Reflections on “OT Sidekicks: Job’s Friends” Job 2: 11-13 and Ephesians 1: 15-23

I actually thought it turned out to be an okay sermon, but not a person leaving worship commented on it!  I assumed people knew the details of Job's story, but I'm not sure that is correct.  If I preached it again, I might take a few minutes to give some more details about the story. 

I really like the Fleming Rutledge quote.  I found it late in my sermon prep.  I wish I had found it earlier and explored it more in the sermon.  

this ends the "OT Sidekicks" sermon series.  I had a good time with it and had a chance to work through some Old Testament stories we don't often hear in worship.

“OT Sidekicks:  Job’s Friends”; Job 2: 11-13;  November 26, 2023; Christ the King; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp

Job 2: 11-13 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. ¹²When 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. ¹³They 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.

Introduction: last week of OT sidekicks; next week we begin Advent as we move through December to Christmas. 

On this last Sunday before Advent, which is in fact the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar known as Christ the King Sunday, we take a stop in the book of Job. 

Job - one of the most famous books of the Bible, known both by Christians who read the Bible and by those outside the Bible.

We often who hear the phrase the “patience of Job.”  (As an aside, for those who read the biblical story of Job, he does not exhibit much patience, or at least patience as we might typically describe it!)”

so let’s look at Job’s story beginning with the actions of his three sidekicks, JOb’s three friends who arrive 

Move 1:  the three friends arrive and sit with Job for seven days and seven nights.

a.  to their credit, they show up.

1.  They discover Job’s grief that has so impacted him that they do not recognize him from a distance.

2.  Probably part of the ritual observance for dealing with someone in grief, but they were there with him.

3.  You perhaps know the works of Stephen Sondheim.  His musicals include Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, and Into the Woods, to mention just a few.

after his death a few years ago, there was an article about him in the NYT Times describing a gift beyond his musicianship that he gave to others.

he showed up!  Apparently, Sondheim was well-known for showing up at shows and places to support all sorts of up-and-coming musicians and writers.  

He developed what the writer described as  “an art form that is so much about being present for the unrepeatable moment, he not only showed up, but he also often did so to experience work that was offbeat and obscure,”  article by Laura Collins-Hughes, Published Dec. 1, 2021Updated Dec. 3, 2021: To a legion of fans Sondheim was and is the be-all and end-all. But his own horizons as a theatergoer were significantly broader than that. In an art form that is so much about being present for the unrepeatable moment, he not only showed up, but he also often did so to experience work that was offbeat and obscure, challenging conventions just as his own work did. (https://donteatalone.com/community/sustenance-and-sondheim, Milton Brasher-Cunningham)

4.  Important takeaway from Job’s story - The friends got it right when they showed up for their friend in need.

b.  They did not speak for seven days and seven nights.

1. Hard to imagine - well maybe we could imagine not speaking, but certainly they would have texted!

2.  they sat in solidarity with JOb, comforting him in his grief, and with no words to say in the moment, they do not talk.

3.  A powerful reminder for those of us who always try to find words to explain, or to share, or to fill the silence.

4.  I had a conversation just this past week with someone about what to say when you go through the line at visitation.

5. what do you say when you do not have the right words to express yourself?

6.  One of my prayers through the years as I enter what I think will be a challenging situation is, “God give me the right words to say or the sense to keep my mouth shut!”

7.  For seven days and nights, Job’s friends had the sense to keep their mouths shut.

A lesson for us as we seek to comfort others.

move 2:  Then the three friends speak.

a.  And my how they speak.

1.  once they start, they are hard to stop.

2.  30+ chapters of the friends speaking and Job responding.

3. Eliphaz speaks with the eloquence and courtesy that he uses indicating that he has learned how to say unpleasant things in a gracious way. 

Bildad is brutal and plainspoken. He doesn't care what the effect of his words are on Job. 

Zophar is compassionate and emotional - he acts as a motivational speaker, speaking with a great deal of force. (https://greg.cohoon.name/seekers/notes/job/chapters3-14.html)

b. As they speak, they articulate the traditional views of why bad things happen to people.

1.  For example, Eliphaz suggests that God only punishes those whom God loves, so Job should feel good about his suffering because it means that God loves him.

2.  Along with that Eliphaz tells Job that Job has no one to blame but himself for all his suffering.

This, of course, reveals the theological assertion that suffering is a sign of sinfulness.  And conversely, having riches and being wealthy are a sign of God’s blessing.

We dance around that theological point still today.

3. Bildad weighs in with the thought that Job just needs to repent and his suffering will end.  

4. Zophar takes the most direct and challenging approach by declaring that Job’s guilt deserves punishment and, in fact, God is taking it easy on Job.

Again, all Job must do is repent from his sins and God will remove him from the misery in which Job finds himself.

5.  The friends' speeches are interspersed with Job’s denials and frustrations, but the friends cannot move beyond the traditional view that suffering takes place because the person suffering has done something wrong.(https://www.gotquestions.org/Jobs-friends.html)

c. Ultimately, Job rejects his friends' arguments.

