Devotion for February 23 in Epiphany/Ordinary Time (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  A Candle

Image Source = SarThePhotographer

Job and John, Part XV:  Obedience and Suffering

FEBRUARY 23, 2020

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Job 18:1-21

Psalm 122 (Morning)

Psalms 141 and 90 (Evening)

John 7:32-53

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A Related Post:

Lord, Help Us Walk Your Servant Way:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/lord-help-us-walk-your-servant-way/

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Bildad the Shuhite, in Job 18, implies that Job must be wicked.  Why else would Job suffer so much?  This is repetitive content.  It was just as bogus this time as it was the previous occasions.  The Lutheran lectionary, in its beauty, pairs Bildad’s speech with part of John 7, where people are plotting to do to Jesus things which Bildad describes as the fate of the wicked.  This is the most powerful argument I can muster against Bildad’s words.

I will be brief, today, for most of what I might write here I have stated in previous posts in this Job and John series.  Yet I do choose to make the following point here and now:  In the canonical Gospels suffering is part of the destiny of the Messiah.  Suffering indicates that one has been faithful to God.  Thus those who follow Jesus must be prepared to suffer.  And, in the Book of Tobit, the titular character suffers because he obeys God.  For nearly two thousand years Christian martyrs have suffered because of their obedience.  The darkness takes offense at the light shining in its midst yet can never extinguish all the candles and lamps.

Until the next segment of our journey….

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 26, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES

THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET

THE FEAST OF SAINT PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF ROBERT HUNT, FIRST ANGLICAN CHAPLAIN AT JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/job-and-john-part-xv-obedience-and-suffering/

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