Priest Daniel Sysoev - Job 8

 In chapter 8, Job says that he can no longer live, because the Lord has burdened life so much that it has become unbearable and Job's second friend speaks to this, who does not resent his sight.

          1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2“How long will you go on saying such things?

The words of your mouth are a blustering wind.

3Does God pervert justice?

Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

4When your children sinned against Him,

He gave them over to their rebellion.

5But if you would earnestly seek God

and ask the Almighty for mercy,

6if you are pure and upright,

even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf

and restore your righteous estate.

7Though your beginnings were modest,

your latter days will flourish.

Friends are extremely outraged by Job's attempt to achieve justice in God. As now, people prefer to have a God so distant, who does not climb to people, who does not touch the heart. Many people are ready to recognize God as ruler. Who would say that there would be some kind of retribution for the deeds. In principle, this is what our senses demand. Any person has a desire for lawlessness to be punished. This is a normal human desire and no one really argues with this. But when it turns out that God is more than the truth, when it turns out that God is alive - it also scares people. So many people want to lock God up.

Next Saturday we will be reading about some people who directly locked God in, remember where? Not just locked, but sealed, they even set up guards at the door. So that God does not come out! Remember this episode? But, it ended up with the guard guarding the empty coffin, and God turned out to be irrepressible to them. As then, the Lord is unrestrained by the mind of man, so it is here.

Job's friends are outraged that God does not agree to live within this framework and that He is righteous, He does not want to have God as someone distant. This is the difference between a righteous person and an ordinary person who considers himself a good person and at the same time can be the greatest sinner. Why? Because the righteous person wants to communicate with God face to face, wants to have God as close to himself. And what does the sinner want? The sinner wants God to leave him behind.

...how long will you talk like that? - the words' stormy wind from your mouth! That is, your words that you speak, your demand for justice, your indignation, the fact that you do not agree, does not lead to anything. The manifestation of the fact that you have some kind of boiling inside yourself, you say empty words that have no meaning. 3Does God pervert judgment, and the Almighty transforms righteousness? Everything that happens in the world must be fair, because almost everything, he does not refuse the court, never violates the court, his will is clear, and if so, then, therefore, everything that happens in this world, it occurs due to the fact that a person has done some kind of evil. This is a theory that is dedicated to the entire book of Job, which is still prevalent today. Why do children get sick? They say that karma is bad, there was a bad previous reincarnation. Or why does a person have unhappiness? Because he sinned. For this, it is quite logical that it does not need to be supported. He must work out his karma.

If your sons have sinned against Him, He also delivered them into the hand of their iniquity. The sons themselves are to blame that they died, you must admit, say that God is right and that's it. Since they died, it means for the cause. A general, interesting principle that is popular. And many people try to judge others by this principle. The Lord forbids judging other people, why? We don't know the reason! There are different causes and wills that operate in the universe.

5 But if you seek God and pray to the Almighty, 6 and if you are pure and right, then He will now rise over you and pacify the dwelling place of your righteousness. This is no longer true. Is God obligated to obey the times? Not. Many people say that I prayed, God did not answer me right away, so there is no God. How do you like this logic? Or maybe God didn't want to answer. Why does a man try to enslave a free God with his prayer. If you weren't enough in the beginning, then the result is a lot.

I read one Protestant missionary, he says "your faith is not correct, because if it was correct, you would be rich!" We are Protestants - and rich. How do you like this logic? Wonderful, huh ?! Only a small nuance turns out that Christ the Savior will be the most wrong. Here is an attempt to reduce everything to the material, it is, and the whole action fell on it. He says that Jesus cannot be the Christ because He did not give material prosperity to the Jewish people. He did not give material power, wealth, etc. A little thing is forgotten that it will be difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Why? Not because wealth, but attachment to property, just sticks a person to the ground, does not allow him to get up, does not allow him to see the horizon, which is larger than matter. And then how does he justify his conclusion that God always pays materially? Refers to ancestral experience:

8Please inquire of past generations

and consider the discoveries of their fathers.

9For we were born yesterday and know nothing;

our days on earth are but a shadow.

10Will they not teach you and tell you,

and speak from their understanding?

11Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Do reeds flourish without water?

12While the shoots are still uncut,

they dry up quicker than grass.

13Such is the destiny of all who forget God;

so the hope of the godless will perish.

14His confidence is fragile;

his security is in a spider’s web.

15He leans on his web, but it gives way;

he holds fast, but it does not endure.

16He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine,

spreading its shoots over the garden.

17His roots wrap around the rock heap;

he looks for a home among the stones.

18If he is uprooted from his place,

it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’

19Surely this is the joy of his way;

yet others will spring from the dust.

Instead of asking God personally, you should rely on the experience of your ancestors. And now it is common that people say: "Why should we be Orthodox?" Answer: because it is the religion of our fathers, ancestors. Do you think this is a correct statement? Not.