1. This is also a rejection of the whole theological understanding of suffering that ties suffering to what the person has done wrong,

2.  Job is angry, frustrated, demanding, and unable to find an answer that satisfies, but he also knows that his three sidekicks do not have answers that work.

d. God affirms Job’s rejection of his friends’ approach.

1.  voices displeasure

1. Job  42:7  “The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

2.  Ironically, the Lord calls on Job to pray for his friends!

3. We are left with the reminder that the old ways of thinking about God and suffering do not work.

2. Blaming the one who is suffering does not work.

Move 3:  Job’s friends push him to look for another way. 

a.  And Job ends up standing before God looking for answers.

1.  in that moment, Job discovers it is not about knowing the correct answer, but in knowing God.

2. Knowing God as the one who is ever beyond us and our understanding, but also the one who comes to us.

The God who is willing to engage Job personally, even as God challenges Job’s need to know everything.

3. God’s question:  "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” reminds Job that God is God and Job is not.

4. But God also invites Job into an ongoing relationship.

b.   Fleming Rutledge, Episcopal priest and well-known preacher:  “Now if God had answered Job in the way that we would expect, with soothing explanations and comforting reassurances, then the answer to the question, “Is there a God beyond what we can imagine?” would have to be, No. 

Anyone can imagine a God who does what we expect. The reason that so many people have complained that God’s answer to Job is no answer at all is that they want a God who fits their preconceptions. 

Job, however, is manifestly satisfied. The God who is really God has come to him and has revealed himself as the one who was already present, already at work before there was anyone to imagine him. God is the author of creation; the creation is not the author of God. This was revealed to Job by the living voice and presence of God’s own self. That was enough.” https://donteatalone.com/uncategorized/lenten-journal-jobs-story

c.  The God whom Job discovers is the God we know who comes to us in Jesus Christ

1. On this Christ the King Sunday, we acknowledge Christ as our King, but a king who is raised to power from the dead; 

 who rules the earth from heaven, but only after he has come and lived among us, suffered for us, and died for us.

2. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection may not answer all our questions about suffering, but it does reveal to us the God who joins with us in our suffering.

3. perhaps Job’s friends do not speak for seven days and seven nights because they have no words to describe the God who suffers with us.

Words cannot adequately describe it, but God shows it by coming in Christ to be with us in life and in death.

Conclusion: Amen.

Reflections on “OT Sidekicks: Ahab and Jezebel”; 1 Kings 21

The two stories from I Kings provide great material for a sermon.  My sermon did not quite reach the potential of the stories!  One more week of the OT Sidekick series. I have enjoyed the stories in this series.

 “OT Sidekicks:  Ahab and Jezebel”; 1 Kings 21;  November 19, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp

17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: ¹⁸Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. ¹⁹You shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?’ You shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.’

20 Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Have you found me, O my enemy?’ He answered, ‘I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, ²¹I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; ²²and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. ²³Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.” ²⁴Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat.’

25 (Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. ²⁶He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.)

Introduction: Two more weeks of OT sidekicks, or minor characters, then we begin Advent.

Next week, we finish with the friends of Job.

This week, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are the sidekicks, although hard to think of royalty as being minor characters.

But, they are sidekicks to the prophet Elijah as they are the foil for much of his dramatic action;

They are also sidekicks in the much bigger story unfolding in 1 and 2 Kings about Israel’s ongoing relationship with God and their waffling back and forth between faithfulness and unfaithfulness.

So a few thoughts on what we can learn from King Ahab and Jezebel.

Move 1:  First of all, we notice the justice issues in the story.

a.  or more pointedly,  we witness the injustice that plays out under King Ahab’s watch.

1.  Kings were supposed to have the best interests of their people in mind.

2. if we remember back when the Israelites clamored for a king, their desire was in part to be like the other nations around them, 

but also to have a person, a king to take care of them.

2.  Kings were supposed to lead the people to victory against the enemy - like King Saul.

kings were supposed to protect the people - like King David.

kings were supposed to lead them to prosperity - like King Solomon

kings were supposed to act as the liaison between God and the people - like King David did.

3. It would be expected of a king to have riches and power, 

but the trade-off was the king and queen were supposed to have the best interests of the people in the kingdom at heart.

b.  Not only did King Ahab and Queen Jezebel not care about the interests of the Israelite people, they perpetrated injustice and abused their power.

1. Case and point - their treatment of Naboth.

2.  King Ahab, who has his primary palace in Samaria,  also has a palace in Jezreel.

3.  Jezreel is lower altitude than Samaria, so it is probably the warmer, winter home for King Ahab.  

4. Two palaces - winter and summer palace, and Ahab wants more.

5.  He wants to garden next to his palace in Jezreel, so he needs the vineyard Naboth has next door.  

6. In fact, King Ahab makes what seems to be a fair offer:  he will either give Naboth another plot of land that is as good or better than this 

6. But Naboth cannot give him the vineyard because it is an ancestral inheritance, which means it is supposed to stay in the family. 

