Job 7 – 8
We find Job lamenting how he has lost hope and just wishes to fade away. I read this and can’t imagine how someone could get into this state of despair. Although I can’t imagine being in the place Job is where everything, including his health, was stripped from him. Verses 2 and 3 give us a glimpse into what he is thinking:
2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
3 so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
Job is searching for God and desiring his comfort, yet because of Satan God is in the shadows. God is never so far away that we cannot call on him for comfort; unfortunately His comfort may not be the same as what we desire. Job is one of the more difficult books to read since it goes far beyond what any of us could imagine. And again it’s difficult to understand why God allowed this to happen in the first place. Did the devil get the best of him in this instance? Or did He allow this for our example of real endurance?
I got to verses 13 & 15 which rattled my cage:
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 my bones.
This has hit home for me in recent months since we have met a person with true night terrors. What would be a comforting mid-day nap for you and I, become a living hell for them. More than once I have heard them wake for a nap with blood curdling screams. The root cause is too horrific to even imagine, but the words become truth in this person’s life. They are living Job’s life on earth today and I know it’s not God releasing their life, but more the sins of others impacting their relationship with God.
I am glad they don’t have friends like Bildad to comfort them. He immediately starts hammering on Job that God only punishes for sins and afflictions like these are the result of transgressions. Granted Satan is a direct cause of these pains for Job, many still believe God punishes us for our sins. Elbert Hubbard said it in a nutshell, “men are not punished for their sins, but by them.” Sin has consequences; we cannot expect to be expunged from this by God’s grace. No we have to live in the mess we make.
Bildad’s view on our relationship with God is more like God is waiting to whip our butts for the slightest wrong. Many take the view that although God is in control of the world, He allows it to just kind of happen without much intervention. On the grand scheme of things, we are just a flash of light with little significance. Verse 9 expounds on this:
9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
For those who have read Macbeth and other Shakespeare plays you see a common theme where he points out life is full of melodrama and production, but really signifies nothing. This is the eternal question then, are you living for things that will rust (Matt 6:19) or are you helping others with their eternal salvation? So as the saying goes, “when life throws you lemons make lemonade.” Job is not making lemonade, but at least is not blaming God for his afflictions.