Too much talk of miracles?

DAILY READING

Book of Job

FIELD NOTES

All of this talk about miracles raises some questions for me.  Job is one of my favorite books of the Bible because in it, Job asks some of the deepest, most challenging questions of God.  In the book, Job who is described as a blameless and righteous man loses everything- his home, his wealth, his health, and most of his family.  He is left asking, “Why? Why is it that these bad things are happening to me, a good person?”  We’ve all heard this question at some point: Why do bad things happen to good people?  And I think in terms of miracles, we often ask a similar question.  Why is God providing others with a miracle but not me?  Why is my husband or wife or mom or dad or child not healed?  Why am I not finding a job when I am about to lose my home?  Why will God not intervene when, as Job says, I just need God to heed my request?  Now these are huge questions that many books have been written about, but at the end of Job, God essentially moves Job away from trying to answer these questions exactly.  Our limited human knowledge cannot fully comprehend the ways of God or evil.  Instead, God, revealed by the Leviathan and Behemoth, essentially shows Job that God is bigger and more vast than the troubles and issues that we face AND that God is always with us in the midst of suffering.  This doesn’t particularly explain why we don’t get our miracles when we pray so fervently, but for me, it has given me hope that even in the midst of suffering, God is with us and certainly will never forsake us.

QUESTIONS FOR THE FIELD

• Do you feel God’s hope and presence in your life right now?
• Were there moments of crisis in your life where you needed to feel God’s presence and did?  Anywhere you didn’t?  How did you persevere? 

FAMILY FIELD TALK

• What does hope mean?  
• How does God bring hope to our lives?

PRAYER GUIDE

Ever-present God, I give you thanks that you are Emmanuel, God with us, who walked among us in the form of Jesus.  God I pray that when we face suffering, we know and feel your presence and your hope.  God I pray that You reveal yourself in powerful ways.  Amen.