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Gen. 38
There is a so-called scarlet thread that runs throughout the Bible. It points to the promise of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. I guess you could say that it is something of a bloodline. As I read about Judah and Tamar this morning, I thought about that bloodline. It occurred to me that this scarlet thread did not continue through any of Judah’s three sons, all born of a Canaanite woman. Instead, it ran through Judah himself, keeping the bloodline pure. That seems important.
The Jews, of course were not any more pure than any other nation. However, they were a nation established and chosen by God. They became a living parable, revealing God’s plan of redemption for the whole world. But they also became a bloodline through which to carry that scarlet thread. I think that is a symbol of the purity of Jesus’ blood, sacrificed for us. Not because His blood was Jewish, per se, but because He came from God, just as the Jews did.
Mark 8
Jesus’ healing of this particular blind man is a little strange. It didn’t quite take the first time and Jesus had to try again. Or so it seems. Another possibility is that Jesus intentionally healed this man in two stages, perhaps as a lesson to His disciples and ultimately to us. Interestingly, this miracle occurred shortly after Jesus asked His disciples, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mk. 8:21b). The thing I notice is that after Jesus’ second attempt, the man, “looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.” (Mk. 8:25b).
That statement speaks to me in my journey with reading the Bible. I have been familiar with the Bible most of my life, and I have learned a lot from it. However, it wasn’t until the past few years, when I really started reading the Bible intently, that I have begun to see it far more clearly. Without that intent, giving full attention to what we see and hear, we see without seeing and hear without hearing.
Job 4
Having read Job many times before, I definitely see an escalation in the discourse between Job and his friends. The whole thing started with silent support. Job is the one who finally broke that silence with his lament, wishing he had never been born. Something I have never paid attention to before is the fact that Job never made claim to his innocence in his initial lament. It was Eliphaz who first brought up the matter of innocence. Furthermore, his first mention of it comes across as more of an encouragement than an accusation.
Given that Job did not mention his innocence, it sounds to me like Eliphaz started out encouraging him to be patient through his current distress because it wouldn’t lead to destruction due to his integrity. Half-way through this chapter, though, it was as if a thought occurred to Eliphaz. He said, “Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (Job. 4:17). That definitely doesn’t sound like either encouragement or a confirmation of Job’s integrity. So it seems to me that Elphaz’s speech moved from a place of encouragement to a declaration of, “there must be a reason”. Thus begins the escalation.
One of the interesting things to me in the book of Job is that it is full of questions that have opposing answers based on a with or without Christ perspective. The statement I just mentioned is one of those. Can a man be just before God? Without Christ, absolutely not! With Him, however, completely different story. How does this factor in to Job’s situation? I don’t quite know. But it does seem to support the truth that even when we know we stand as righteous before God because of Christ, we are not exempt from suffering.