This practice was tied to the historic twelve tribes of Israel and the land each tribe had.

7.  Naboth probably does not want to sell,

and he should not sell his land to King Ahab.

8.  King Ahab is upset and depressed that he cannot add Naboth’s garden to his property;

9Queen Jezebel is angry and goes to work manipulating the situation until Naboth is killed and King Ahab can take over the property.

c.  What Ahab and Jezebel do to Naboth is a complete injustice.

1.  An abuse of their power;

2.  a manipulation of the religious rites - Jezebel uses the religious ritual, the fast, to perpetuate a sham and make a mockery of it. 

3. The treatment of Naboth is not a capitalistic venture where Ahab’s hard work and understanding of the market lead to his being able to purchase Naboth’s vineyard.  

4.  This story is about people in power doing what they want with those who do not have as much power.

Queen Jezebel exemplifies this abuse when she asks Ahab: “Do you not govern Israel?”

and the answer they give is, “Yes, we govern Israel, so we can do whatever we want to whomever we want because we have the power.”

5.  When all is said and done, neighbor has turned against neighbor; 

the one in power has abused power; 

the king, who ought to be ensuring justice, acts unjustly.

c.  As we watch the story unfold, we are reminded of the responsibility people in power have.

1.  Consider where you find yourselves in life and the power and authority you have at work, at school, or in social groups.

2.  with that power and authority comes responsibility to others and for others.

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel remind us how the poor can be abused;

how does your life show how power can used responsibly?

move 2:  We also see in King Ahab the struggles to keep faith while being seduced to make other choices.

a. Frederick Buechner, the Christian writer, describes the relationship between King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, and the prophet Elijah.

1.  “Whereas just about everybody has a cross to bear, King A hab had two. One cross was the prophet Elijah. If, generally speaking, a prophet to a king was like ants at a picnic, Elijah was like a swarm of bees. The other cross was his foreign-born wife, Jezebel, who had gotten religion in a big way back in the old country and was forever trying to palm it off on the Israelites, who had a perfectly good one of their own. Unfortunately for Ahab, the two of them sometimes got to working on him at the same time, one from one side, the other from the other. A case in point was the Naboth affair.” (https://www.frederickbuechner.com/weeklysermonillustrations/2019/7/1/weekly-sermon-illustration-ahab-naboth-and-jezebel?rq=naboth)

2.  King Ahab continually has to make choices - follow the God of Israel, or give in to the temptation to chase the Baal gods that his wife has brought with her.

3.  In some ways, this whole affair with Naboth is about making that choice.

4. Did you notice that the prophetic pronouncement does not name the sin against Naboth, but Elijah says “You have sold yourself to evil in the eyes of YHWH.”          

(https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-11-3/commentary-on-1-kings-211-1011-1415-21a-2; Roger Nam, Candler School of Theology at Emory University)

5.  By unjustly taking Naboth’s rightful possession, Ahab (and Jezebel) disobeyed the command of God.

6. it is a matter of faith choices.

b.  King Ahab’s path to unfaithfulness is made by to of small steps along the way. 

1.    King Ahab had built a temple to Baal for his wife Jezebel) (Bernhard anderson, 272) 

3.  Ahab stands for a king who deeply fell to the temptations of Canaanite idolatry.

c.  it is interesting to note that Ahab seems to keep some of his connection to Yahweh. 

1.   he uses a form of Yahweh in each child’s name and still consulted the prophets of Israel (micaiah for instance), although Ahab calls Elijah a “troubler of Israel.”  

2.  Ahab is not dramatically turning away from God, but making room for Jezebel and her Baal worship. Tolerance turns bad.

d.  Frederick Buechner has a humorous way of describing Ahab’s dilemma:

Buechner describes a heavenly scene that reveals God’s mercy.  

somehow, Jezebel, Ahab and Elijah all eventually met up again in Paradise, 

Ahab looks around and sees Jezebel and Elijah and says to the heavenly authority:  if it weren't for the honor of the thing, he'd as soon take his chances in a warmer climate, and immediately put in for a transfer. https://www.frederickbuechner.com/weeklysermonillustrations/2019/7/1/weekly-sermon-illustration-ahab-naboth-and-jezebel?rq=naboth)

King Ahab reflects the challenge we face everyday in choosing whom we will follow.

Move 3:  final thought on communal responsibility

a.  Ahab and Jezebel reflect Israel - as the king and queen go, so goes Israel.

b.  We live in different times, of course.

1. No king.

2.  no mediator between us and God.

3. But it is not enough to say it’s only about “me and Jesus.” 

4. we are connected beyond ourselves.

4.   Part of discipleship means working to change all the structures that allow injustice to take place.

5.  The body of Christ is a community of people called to act in the world.

connections in all directions;

responsibility in all directions;

following Christ in all directions.

Conclusion:  Amen.