Day 25: Job's Questioning

 Today's reading: Genesis 47-48, Job 39-40, and Psalm 16. 

I. In these penultimate chapters of Genesis, Jacob/Israel and his kin settle "in the land of Goshen... in the best of the land... as Pharaoh commanded," and they were given food by Joseph (47:1-12). Then the text returns to the severity of the famine, with the odd bit that the Egyptian people sell their flocks, lands, and even themselves to Pharaoh for food (47:13-26). Joseph is seen as their savior from the famine, but they are Pharaoh's slaves as a result (47:25). 

Very different times to be sure. 

I have to wonder if some of this is commentary of sorts on how the Jews viewed the relationship between Pharaoh and the Egyptian people.

In chapter 48, Jacob/Israel is dying and blesses Joseph's sons, intentionally giving Ephraim the firstborn blessing, though he was the younger, while Manasseh receives that of a younger son. What is interesting is that both Joseph's sons supplanted their uncles, Reuben and Simeon. As the Ignatius Bible notes:

The blind and bedridden Jacob adopts his grandsons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The boys are thus raised to an equal standing with the sons of Jacob and made fathers of two of the Israelite tribes... Reuben and Simeon: The first two sons born to Jacob (29:32-33). Both are disqualified from receiving the blessing of the first-born. Reuben because he defiled his father's bed (35:22), and Simeon because of his violence (34:25; 49:5-7). Manasseh and Ephraim, the first two sons born to Joseph, take their uncles' places of honor in Jacob's family. (p. 116)

II. In chapter 39, God questions Job even more, which he cannot answer. God responds in chapter 40 to Job's charge that He has litigated against him (10:2), that Job would "even put [God] in the wrong" and "condemn [God] that [Job] may be justified" (40:8). Again, we see the folly of the finite trying to subject the Infinite to questioning and judgment. God is omniscient, while we have an incomplete understanding of everything.

The BIY Companion, Vol 1, comments:

It may sound as if the Lord is speaking sarcastically to Job, but he is simply revealing to him that there is a meaning to his suffering. We need to keep in mind that God knows the full story and we do not. God can use our suffering for his glory and for our redemption - and for the redemption of the world. This is the mystery of the Cross. (p. 56)

III. Today switches from Proverbs back to Psalms for the third reading. A beautiful one by David on trusting God and not straying to false gods, which, for all his failings, David never did. As the Ignatius Bible notes about Psalm 16:

A psalm of trust. Confidence is placed in the Lord's Providence (16:5-6) and protection (16:8-10), while the joys of closeness to God (16:11) are contrasted with the sorrows that come with idolatry (16:4). (p. 842)

That's all for today!