The Four Thousand Year Old Question

Those who scoff at the Bible ask how a book over two thousand years old can speak to people today. There are 66 books in our modern Bible and one of the oldest is the book of Job. The book should probably be dated to the time of the patriarchs, sometime between 2100 and 1700 B.C.E. That would make it around four thousand years old and guess what. The 21st chapter of Job sounds very similar to what atheists as well as Christians struggle with today.

Job asks why the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power. He says they live safe from fear in gated communities and no rod of God is upon them. Their stocks split and triple in value, their bonus's soar whether or not they have anything to do with it and they vacation in luxury while every year fifteen million children die of hunger. (Thinkquest) They have the best health care wealth can buy while in 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by a vitamin A supplement program in developing countries. (Thinkquest)

They spend their days in prosperity and in peace go to the grave. They say to God, ‘Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Look what we have accomplished with our own hands and know how. What is God that we should serve him? Why should we pray to God?

Job asks as some modern Christians ask, “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does calamity come upon them? How often does God distribute pains in his anger? How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?" (NRSV)

The drunk driver walks away while the passenger is killed, the murderer gets a college degree and the homeless maybe a blanket, the politician steals a gold mine and the public gets the shaft. The wicked are spared in the day of calamity and are rescued in the day of wrath. How often are they held accountable?

The wealthy die secure in their accomplishments while those on the edge of life die in bitterness of soul never having tasted the good of life. Together they go to the grave. Where is justice? (my version of NRSV)

After four thousand years the atheist has the same argument and the God seeker confronts the same mystery. Meanwhile, according to UNICEF, "...nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people." This planet has the resources to sustain all life. Could our lack of stewardship for one another as well as the earth have anything to do with why we can't answer the four thousand year old question?

Do you know that many who argue for intelligent design are neither Christian nor religious? The intricacy of cell and DNA  relationships  have left them with no alternative but to question why the science establishment will not allow discussion. It seems that politics and Darwinism control the scientific establishment. Aren't these the same two forces that influenced Hitler and the Nazi's?

Like the debate between Job and his friends I believe God will eventually gather those who seek God to God. It won't be to justify our faith so we can say we were right, but because unworthy as we are we know that God is the author of love. We know that God's love motivates and powers the uncountable  relationships  from cells to galaxies that hold everything together in the harmony we seek to destroy.

Today we struggle to control the weather and yet the four thousand year old question remains. It will never go away until it is answered. Christ shows the way, but ...

As for me, Fyodor Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment said it best, “Oh Lord, why does Thou receive these men?” And He will say: “This is why I receive them, oh ye wise, this is why I receive them, oh ye of understanding, that not one of them believed himself to be worthy of this.”