The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 25: Job's Questioning (2023)

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Where is God in Job's suffering? Today, Fr. Mike dives deeper into Job's questions as he wrestles with his suffering. We learn that God always uses our suffering for a purpose although we may not understand it in the moment. Today's readings are Genesis 47-48, Job 39-40, and Psalm 16. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 25. Let us keep on rolling. We are reading from Genesis chapter 47 and 48. We are just a few chapters from the end of the very first book of the Bible, reading Genesis 47 and 48. We're also two chapters from the end of Job

at the end of this day, reading Job chapter 39 and 40. We're also leaving the Proverbs for a little bit. We're jumping into the book of Psalms. We're going to be reading Psalm 16. If you want to know, I am reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition of the Bible. I'm also actually reading from the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you're interested in getting your own Catholic Bible in a Year reading plan, you can go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and you can download that for free. Also, if you haven't yet, please subscribe to this podcast app. I know it's day 25, but why haven't you subscribed? It's day 25, for crying out loud. Lastly, if you want to get on

our email list and get updates and be part of this community, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. As I said, today we are reading from Genesis chapter 47 to 48, Job 39 and 40, and Psalm 16. Genesis chapter 47 and 48. So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, My father and my brothers with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, what is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, we, your servants are shepherds as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in the land for there is no pasture for your servants flocks for the famine is severe in the land of

Canaan. And now we pray you let your servants severe in the land of Canaan. And now we pray you, let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know of any able men among them, put them in charge of my cattle. Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days and the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years.

Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents. Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of

Canaan for the grain which they had bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. And Joseph answered, Give your cattle, and I will give you food in exchange for your cattle if your money is gone. So they brought their cattle to Joseph. And Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys.

And he supplied them with food in exchange for all their cattle that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and with our land we will be slaves to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them. The land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he made slaves of them, from one end

of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and lived on the allowance which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance which Pharaoh gave them, therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field, and as food for yourselves and your households, and as food for your little ones. And they said, You have saved our lives. May it please my lord, we will be slaves to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have a fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. Thus Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land

of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it. And they were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh, and promise to deal loyally and truly with me, do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. Joseph answered, I will do as you have said. And he said, swear to me. And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. After this, Joseph was told, behold, your

father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. And I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are and the offspring born to you after them shall be yours they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance

for when I came from Paddan Rachel to my sorrow died in the land of Canaan on the way when there When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these? Joseph said to his father, They are my sons whom God has given me here. And he said, Bring them to me. I pray you that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with

age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face. And behold, God has let me see your children also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees and bowed himself with his face to the ground. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the hand of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand upon the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

the God who has led me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. And in them let my name be perpetuated, in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the hand of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand upon his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall

be greater than he and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day saying, by you, Israel will pronounce, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope, which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow. Moreover, I have given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope, which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow. The Book of Job, chapters 39 and 40.

The Lord questions Job, Do you know when the mountain goats bring forth? Do you observe the deer bringing forth their young? Can you number the months that they fulfill? And do you know the time when they bring forth, when they crouch, bring forth their offspring and are delivered of the young? Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open. They go forth and do not return to them. Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey? To whom I have given the step for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place. He scorns the tumult of the city. He hears not the shouts of the driver. He ranges the mountains

at his pasture and he searches after every green thing. Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your crib? Can you bind him with a furrow of ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor? Do you have faith in him that he will return and bring your grain to the threshing floor? The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. She deals cruelly with her young as if they were not hers. Though

her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider. Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with strength? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible. He paws in the valley and exults in his strength. He goes out to meet the weapons. He laughs at fear and is not dismayed. He does not turn back from the sword. Upon him rattled the quiver, the flashing spear and the javelin. With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground.

He cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, he says, aha. He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains and the shouting. Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? On the rock he dwells and makes his home in the fastness of the rocky crag. From there he spies out the prey. His eyes behold it afar off. His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he. And the Lord said to Job, shall a fault finder contend with the almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.

Then Job answered the Lord, behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer. Twice, but I will proceed no further. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you, and you declare to me, Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like his? Deck yourself with majesty and dignity, clothe yourself with glory and splendor, pour forth the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone that is proud and abase him. Look on everyone that is proud and bring him low, and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together,

bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory. Behold, behemoth, which I made as I made you. He eats grass like an ox. Behold his strength in his loins and the power of his muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tombs of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God. Let him who made him bring near his sword, for the mountains yield food for him, where all the

