新视域的力量
我甚至不曾看见……!

经文
约伯记九21-35
21我本完全,不顾自己;我厌恶我的性命。
22善恶无分,都是一样;所以我说,完全人和恶人,他都灭绝。
23若忽然遭杀害之祸,他必戏笑无辜的人遇难。
24世界交在恶人手中;蒙蔽世界审判官的脸,若不是他,是谁呢?
25我的日子比跑信的更快,急速过去,不见福乐。
26我的日子过去如快船,如急落抓食的鹰。
27我若说:我要忘记我的哀情,除去我的愁容,心中畅快;
28我因愁苦而惧怕,知道你必不以我为无辜。
29我必被你定为有罪,我何必徒然劳苦呢?
30我若用雪水洗身,用碱洁净我的手,
31你还要扔我在坑里,我的衣服都憎恶我。
32他本不像我是人,使我可以回答他,又使我们可以同听审判。
33我们中间没有听讼的人可以向我们两造按手。
34愿他把杖离开我,不使惊惶威吓我。
35我就说话,也不惧怕他,现在我却不是那样。
信息分享
诗人越是默想那些不敬虔人的情况,他的疑惑就越发加深。接着的经文指出他因为人们欣赏那些不敬虔的人而感到失望:「所以神的民归到这里,喝尽了满杯的苦水。他们说,神怎能晓得?至高者岂有知识呢?看哪,这就是恶人;他们既是常享安逸,财宝便加增」(诗七十三10-12)。他留意到他们受到欣赏和礼貌的对待,因而说:「看我们的生活多么美好!如果有神的话,那么祂显然对我们的生活不大感兴趣。」
有一个基督徒向我叙述关于他的一个很成功的同事所发生的事,他说,有一天那同事对他说:「今天我在上班途中,有一个人走来问我:『你是不是一个耶和华的见证人?』他为甚么要向我提这么一个问题呢?我甚至不曾看见那意外发生!」那人原来根本不知道耶和华是谁,那个问题令他感到相当的困惑。
这便是诗篇七十三篇这个段落令诗人困扰的地方──他看见人们的生活完全不关心神,但他们的一切似乎都很好。我们可以从诗人的说话中感受到他的忿忿不平。你是否也会对类似的问题感到愤怒?如果是也不令人意外。不过要小心,不能让这种愤怒成为你集中注意的焦点,因为构成人的个性有一种规律,那就是你会逐渐变得像你昼夜思想的东西。
「你会逐渐变得像你昼夜思想的东西」
进深研究
申三十二1-15;诗三十七35;耶五27-28
1 摩西宣告甚么?
2 兴盛令耶书仑变得怎样?
祈祷
天父,如果我真的变得像我所专注的事物,那么求您帮助我不要把生命的焦点放在因不敬虔人兴盛的愤怒上,而是专注在我能够承受永恒这事实上。阿们。
The Power of a New Perspective
"I hadn't even seen the accident!"

Bible reading:
Job 9:21-35
21 "Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.
22 It is all the same; that is why I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.'
23 When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24 When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?
25 "My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
26 They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.
27 If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,'
28 I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?
30 Even if I washed myself with soap and my hands with cleansing powder,
31 you would plunge me into a slime pit so that even my clothes would detest me.
32 "He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.
33 If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together,
34 someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.
35 Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
Message
The more the psalmist contemplates the condition of the ungodly, the more his perplexity increases. The next verses show him to be upset over the fact that people treat the ungodly with such admiration: "Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, 'How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge? This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth" (Psa. 73:10-12). He observes that because they are so well-admired and well-treated such people say: "Look at how good life is to us! If there is a God, then He doesn't appear to have much interest in the way we live."
A Christian tells of a work colleague, a successful man of the world, who said to him one day: "On my way to work this morning a man stopped me and said 'Are you a Jehovah's Witness? Why would he ask me that? Why, I hadn't even seen the accident!" The man was quite unaware of who Jehovah was and the question had him completely puzzled.
This is what troubles the psalmist in this section of Psalm 73 - he sees people living with no concern for God, yet everything seems to be going so well for them. One can feel his indignation burning through the words he writes. Do you feel indignant about this, or a similar problem? It's not surprising if you do. Be careful, though, that you don't allow it to become your focus of concentration, for it is a law of the personality that you become like the thing you dwell upon.
"You become like the thing you dwell upon"
Prayer
O Father, if it is true that I become like the thing I focus upon, then help my focus of life not to be indignation at the prosperity of the ungodly but gratitude for the fact that I am an heir to eternity. Amen.
Further study
Deuteronomy 32:1-15
Psalm 37:35
Jeremiah 5:27-28
1. What did Moses declare?
2. What did prosperity do to Jeshurun?
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