It Depends...

The old internet joke gets quoted in our house from time to time.

I read it on the internet. So it's true.

Maybe not, though I did read that on the internet...

[An exercise in recursion thinking, but we digress...]

But how about this one? I read it in the Bible. So it's true.

How do we as Christians react to that statement?

Well, for those who take the Bible to be a collection of holy scriptures, this statement must be taken more seriously.

There's an old evangelical favorite that pops up pretty fast in conversations surrounding the trustworthiness of scriptures.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I cannot count how many times I've heard a Christian quote this verse as proof that the Bible is true and trustworthy, from end to end.

Anyone who has read a few of my blogs will have noted that I put a lot of stock in scriptures, too. For example, my last blog ended with this:

Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Yes, Psalm 37 is an "old favorite." If 2 Timothy assures us we can trust the Bible, Psalm 37 assures we can trust God. It gives us lots of "comfort verses" — verses that reassure us that things will turn out well for us in the end.

I've been reading Psalm 37 a lot recently, so it's popped up several times in my recent blogs. Here's another passage I used:

Psalm 37:10-11
A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
   though you look for them, they will not be found.
But the meek will inherit the land
   and enjoy peace and prosperity.

Here's another chunk of Psalm 37 that I quoted in yet another blog!

Psalm 37: (excerpted)
Take delight in the Lord,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care,
   and their inheritance will endure for ever.
In times of disaster they will not wither;
   in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
Turn from evil and do good;
   then you will dwell in the land forever.
For the Lord loves the just
   and will not forsake his faithful ones.
The righteous will inherit the land
   and dwell in it for ever.

Then there's this one, from one final blog, and we'll stop there...

Psalm 37:20-22
Surely God does not reject one who is blameless
or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.
Your enemies will be clothed in shame,
and the tents of the wicked will be no more.

These are passages of scriptures. I read them in the Bible.

Are they true? Trustworthy? As Christians we say, "Yes!"

But here's the catch.

That last passage... Psalm 37:20-22.... it's not really from Psalm 37.

It's from the book of Job. In truth, it's really Job 8:20-22.

And the guy who speaks the words quoted? His name is Bildad.

[The recursion joke arises again... the blog where I previously quoted this passage from Job is.... this blog. But again, we digress.]

Bildad is one of Job's three useless "friends." One of Job's three tormenting accusers. When God shows up at the end of Job, he has some pretty strong words for Bildad and his two unhelpful friends.

Job 42:7-9
After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has." So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

Yes, I just finished the book of Job and I kept having this recurring thought: "Job keeps questioning the received wisdom. His three useless friends keep quoting the received wisdom. And the received wisdom is precisely this: Psalm 37."

Let's say that again. Job's three friends spouted a lot of Psalm 37 stuff. The righteous thrive. The wicked perish. Get with the program, Job...

But Job was questioning Psalm 37. Pretty pointedly.

Job 21:27-30
"I know full well what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,
the tents where the wicked lived?’
Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts—
that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,
that they are delivered from the day of wrath?"

Job is saying to the other three, "Look around you, bozos. The wicked are doing fine. It's me who's hurting! And I'm innocent."

Who's right? God sets the record straight for Job's companions. It is Job who has spoken rightly about God. His companions, in contrast, have dishonored God with falsehoods worthy of punishment.

So let's return to the question.

I read it in the Bible. Is it true?

The answer to that question might depend upon a few things.

Where you read it. When you applied it. How and why you did so.

We do God no favors when we cram unhelpful verses down unwilling throats at the wrong time, in the wrong way for the wrong reasons.

A friend of mine struggling with cancer was on one occasion assured that her cancer was the direct consequence of sin in her life. Ouch.

Most of us are not usually that callous and awful in our presumption, ignorance and arrogance.

But I have a feeling that when we stand before God's judgment seat, we too will discover to our dismay that there were times in our lives when we played the role of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar.

I, for one, hope to keep those moments few and far between.