6 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser also came among them. 7 The Lord said to the accuser, “Where have you come from?” The accuser answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.” 8 The Lord said to the accuser, “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.” 9 Then the accuser answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to the accuser, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So the accuser went out from the presence of the Lord. [Job 1:6-12, NRSV]
[L] Baptism of Christ, by Francisco Albani; [M] Job and His Wife, by Alfred Dürer; [R] Three Hebrew Men Thrown into the Fire in Dan. 3.
When Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee came out of the baptismal water at River Jordan, immediately heavens opened and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the Heavenly Father spoke these words to him: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:9-11). This is divine, familial, love-language.
Implicit in the language of the loving God is the promise that the Father will love the Son for all eternity, that the Father would suffer for the Son rather than to abandon him under any circumstances. The Son hears the Father’s assurance of His presence and His closeness no matter what. And he will draw strength from that consciousness of the Father’s presence in the bleakest moments of his life when all seem lost and his closest supporters will have also abandoned him. That’s when he suffers rejection and humiliation, unjust suffering and pain, and even torture and death. In fact, the Father implicitly conveys to the Son the idea that He will suffer with the Son any time the Son undergoes suffering. In a word, the Father’s love-language suggests that He will always share the Son’s joy and suffering.
There is, however, the other side of the story as at the same time, implicit in that love-language is an incredible challenge to Jesus the beloved Son and, by extension, to all disciples who come after him and become adopted sons and daughters of God. That challenge is to not run away from the challenges that the divine love implies.
Those challenges must necessarily include a firm belief that God is from all eternity good and faithful, and that He will never abandon you, regardless. Then, if your belief is firm, should you one day have the misfortune of coming under severe suffering and even threat of death, you will stay faithful to your identity as a beloved child of God, holding fast to the kingdom-values that God has put into your heart. On that, the Gospels resolutely attest, Jesus has shown the way.
From the start, Jesus declared that the good news of God’s approaching kingdom is near. He would go on to preach and live that good news to the full and till the very end, even to the death, to show his disciples and, through them to the rest of the world, that the evangelical values – which often requires sacrificial service – of which he preached and lived are humanly achievable. He calls us to believe, act and live according to what he has modeled for us: “Do this in memory of me.” That is the challenge that comes with believing that God is good and faithful, that God loves you and that God is worthy of your unconditional trust even when all current evidence appears to suggest otherwise.
Other than the obvious case of Jesus the Christ, a couple of solid Biblical examples may help us appreciate that we can and ought to face life-challenges with hope in God when the going gets real tough in life.
First off, is the ever famous poor Mr. Job. He challenges us all to stop whining when we are dealt some lousy cards in life. As Job’s whole life is being decimated – losing his properties and his children, not to mention his social honour and dignity – Scriptures say he rose, rent his robe, shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped God, saying, quite incredibly really:
- “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21).
Read that again, and see with what stunning depth of faith could a man, facing what Job faced, still say that to God.
Nose-deep in pain, suffering, and confusion, Job nevertheless keeps conversing with God. False comforters that they are, his unsolicited “advisors” muddy the waters more than being helpful, when all that they have to offer is their conventional wisdom, moral one-upmanship, and blaming the victim. Despite their trenchant criticisms, Job displays immense inner authority and sanctity, takes the leap of faith and hope, and simply refuses to curse God for the most severe, unthinkable and unjust suffering any upright human person could possibly receive. So the Book of Job offers a one-liner that captures the essence of this profound tale:
- “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22).
No wonder God could confidently declare to Satan at the start of this narrative that there was none like Job His faithful servant on the earth, “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (1:8).
Clearly, the Judeo-Christian Scriptures teach that mature Christians look not for cheap grace, but to behave as Job did. In all that we do at the lowest pit of our lives, do not sin or charge God with wrong. Instead, like Job, we are to behave as mature Christians do, which is to always believe in our hearts, even when our hearts are broken because of the inexplicably unjust situation we find ourselves in, that God is good, and that God is trustworthy, for God loves us. This is a very tough challenge indeed.
For a second example, consider the three Hebrew boys in chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel. These boys, named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego together with Daniel were forcefully carried into exile from Judah by the Babylonians. How could God allow such a terrible thing to happen? Well, the people had sinned, and this was a punishment for their sin. And yet, when these Hebrew boys were carried to Babylon, they did not allow bitterness, anger, and resentment to prevent them from working with God. They chose to obey God under this new reality of becoming servants to a pagan king. They could have easily allowed their circumstances to make them bitter and to cause them to reject God, but they did not. In chapter 1, they had refused to defile themselves with the king’s choice of food, insisting on sticking to the diet approved in their faith. Their courage to refuse the king’s prescribed diet stemmed from their belief that God was ultimately in charge, and they had to obey Him. So even in captivity, they walked with God and obeyed His law. Then, in chapter 3, refusing to violate the Second Commandment, the three boys, on pain of death, acted in defiance of the king’s command to bow down to worship the image of an idol built by the king, thus incurring the punishment of burning in a fiery furnace (Daniel 3:5-6).
In reply to the king’s taunt “And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” (3:15), the three responded: “16 O Nebuchadnez′zar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up” (3:16-18). In the event, the three boys, though thrown into the furnace, were indeed saved. At the time of their defiant retort to the king, however, they knew not whether God would indeed deliver them, but they believed in God regardless of the outcome of the situation. That is Biblical faith, the pure faith of which Job also attested.
We can of course go on in the same vein to cite the saints of the New Testament, obvious examples being St. Stephen, St Paul, St Peter and so on. The Gospel of which all those saints, in imitation of their Lord Jesus Christ, preached and lived, is not the gospel of prosperity, but the Gospel of the Cross. Catholics, in particular, must resist the lure of the “profitable gospel” in the “profitable faith” that some other Christian faith communities are plying. The theology behind all these “prosperity promises” is shamelessly aligned to the claim that so long as you believe in God and Christ, He will make you healthy and prosperous, and all things good will come your way. The emphasis is adamantly focused on what God can do for you, and never on who God is.
Our reflection, on the other hand, takes us to the Biblical faith which underscores who God is. He is the heavenly Father who loves you, regardless. Satan will do his best to lead you away from that love relationship. His operative method is to change your perception, your image of God. Will you be swayed when life turns hard?
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, June 2023. All rights reserved.
To comment, email jeffangiegoh@gmail.com.