Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
‘Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
and fill themselves with the east wind?”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, June 22, 2020
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
True friends will give you their view in full honesty. For certain, they sometimes can be wrong, but sometimes they’re also right. Of course, it’s more than a matter of right from wrong; it’s really about caring for the other person so much that you’re not afraid to hold back and tell them your truth.
Eliphaz and Job continued their back and forth sparring of interpretation of God and God’s ways in this week’s daily reading from the Narrative Lectionary. What’s impressive to me about the long form we have here, is that Eliphaz doesn’t pull any punches. He tells it like he sees it. In true Hebrew form, this corresponds to how much of the Old Testament is, and how it differentiates itself (sometimes) from the New Testament. Namely, the characters are very . . . human. They make mistakes. They rant. They worry. They have sex! (Really. The OT has way more sex in it than the NT. At least in the sense that it tells it like it is.)
What I’m getting around to is the concept that true friends who tell it like they see it, but still remain at your side, well . . . that’s a wonderful thing.
Even when they’re wrong.
God, thank you for my friends who care and remain honest. Amen.
An
Exceptional
People
Blog Posts
SIGN UP NOW