Musings of Job from the eyes of a normal, admittedly struggling stay-at-home Christian mom.
The scene:
Job sits in utter despair in the ashes. The sores on his body ooze and itch even as his body throbs in feverish pain. He scrapes himself relentlessly with a piece of broken pottery in an attempt to gain even a moment of relief. Images of his children burn against his tear-filled eyes. People who once respected him avert their eyes and gather their children close as they hurry in the other direction, unwilling to even place themselves in the same vicinity as the man who has lost everything. Job’s wife walks up, her face haggard, her demeanor broken in anger. “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” she hisses bitterly. Job steels himself against her words even as he renounces them. He holds fast to the one thing he knows to be true, because he must. “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?”
My thoughts:
If this scene is not capable of moving a person, then I’m not sure what is. I can see myself, broken and sobbing in the floor, for reasons much less than Job’s. Job was not screaming and ranting. He was not blaming. Somehow, at that moment, he acknowledged that for whatever reason, this was what God had for him and he accepted it as easily as he had earlier accepted the gifts of fame, fortune and family.
I am in awe. But I can still relate more to the wife.
Commentary on Chapter 2, Verse 9 states: Job’s wife concluded that he was suffering because God was unfair—a popular explanation for suffering but totally contrary to the character of God. Many people arrive at her conclusion when they consider only evidence gained by observation. Unless we also consider evidence which comes from God, we are likely to reason as Job’s wife did.
If we only judge by what we see…through our human glasses of justice…then we will always come to the wrong conclusion: God isn’t fair. He is arbitrary, capricious, mean, and serving him devotedly gains us nothing. Only by learning God and his ways will we have a chance to understand with the clarity that Job did in that moment in the ashes.
Not only good but also adversity comes from God to test and discipline us, and not necessarily as punishment for sin.
The world is broken. Sin is rampant. Satan is real. And we are human. God loves us like parents love their children…except way more, if that can be imagined. And sometimes, in the same way we must let our children experience disappointment, hurt and even heartbreak, God must put us through the same. Not because he is unfair or hates us. But because he loves us and wants His ultimate best for us.
I will never be able to fully understand that on this side of Heaven. But I can believe it anyway. Because I must.
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