Monthly Devotional – June 2024

When learning Masonic ritual, most of us find that the prayer at the grave of Hiram Abiff is one of the most difficult to memorize.  The Book of Job, which contains portions of the prayer in Chapter 14, poses questions that are very difficult also:  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why does God allow suffering?  The Book begins with a divine contest between God and Satan over Job, who was a very righteous man with a large family and many possessions.  Satan challenges God to let Job lose everything he had to see if he remained righteous.  Soon, messengers began appearing, with increasingly worse messages for Job:  His oxen and donkeys were gone, the sheep were burned up, the camels were stolen, the servants had been killed, and finally, all his children were dead.  Job retains his faith and responds, “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Satan then challenges God to let Job’s health be afflicted to see if he would curse God, and Job becomes covered with boils.  He sits down, scrapes himself with a broken piece of pottery, and soon his wife and friends show up to mock him and say it was all his fault.  Job then responds, “I know that my Redeemer lives”, a profound statement of faith.  But as his suffering continues, Job begins to question God about why he was born, the justice of his situation, and asks for an answer.  Finally, God appears to him in a whirlwind and asks impossible questions about how the universe was made as well as about the wonders of our world and the creatures that inhabit it.  Realizing his insignificance and that God pays attention to every detail of existence, Job is stunned into a humble and contrite silence.  But God is pleased with Job’s honesty and repentance, doubles all his possessions, and provides a new family as a divine gift.

In the Master Mason Degree, similar to Job, we see the candidate lose everything and circumstances look bleak.  We ask, “O Lord my God, is there no help for the Widow’s Son?”  And like Job, we receive no direct answer.  But when we look at God’s response to him, we realize the truth of what is written in the Book of Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”  The real answer is that God is merciful, patient, and infinitely wise, His purposes are far beyond our understanding, and are for the best.  He is with us in the midst of our storms and is in control of everything.  We have all experienced deep suffering and continue to be challenged by the vicissitudes of life.  Just as the candidate is brought from darkness to light through time, patience, and perseverance, our Creator gives us the will and strength to persevere, overcome life’s problems, and grow into the man and Mason He wants us to be.  Why suffering exists is a mystery we will probably never know in this world, but it will be revealed completely in the next, and we know that God will set all things right at the end of time.  Our honesty and repentance will be rewarded eventually.  As it was written 3000 years ago, so it is still true now, “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Please direct any comments or questions about this message to tvarner536@aol.com.

Thomas L. Varner Jr.
Grand Chaplain