As I write this devotion it is election day in the US, but I am on a train in Germany from Munich to Wittenberg. Nevertheless Kathy and I did vote on October 16 before leaving the country. Personally, I am not sure that in my 71 years I have ever experienced a US election which is so bitter and divisive.
However, I believe this election reflects the different directions which people are taking in our culture and our country. In fact, I had to laugh, somewhat sadly, at a daily email which I receive from the Washington Post, which mentioned the election. “Some voters are taking extreme measures to avoid Election Day Stress.
Like what? Fleeing to the woods, locking away their phones, trying hypnosis and stocking up on cannabis. One woman even strategically timed a colonoscopy.” That’s a lot of stress and anxiety over the election! In my daily devotions, as I am reading through Scriptures with a group of other Christians, we recently finished Job.
This can be a difficult book to understand, because it tackles some difficult questions. “Why is there evil in the world?” “Why do bad things happen to God’s (good) people?” Job is a child of God, active in his faith, who is attacked by Satan. He struggles with his suffering and wonders why God is doing this to him.
The real answer we can see is that this is not God’s doing, but the work of God’s enemy and our enemy, the devil. Yet, Job still questions God. What makes Job’s struggle more complicated is that three, .