Knowable Word

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Wrestling With the God Presented in the Book of Job

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Not long ago, John Piper received a very challenging question over how to grapple with the God presented in the book of Job:

Pastor John, my 14-year-old daughter read through the book of Job for the first time this year, and she is really struggling with how God is portrayed in that book. She has heard all of her life that God is loving and just, and cannot understand why God would allow Job and his children, wife, and servants to suffer such devastation. She’s deeply disturbed by the fact that God pointed Job out to Satan intentionally, thus drawing his attention to this righteous man, allowing Satan to take away nearly everything Job had. And for what purpose? Merely to prove a point to Satan and the host of heaven that Job’s reverence for God was unshakable.

Piper masterfully walks through the process of learning to define just and unjust, right and wrong, not from our own perspectives but as creatures of Almighty God who defines such things for us. And this Almighty God always acts on behalf of his own supreme glory and the good of his people.

Piper’s response is a helpful example of how to wrestle through difficult texts in light of the message of the Scriptures. Check it out!

Context Matters: Have We Not All One Father?

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Malachi 2:10 is a verse that many cults and spiritual gurus use to show that every member of the human race is a child of God, a member of his holy family.

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?

Bill Muehlenberg simply takes us to the context of this verse to show us that there’s something much different going on in the prophet’s train of thought.

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No Need to Fear the Book of Revelation

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Have you ever been afraid to study the book of Revelation? If so, you’re not the only one, and Lucky Mogakane is here to help:

In this article I will attempt to encourage believers to read Revelation. I will do this by distinguishing the fear many feel towards the book and the kind of fear we should have as a result of reading it. Then I will show that one of the messages in Revelation is reassurance, as we learn about God’s love. Thus we will see that contrast with its reception, Revelation is a great blessing to the Church—in all ages and whatever its situation. Revelation is God’s word for believers, even if it appears strange at first.

Mr. Mogakane has some wonderful insight into the themes of Revelation, along with their relevance for today.

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Amos: God of Creation and Covenant

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Andrew M. King has a helpful article on the book of Amos, where he walks through the key themes of the book of Amos. His summary:

Though only in seed form, the book of Amos signals God’s redemptive purpose seen in the whole of Scripture. From beginning to end, the triune God of creation and covenant is shown to be faithful in judgment and salvation for the fame of his name.

King does a great job tracing the pieces of these themes throughout Amos’s prophecy. Accordingly, he is focusing more on the contents than on the argument of the book (the opposite of what I attempt to do in my interpretive book overviews). However, his piece is a great example of why it is also important to also understand the contents of the books we study.

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Context Matters: Dashing Little Ones Against the Rock

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Psalm 137:9 offers an alarming benediction on those engaged in a shockingly outrageous behavior: “Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” What is a serious student of the Bible to make of this, in light of Jesus’ welcoming of little children and his admonition to love one’s enemies?

Joe Palekas has a marvelous piece asking this very question. And to answer it, he takes a thorough tour of the context of Psalm 139:9. He looks at the literary context and train of thought in the poem itself. He looks at historical context when it was written. He looks at the larger literary context of the arrangement of psalms. He looks at the covenantal context, particularly in light of Isaiah’s predictions of the Day of the Lord to be brought against Babylon in Isaiah 13. Palekas looks at the context of the fulfillment in Christ. And he examines how all these contexts then lead us to application in our day and point in history.

In the end, he reaches the following conclusion:

Now Psalm 137 begins to become clearer. The community of exiles weeping by the waters of Babylon are calling for the day of the LORD. God has promised his covenant people that he will return them from exile and visit a just reward upon their captors. He promised this before he even sent them to exile. Psalm 137 contrasts the “day of Jerusalem” with the day of the LORD promised in Isaiah 13 and alluded to in Psalm 137:9. The astonishing and overwhelming image of dashing infants on the rocks is not the product of some twisted or vengeful human imagination. It is a call for God to be faithful to his covenant promises.

This is some terrific Bible study and contextual thinking at its finest. If you’ve ever wondered about that line about bashing babies on rocks, I encourage you to check it out. And if you’d like to see a skillful example of how context matters, I also encourage you to check it out!

Do Not Give Up Your Confidence in the Word

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Andree Seu Peterson makes a fabulous point for World magazine: The “logic” and argumentation of the world has grown so demented that any disagreement with accepted conclusions is considered unreasonable and immoral. But all hope is not lost, for the Apostle Paul dealt with the same kind of worldly “wisdom” in his day. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” (1 Cor 1:18).

Peterson concludes:

I am going back to the simple Word. The Word that God says “is the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16). If any apologist for the New Think sexual mores comes at me with his fancy Oxford or Yale logic supposedly proving that perversion is enlightenment and enlightenment is perversion, I will make responses such as these:

“From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6).

“Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!” (Luke 17:1).

Hold tight the confidence that the Word of God has power—intrinsically—to change hearts. It will not return to Him empty.

Her piece is well worth your time and consideration. Check it out!

Three Good Things About Difficult Bible Passages

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L.T. Greer has a brief piece to help us when we come up against a difficult passage. Instead of yielding to the temptation to skip or ignore it, he encourages us to see how God might use it. He offers the following list of “Three Good Things About Difficult Bible Passages”:

  1. We learn about veracity of the Bible.
  2. We learn about our church’s relationship to the Bible.
  3. We learn about our own biases.

See his article for an explanation of these points, which I find rather compelling and motivating.

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An Honest Look at the Scriptures

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One of my greatest privileges at this blog is getting to share the space with one of my longest and closest friends, the sage essayist and mathematician, Ryan Higginbottom. Ryan also blogs at his own site A Small Work. If you haven’t been following him there, you really ought to consider it.

Ryan recently composed a wonderful piece called “The Weight and Wound of the Word,” a brief reflection on the piercing swordplay of Scripture well worth your time. Here is a taste:

While many today look to the Bible for comfort or inspiration, an honest look at the Scriptures reveals that not all of it was given for these purposes. If we randomly dip a ladle into the depths of Ezekiel, the brew that emerges is more likely to be sharp than sweet…

Some—perhaps much—of the Bible was given not for our comfort but for our discomfort. The Scriptures are profitable for reproof and correction, after all; they provoke, unsettle, and rebuke us. Far from harsh, this is a sign of God’s love. It is damaging for our souls—indeed, for our humanity—to turn against God in rebellion. The fact that he steers us away from sin and back to himself is evidence of his care.

Ryan goes on to describe some particular ways we may be prone to dulling the sharp edges of Scripture, thereby throwing ourselves in front of the Holy Spirit’s bulldozer. This is well worth your time and consideration.

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Let the Bible Speak!

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I appreciate this brief word from Amy K. Hall on the need to teach what the Bible says before attempting to teach how it applies. As she writes:

Remember that the Bible is primarily there to show us who God is and what Christ has done for us, giving us a 2,000-year history of his works, revealing his character, our purpose and need, and his solution. Sometimes, people who are teaching the Bible try much too hard to be brilliant, giving us their own insights into life rather than letting the brilliance of the Bible speak for itself. Let the Bible speak! I would rather hear one halting, inexperienced speaker show me God in a text of the Bible than hear 1,000 polished pastors give me their three-point, alliterated instructions for life, which are often only loosely based on the actual text.

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