The logic of referring to the fathers is a vicious logic, it has common sense. When a person meets the face of God, his experience is greater than the experience of just people, it is of a different quality. It's one thing when a person communicates with people, and another when with God. Agree, for example, that a thousand drunkards and the experience of one reverend are different. Important: not quantity and not antiquity determines the truth of religion, but determines its connection with the Creator, with the one who is the only one in the world. Do you understand why?

The one who created the world, who rules, He is the only source. The word of the Lord is truth. The word "truth" has ancient roots, in Russian it is heresy. Objective reality that does not depend on us. Who is the only objective in the world? God is the only one in the world and his laws are true, why? Because He perfectly fits reality. Laws may be difficult, but appropriate for reality. The universe was created by Him. In fact, there is a second mistake in this judgment. If you think about these words. We will see an internal contradiction:

8 For inquire of the former generations and pay attention to the observations of their fathers; 

9 a we are yesterday's and know nothing, because our days are shadow on earth. 

10 Behold, they will teach you, they will tell you, and from their heart they will utter words

Where is the mistake? If we don't know anything, then why do they know. If a person does not know anything, even how many generations have passed. This is an obvious internal contradiction that many do not notice. There are "blind spots" in humans, which are associated with our retina. In the same way, when a person of a certain generation lives, he has things that are accepted without discussion. But at the same time, if a person reads books of past centuries, he sees that at that time things obvious to us were completely obvious and were considered stupidity. In this sense, the study of the inheritance of ancestors is important. We can correct ourselves in this sense, but it is impossible to achieve objective truth in this way. Cognition of the absolute, God, no matter how many zeros you collect, then nothing will come of it.

The Christian worldview, in fact, holiness is not related to gender, origin. God fights with his creation, he looks at all people without exception. Look, in our Orthodox state there were: villains and there were righteous. There were people who preached heresy, holiness, there are those who fought against heresy.

In Russia, like other society in the world, it has different measures. The Lord even said this, remember that the Kingdom of God is like what? It looks like a field where wheat was sown and then the devil sowed tares. How can we build on the past? It is unlikely that we will say that everything was fine in the past, and this is where this logic goes, if we say that everything is great there, and secondly, you need to use a Russian instrument, you know? A rake that is stubbornly stepped on. And at the same place. The argument that the ancestors were smart, and we should do the same, leads to the fact that everything is produced. And I am not saying this as a theoretical reasoning. I will give a classic example, there is such a popular communist newspaper "Zavtra" and there it is wonderful before Christmas it describes what Christmastide is - how great it was, how people wondered, they had their own devils, etc.

The Russian Orthodox people then sinned more than those who are now. Is it clear why? It is less sinful when a person knows who he is going to. Then we went to the sorcerers. In Ukraine, it is a norm of life to go to sorcerers; Ukrainians were more afraid of demons than Russians. That is, if a person turned to the unclean, then he understood that he was doing evil, felt like an outcast. And in Russia it was considered normal. The sorcerer did not go to the temple. How many millennia have passed. Count, from the time of the Tower of Babel to the XX century, how much time has passed? Five thousand years. For five thousand years, our ancestors practiced witchcraft in the winter. Should we imitate them? Of course not! Therefore, now the Orthodox are healthier, who renounce the inheritance of their ancestors. No wonder Christianity has always put roots not in villages, but in cities. Do you know the Russian word "rotten?" Do you know its terminology? We have this bad person, and a little earlier "filthy stripes came", in what sense "filthy?", Not that they are bad. This word is borrowed from Latin - pagan, but the most ancient meaning is rustic. Paganism prevailed most in the village.

For example, in the West, do you know paganism up to which moment it lasted? Until the moment when the great migration of peoples began, which God specially sent. When the vandals came, the barbarians and paganism burned out by accident, and only those who were hiding in Orthodox churches were saved. The same thing happened in Greece, but later. At the beginning of the 7th century, one wild tribe came to Greece, called the Slavs. They were terribly wild. In the villages it held out, in Russia until the October Revolution it kept up well. In areas where there were many Old Believers, then there was debauchery under Ivan Kupala, quite frankly. The church didn't even approve of pancakes for Shrovetide, you know? It was the sacrifice of the Sun God. Now it has lost such meaning, but when it did, the church fought against pancakes. Why in the villages? Because it is an indigenous tradition. And who is going to the cities? People who have broken away from their roots, therefore, they are open to God.

13Such is the destiny of all who forget God;

so the hope of the godless will perish.

14His confidence is fragile;

his security is in a spider’s web.

15He leans on his web, but it gives way;

he holds fast, but it does not endure.

16He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine,

spreading its shoots over the garden.

17His roots wrap around the rock heap;

he looks for a home among the stones.

18If he is uprooted from his place,

it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’

19Surely this is the joy of his way;

yet others will spring from the dust.

20Behold, God does not reject the blameless,

nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.

21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with a shout of joy.

22Your enemies will be clothed in shame,

        and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”