Learning My Lesson

I could go on and on about how I have been brought back, again and again, to the one true faith. But in the end, it is always and only by Jesus Himself. The Teacher.

Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

He who argues with God, let him answer it.

Yes. Me. I do. Contend with the Almighty. Just like the woman who begged, like a dog, for scraps from the master’s table. Yes. Me. I do. argue with God. Just like Job.

I will question you,

and you make it known to me.

Being questioned by a judge is intimidating. I’ve been on the witness stand. Questioned and interrogated and ridiculed for my faith and religion by a judge in a court of law. In that questioning I did not find wisdom from the judge, only condemnation.

I’ve also been questioned by good teachers. Their purpose in questioning me was not to shame me nor condemn me for my lack of knowledge; rather it was to summon in me knowledge that had already been placed inside of me, but I had forgotten.

No one has gone up into heaven: there is only one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

Where else would I go? Jesus, The Teacher, has the answers.

My interpretation of the book of Job is a layperson’s interpretation. I only claim to be called a “theologian” in that I have learned to “comprehend the visible and the manifest things of God through suffering and the cross.” (Luther)

I believe that God confided in Job, who was in the midst of his suffering. I believe God sent Jesus Himself to Job to entrust him with the Good News of The Son of Man. Rather than rebuking Job, condemning him, ridiculing him, putting him in his place - which was already accomplished by Job’s “friends” and satan himself - God, in the form of Jesus Christ Himself, The Teacher, confided in Job. Trusting Job with the Gospel, reminding him of the knowledge which had already been placed inside of him, only he had forgotten in the face of Pain that would not pass, while God willed it to last. The Teacher instructed Job in what, redemption, and Who, Emmanuel, was to come to bring us through the tribulations of the land of the living and the chaos of the sea of dying. Through the pictures of Behemot and Livyatan, beasts of the land and the sea, Jesus instructed Job in His Church, and in Himself, Christ, the Suffering Servant. Christ, the Priest. Christ, Our Savior. Who would lead His people to the living waters. Who would provide for them manna in the desert. Who would swallow up once and for all sin, death, and the devil… and, also swallow up, like Jonah, His children, too.

For Christ does not come as a judge in a court of law to condemn, but as a Teacher, in our own individual classroom, to save. Us. With the Gospel. The Teacher’s Good News. Our Lesson. Things too wonderful, lessons we do not understand, until grace is given, summoned up in us by His Word, that we might have faith’s eye to see Jesus, especially in the midst of our sufferings.

Yes, in my sufferings, I have learned my lesson

therefore I despise myself,

and repent in dust and ashes.

because my eye sees you, Jesus. Because I have argued with God, He is my answer. Lesson, once again, learned.

©2019 Jeanne Whitman all rights reserved