000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

158 Proper 7 [12]/Year B
enjoyed such success that “all Israel and Judah loved David” (18:10–16).
The Deuteronomists did not write a manual of group organization, but
leaders in today’s church would do well to contemplate the destructive
consequences of Saul’s reaction to David, and to imagine modes of leadership
in community that have less to do with popularity and control and
more with leadership through prophetic covenantal community.
This last incident shows readers how right Samuel was to resist the idea
of monarchy. For here we have an internecine conflict over the possession
of the throne that will bring about social chaos and many deaths. Even
though David has talent superior to Saul as warrior, administrator, and
public persona, David’s rule will also result in struggle for succession and
attendant chaos.
The New Testament gives no overt attention to the particular stories
told in today’s reading.
Job 38:1–11* (Paired)
After the collapse of his life, although Job repeatedly asks to speak directly
with God in order to present his case and hear God’s reply (Proper
22/Year B), God has been silent. God speaks for the first time in the lesson
for today, a reading that should include Job 38:1–40:1 and 40:6–41:34.
In these addresses, God puts one question after another to Job. When
interpreting this material, the preacher should exercise what Charles R.
Blaisdell calls “tone of voice exegesis,” that is, noticing that the way one
inflects the text—the tone of voice—makes a significant difference in the
meaning that one assigns to the text. 49 The reader can intone the divine
speeches with feelings as different as anger, arrogance, impatience, disdain,
humor, or compassion.
God appears out of an overpowering windstorm, which sometimes
accompanies theophanies, and states that Job does not have enough knowledge
to speak perceptively about the matters raised by this book (Job
38:1–3). God then asks questions that urge Job (and the listening community)
to acknowledge that Job did not make the world and hence cannot
understand how it operates (38:4–7). Job did not observe when God
created the present boundaries of the sea (thus limiting the power of
chaos). What, then, can Job know about justice and injustice, blessing and
suffering?
God never directly takes up the questions that Job has raised in the preceding
chapters. Indeed, God never addresses the question of Job’s innocent
suffering or why the disobedient sometimes prosper and the obedient