"Overwhelming Despair" January 5 Readings: Job 6-10

Today's Reading - Job 6-10

Background

The sad truth is that many people know nothing of the heart of the book of Job. They know of his loss in chapters 1-2 and his restoration in chapter 42, but nothing of the dialogue. Job is about the dialogue - the prologue and epilogue only set the stage for the drama of the play.

It is the story of a man trying to deal with the injustice of life. He is a righteous man (a man in a right relationship with God) who suffers for reasons that make no sense to him. His friends approach life from a "karma" outlook. "If you are suffering, Job, you must have sinned. God is just and wouldn't have done this to you if you didn't deserve it." Educated Eliphaz gives scholarly dissertations. Blustery Bildad is a walking cliche. and Zealous Zophar is passionate for "truth" - at least what he believes is truth.

But Job knows that the sufferings that came his way were not karmic in nature. As the discussion rages, Job becomes angrier at his friends' increasing dogmatism and shallow viewpoints. He gradually reaches a point of despair, when the discussion with his friends breaks off and then young Elihu steps in. He speaks truth, but nothing changes until God himself speaks.

Throughout all of this, Job is being moved from a shallow to a deeper understanding of God as he encounters him personally and powerfully.

There is a structure to Job. Job speaks, then Eliphaz, then Job, then Bildad, then Job, then Zophar. There are three cycles of this. Then Job has a lengthy lament, followed by Eliphaz' treatise and the revelation of God.

Devotional - Overwhelming Despair

The drama grows gradually, but in Job 9 the tide begins to turn. At first, Job is too overcome by grief to speak, but then his friends took the training wheels off their theologies and tried to straighten out Job's thinking. Job must have sinned to cause all this, so if he would just repent, God would forgive him and restore him.

Job begins in sorrow and despair, but by chapter 9 he is starting to fight back, with increasing intensity in each exchange. We see several hints in chapter 9 of the issues that become the foundation of the conflict throughout the book. Let us briefly examine his issues.

First, he came to believe that the world was unjust. His friends said that God's justice was the cause of his sufferings and he did not believe that, so his recourse was to deny that a just God was governing the world.

Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.I could only beg my Judge for mercy.  Job 9:15

I may be in the right, Job said, but God is not interested in giving me justice! I can beg for mercy, but God isn't going to listen to my appeal, to my case. 

Second, Job was starting to believe that God was distant, unfeeling and unconcerned with his plight. 

If I summoned him and he answered me,I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said. Job 9:16

Why bother? God's not going to listen to me. I'm small and insignificant; why would he bother to take the time to hear my cries? Job knew that God was sovereign holy but had lost sight of God's immanence, his ever-present love. 

It did not stop there. Job began to believe that God cruel, angry, capricious and punitive. 

He batters me with a whirlwind
and multiplies my wounds without cause.He doesn’t let me catch my breathbut fills me with bitter experiences. Job 9:17-18

What a warped view of God - a heavenly bully who enjoys pushing Job around, battering him and multiplying his wounds; relentless in his bitter wrath. Christian, do not let life's circumstances whisper to you the lie that God is angry and cruel. Yes, he will punish sin, but he sent Jesus to seek and save the lost.

Job's warped view of God led to despair, emptiness, and hopelessness.

Though I am blameless,
I no longer care about myself;
I renounce my life. It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.” When catastrophe brings sudden death,he mocks the despair of the innocent. Job 9:21-23

There is even a self-destructive tone that has crept in, isn't there? Life is meaningless and serving God is pointless. He doesn't care. While it is natural for those in extreme suffering to think such things and wonder about the goodness of God, these lies cannot be allowed to fester. Loving friends who do not give cliches but bring the suffering in touch with the love of God.

Don't let your circumstances lie to you. Don't believe the whispers that you hear from the happenings and events of the world. The truth is that God loves you, even when you can't understand him, even when events seem to indicate that perhaps he does not. God is there and will never leave you.

Don't believe anything else!

Father, thank you for your faithful love, so faithful that it is still real and powerful even when I forget about it. 

Think and Pray

Are you going through hardships that cause you to question the goodness of God?
Remember that God's love is real even in the hardest of times God was working through Job's sufferings to reveal himself. Do not let life's circumstances lie to you! God's word is truth.