Desiring God is holding a conference this weekend called "Job: When the Righteous Suffer". I have been enjoying the blogging going on during the conference at the Desiring God Blog. If you have time you should definitely check them out.Here's some of the blog postings available:
- Why a Conference on Job? Dealing with Absurd Suffering
- 10 Reasons to Ponder Job's Story
- 7 Implications of the Book of Job
- Lessons to Learn From Job's Friends
- 5 Reasons to Accept Elihu's Speech
From 7 Implications of the Book of Job:
Let your tears flow freely when your calamity comes."Job arose, rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon his face" (1:20).
The sobs of grief and pain are not the sign of unbelief. Job knows nothing of a flippant, insensitive, superficial "Praise God anyhow" response to suffering. The magnificence of his worship is because it was in grief, not because it replaced grief.
And let the rest of us weep with those who weep.
From Lessons We Can Learn From Job's Friends (probably my favorite post):
True theological statements can be false.
If you take many of the statements of Job's friends separately, they sound like good theology. But their application is shallow and insensitive....(Proverbs 26:9)...We put a high premium on good theology. But let us be warned: it can be made false by the way it is applied, and can even be destructive in the mouth of fools. Drink deep at the fountain of God's truth. And let love stand as a watchman at the gate of your mouth. (my emphasis)
Suffering and prosperity are not distributed in proportion to the evil or good that a person does.
Job is right: the wicked are spared in the day of calamity (21:30). But the just and blameless man is a laughing stock (12:4). Therefore let us not judge one another too quickly, or at all. Those who suffer most may be the best. And those who prosper most may be the worst among us.
(...)
There is wisdom behind the apparent arbitrariness of the world, but it is hidden from man.Where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know the way to it,
and it is not found in the land of the living . . .
God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place. (28:12–13, 23)We see through a glass darkly, even from our New Testament perspective (1 Corinthians 13:12). But faith always affirms that no matter how chaotic and absurd things may seem to our limited view they are in fact the tactics of infinite wisdom.
The complete sermon notes, audio, and video from the conference can be found here as they become available.
Hope you get a chance to look over some of the conference materials. And can I just say that I love live blogging!
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