wild beasts play. Under the lotus plant he lies, in the hiding place of the reeds and in the marsh. For his shade the locust trees cover him, the willows of the brooks surround him. Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened. He is confident, though Jordan rushes against his mouth. Can one take him with hooks or pierce his nose with a snare? The book of Psalms chapter 16, a song of trust and security in God, a mictum of David. Preserve me, God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from You. As for the saints in the land, they are noble, in whom is all my delight. Those who choose another God multiply their sorrows, their libations of blood I will not pour out or take their name upon my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices. My body also dwells secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your godly one see the pit. You show me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. In your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Father in heaven, we give you praise. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your will. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Lord God, the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. All this time we're spending in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew scriptures, we give you praise for and we thank you for because you're revealing to us that you work with us and that you want us to be your children. Help us to be your children

every single day, no matter what, in rain, in sun, when we're suffering, and when we are in rejoicing. Help us to always say yes to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen amen we are getting close to the end of our time with our friend job and one of the things that strikes people as being somewhat difficult to understand is how job has been he's been essentially he might say like unjustly meaning like undeservedly punished he's been brought to a place of suffering, even though he did nothing to deserve it. And God even knows that God says that, no, my servant Job is righteous. He hasn't, he hasn't done anything wicked. He has been just and righteous before God. And yet, um, God in his

mystery and his wisdom has allowed Satan to deprive Job of so many things. So when Job's three friends come and then the fourth friend we heard from yesterday, the three friends come and the fourth young man who thinks he knows a lot of stuff, come to Job. They're all spouting off the kind of things that I guess, yeah, smart people would say. Things like, you know, sometimes pain, sometimes suffering is a result of our sin. Sometimes God allows our brokenness, God allows our wounds, our suffering as a way to call us back from evil, as a way to wake us up and to get us to repent. Sometimes those who do the right are blessed and those who do evil are not blessed. And yet their logic, while it's somewhat sound, is not accurate in Job's case. And then the final friend, of course, he is also not accurate.

This young man Elihu, he basically, again, says, how can you yell at God? How can you contend with the Lord? And now, finally, God himself shows up. I remember when I read this book of Job for the very first time when I was in high school, I was looking for an answer. I was looking for the clear answer of like, why do bad things happen to good people? Job is clearly a good person. The Bible even says so. God himself says so. So why do bad things happen to Job? And here is God and he shows up and God seems to have a little bit of an attitude in terms of saying, hey, Job, tell me, what do you know about like the eagle? What do you know about the lion? Hey, if you had a wild ox, would that wild ox like

be your servant? Or would you not have any idea what to do with a wild ox? Not to mention this behemoth. You know, God talks about a behemoth today. Tomorrow, he's going to talk about a Leviathan. These creatures that we don't exactly know what they are. Maybe the behemoth is like something like a hippopotamus. I'm not sure. No one really knows. But God is pointing out to things like, Job, there's so much beyond you.

He's not pointing this out to Job to say, Job, stop asking questions. He's not saying, Job, stop coming back to me and wrestling with me. But he is also putting Job in context. And the context is, Job, there are so many more elements to this story that you do not know. He's not telling Job to be quiet and sit down. But he is revealing to God in a way that only God can do this. Because when his friends in Elihu, when they brought up some of these same points,

it wasn't the same. God is revealing to Job that there is a bigger story happening. And even if you can't understand the meaning of this moment, this moment has meaning. That Job, even if you can't understand why you're going through this right now, there is a purpose that I have for it all. In Jesus, what Jesus reveals about our suffering

is not only that suffering can be an opportunity for us to repent, not only that our suffering can be an opportunity for us to learn and grow in wisdom, not only that our suffering can be a thing that breaks our heart and makes us more compassionate, makes us gentler with people, more patient with people, more merciful with other people, but also that our suffering can be redemptive. Now, Job doesn't know this yet.

God knows this from all eternity because God knows everything. Job doesn't. And so God, when he's questioning Job, it sounds like he's being kind of sarcastic. Sounds like he's being kind of snarky and putting Job in his place. But really what's happening is he is putting Job in his place, but in the way that only God can do. His friends couldn't do this because they're not righteous. His friends couldn't do this because they don't know the whole story.

Only God can reveal this to Job. That yes, some suffering is oriented towards repentance. Some suffering is oriented towards wisdom and growing in knowledge. Some suffering is oriented towards breaking our hearts and making us gentler, better people. But also some suffering can be oriented towards redemptive suffering

that not only transforms us, but also can be offered up to God for the salvation of the world. Now that doesn't come out explicitly in the book of Job. The Old Testament is revealed in the New and the New Testament is hidden in the Old. Every one of us is in a great battle, a great struggle. And so all of us need people around us who are patient. All of us need to learn wisdom. All of us need to repent. And all of us need to be reminded that God knows the full story, even when we cannot, cannot possibly see

the full story. And part of that full story is God can use our suffering for not only his glory, he can use our suffering for our redemption and for the redemption of the world. That is the mystery of the cross. Let's continue to pray for each other because it is easy to talk about the cross. It is not easy to carry your cross. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.