1/07/10
Job 6-9
Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just
Job 6:1 Then Job answered:
2 “O that my vexation were weighed,
and all my calamity laid in the balances!
3 For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
therefore my words have been rash.
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
5 Does the wild ass bray over its grass,
or the ox low over its fodder?
6 Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,
or is there any flavor in the juice of mallows?
7 My appetite refuses to touch them;
they are like food that is loathsome to me.
8 “O that I might have my request,
and that God would grant my desire;
9 that it would please God to crush me,
that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
10 This would be my consolation;
I would even exult in unrelenting pain;
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11 What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what is my end, that I should be patient?
12 Is my strength the strength of stones,
or is my flesh bronze?
13 In truth I have no help in me,
and any resource is driven from me.
14 “Those who withhold kindness from a friend
forsake the fear of the Almighty.
15 My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed,
like freshets that pass away,
16 that run dark with ice,
turbid with melting snow.
17 In time of heat they disappear;
when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
18 The caravans turn aside from their course;
they go up into the waste, and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema look,
the travelers of Sheba hope.
20 They are disappointed because they were confident;
they come there and are confounded.
21 Such you have now become to me;
you see my calamity, and are afraid.
22 Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’?
Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?
23 Or, ‘Save me from an opponent’s hand’?
Or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of oppressors’?
24 “Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand how I have gone wrong.
25 How forceful are honest words!
But your reproof, what does it reprove?
26 Do you think that you can reprove words,
as if the speech of the desperate were wind?
27 You would even cast lots over the orphan,
and bargain over your friend.
28 “But now, be pleased to look at me;
for I will not lie to your face.
29 Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done.
Turn now, my vindication is at stake.
30 Is there any wrong on my tongue?
Cannot my taste discern calamity?
Job: My Suffering Is without End
and are not their days like the days of a laborer?
2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like laborers who look for their wages,
3 so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
4 When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing until dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.
7 “Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
8 The eye that beholds me will see me no more;
while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.
9 As the cloud fades and vanishes,
so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;
10 they return no more to their houses,
nor do their places know them any more.
11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,
that you set a guard over me?
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint,’
14 then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than this body.
16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
17 What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
that you set your mind on them,
18 visit them every morning,
test them every moment?
19 Will you not look away from me for a while,
let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?
Why have you made me your target?
Why have I become a burden to you?
21 Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
I doubt many of us have endured what Job was required to experience, but I wonder if the seeming hopelessness of life doesn’t overtake all of us at one time or another? People and circumstances, events and situations affect us all differently because as much as we are all alike we are different too. Our historical roots probably connect and disconnect many times through history, but even so we have backgrounds as distinct as our parents, as different as our fingerprints, as unique as our genetic code. For all of our differences I think verses 14-21 find a spot of familiarity in each of us. Who cannot remember a time or times when you didn’t feel this way, even if in fact you were really OK? Right now I am trying to keep those feelings from taking root in me. After all, things can change very quickly. God always shows up at the last minute. Some combat these feelings by going shopping, throwing themselves into their work, an unhealthy relationship, something external to themselves. I know from past experience this is a dangerous time. It is a time not to make any life changing decisions. It is a time to be still. I long to be on a big bike riding endlessly along the coast right now with no particular destination, just riding. Just like that bike ride we don’t know what is beyond the next hill or around the next curve because even if we have been this way before, nothing is ever the same as it once was. I know this is a time to be still and trust God. Hasn’t God brought me this far? Isn’t God’s record in my life far better than my own? Thank God, as far as I know, I have no friends like Job and my struggles are mostly about processing the uncertainty of now, rather than dealing with the horrors Job experienced. I know this is a trust building time for me. I know more than anything … more than anything the desire of God’s heart is that I, we, all of us trust God.
Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent
Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4 If your children sinned against him,
he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
5 If you will seek God
and make supplication to the Almighty,
6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore to you your rightful place.
7 Though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.
8 “For inquire now of bygone generations,
and consider what their ancestors have found;
9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
for our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?
11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.
14 Their confidence is gossamer,
a spider’s house their trust.
15 If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
16 The wicked thrive before the sun,
and their shoots spread over the garden.
17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
they live among the rocks.
18 If they are destroyed from their place,
then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
19 See, these are their happy ways,
and out of the earth still others will spring.
20 “See, God will not reject a blameless person,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
This all sounds fine and dandy, but we all know those who are just plain crooked, and yet they do well and so do their children. Some live to a ripe old age and pass on peacefully. To look at the prosperous and assume they have lived a Godly life is nonsense. Regardless of how you look at it, it all comes down to trust. We must trust that God is a God of justice, but not too just otherwise what would come of us, right? Then of course there is the story of the poor beggar and the rich man on the other side of the river. God owns the land and the cattle on both sides of the river. It is there, on the other side of this life that the rich man has the tables turned on him. However, I don’t think life is about being rich or poor, suffering or living at ease, living a short life or a long life, or whether we are treated fairly or not. It isn’t as important what we experience as how we process the experience, whether we react from our own place of self-centeredness or whether we respond from a place of loving God so we can trust God. Pain is inevitable. The question is whether we will trust God with our pain. This is not to say that we should not seek justice for others. God tells us over and over in Scripture to do that. When it comes to ourselves we are supposed to give away our coat if the man who just stole our pants asks us for it. This is hard, just as it was hard for those who worked all day to see those who worked but a little get the same pay. Jesus told us to pick up our cross and follow Him. He called it a cross, not a back pack. Bonhoeffer calls the backpack cheap grace. Cheap grace is not what following Jesus Christ is all about.
Job Replies: There Is No Mediator
Job 9 Then Job answered:
but how can a mortal be just before God?
3 If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength
—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
5 he who removes mountains, and they do not know it,
when he overturns them in his anger;
6 who shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
8 who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the Sea;
9 who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond understanding,
and marvelous things without number.
… and at the same time I remember that Jesus “noticed” the widow’s humble offering. If Jesus is really what our 66 canonized books are all about then why does nearly everyone focus on the widow in this story instead of Jesus? I am moved by the fact that Jesus “noticed.” Yes, surely the author of Job is correct in all of his adjectives and metaphors about God, but no list will ever be complete. Be that as it may, it helps me to know that God is also gentle. God knows every little sparrow that falls to earth and my every hair. God is the whisper in the time of natural turmoil as well as my God to lean into when my insides quake with fear. God is imminent and transcendent and I believe that God is moved by the trust of God’s children. Yes Job, God is mighty and awesome and it is right that we fall on our faces in reverent fear and respect, but let us not forget (also) that God “noticed!”
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 “God will not turn back his anger;
the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14 How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest,
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21 I am blameless; I do not know myself;
I loathe my life.
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
When was the last time you heard that preached in church?
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the eyes of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it?
25 “My days are swifter than a runner;
they flee away, they see no good.
26 They go by like skiffs of reed,
like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint;
I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’
28 I become afraid of all my suffering,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I shall be condemned;
why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with soap
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 yet you will plunge me into filth,
and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
33 There is no umpire between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.
34 If he would take his rod away from me,
and not let dread of him terrify me,
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
for I know I am not what I am thought to be.