agrippa in the presence of Bernice and the Procurator Porcius Festus (26:9-18). Paul himself describes the experience with emphasis on his call to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 1:15-16) in words which some see as reflecting accounts of the calling of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5; cf. Isa. 49:1). It was a remarkable transformation on the personal level, and most significant for the future of the Christian movement.

John 6:27-40

27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ “ 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:27-40, NRSV)

On March 2, 2008 (The Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year Two), comments were repeated from March 21, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year One), when they were repeated with some revision and supplement from March 9, 2005 (Wednesday of the week of the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year One), when comments were repeated and combined from earlier, from January 30, 2006 (Monday of the week of the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), from March 26, 2006 (Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year Two), and from August 25, 2006 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year Two). The combined comments are repeated again here with some editing and supplement:

This passage begins with the final verse from yesterday’s reading, in which Jesus tells the people, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (Jn. 6:27). The crowd has just caught up with Jesus and found him (v. 25). They were the ones who, in Jesus’ words, sought him out “because you ate your fill of the loaves” (v. 26). Their focus, Jesus says, is on immediate material needs. When they raise their sights a bit, they ask, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” (v. 28). Jesus’ answer sounds familiar, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (29). Nathanael believed (Jn. 1:49-50). The disciples believed (2:11). In the context of the discussion with Nicodemus, emphasis is put on believing in the Son whom God sent into the world (3:16-18). On the testimony of the Samaritan woman, many Samaritans believed (4:39-42). The list could go on, but the point is the theme that pervades the Johannine narratives.

These people ask Jesus for a sign. “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?” (v. 30). If you or I were in Jesus’ place, we might have said, “I just fed five thousand of you with five barley loaves and two fish. What sign more do you need? But he delays his response, as they add, “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’ ” (v. 31; cf. Ex. 16:15; Num. 11:7-9; Neh. 9:15; Ps. 78:24; 105:40). In this way, their very questions, as it were, have drawn the parallel between Moses feeding them manna, and Jesus feeding the multitude. But in his response, Jesus goes further. ““Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (vv. 32-33). Their response, “Sir, give us this bread always” (v. 34) reminds us of the response by the woman of Samaria, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water” (Jn. 4:15). But it is not clear that they moved past this point, as the Samaritan woman did when she brought the people of the town out to see Jesus (Jn. 4:39-42).

At this point, Jesus asserts his claim. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (v. 35), to which we may compare the earlier claim made to the woman of Samaria. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (4:13-14). But the crowd in chapter six is like the observers in Jerusalem earlier. “When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone” (2:23-25). On this other Passover occasion, he tells the crowd in Galilee, “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe” (6:36), to which we may contrast Jesus’ words to Thomas after his resurrection: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (20:29).

Jesus add a statement that should reassure the true believers. “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away” (v. 37). In fact, he is on a mission from heaven, “for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (v. 38). Jesus asserts the claim to be “He who comes from above” (3:31), “he whom the Father has sent [who] utters the words of God” (3:34). Similar statements about Jesus put his claim to be “the bread of life” (6:35) in context. He is in a position to give reassuring words to believers. He can prevent us from falling away. “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (v. 39). And we may look forward to resurrection and eternal life as we remain in him. “This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day” (v. 40).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net