Job 6:5-7

Summary: Job continues. Why would I make such a cry, he argues, if there wasn't something really wrong?

Response: (short one today) Working with kindergartners this year has definitely been an eye opener regarding perspective. They will wail at any inconvenience, but seldom for no reason. And God hears our cries, even when they turn out to be nothing. You have to trust me, He does. 

Job 6:1-5

Summary: Job responds to his friend Eliphaz. He begins by ascribing his unhinged talk to his immeasurable grief (sorry, that was a lot of big words. Job talked bad because he feels really bad). But he says that, even with how bad he feels, it can't compare to how much bad stuff has happened to him. He feels like God is an overpowering army.

Response: I mean, usually I feel like my misfortune is very much only my fault, but I can understand the feeling. I know Job is setting this up for more, but I do like stopping here and acknowledging that yes, you can serve God and feel pretty bad. 

[obligatory: if you have clinical depression, that is your brain needing chemicals from medication to get you functioning. That is also okay, and you should not stop taking prescriptions thinking God will take them for you. He put psychiatrists and pharmacists on this earth for His purposes too!]

Job 5:8-27

Summary: Eliphaz gets to his main point: if Job would accept that he has wronged God and submit to punishment, God would then raise him back up with just as much protection as before.

Response: The problem here is that, though Eliphaz speaks the truth, he isn't correctly applying that truth to Job, much less doing so with any sympathy. At one point he tells him his kids will be numerous, after his adult children were snuffed out all at once. Like dude read the room!

Am I like this? Do I try to "spread God's truth" with callous disregard for my brother's humanity? Lord, try me in this, and help me to grow more into who You would have me be. 

Job 5:1-7

Summary: Eliphaz continues: you can't appeal to heaven, he tells his friend Job, because that only shows how foolish and sinful you are. 

Response: Now I think I've got around his argument, though he will probably speak a bit longer. There is a difference, I think, between "all have fallen short" and "you specifically must have done something to anger God so fess up." Not that either of them had any way of knowing, but this wasn't Job's fault!

Lord, help me to persevere. Life can be difficult, but help me to rely on You, not to blame You for it.

Job 4:12-21

Summary: Job's friends Eliphaz continues, describing a scary vision. His dream stated that no human is able to match God's standard of righteousness, that people die without reason or a chance to gain wisdom. 

Response: I can see why this would be scary. I'm not sure how this helps Job? Hey man, I know your life sucks right now, just know that God thinks you're not good enough and life is meaningless. That makes you feel better, right?

And at the same time, we're getting more truth. Our works can't save us, and so many choose not to seek out God. Lord, help me to know truth but not get bogged down by just how far I am from it. Help me instead to keep running after it, pursuing You as You pursue me. 

Job 4:1-11

Summary: Job having had his say, next his friend Eliphaz speaks up. He has seen how Job has helped others and is now in need of help himself. Eliphaz posits that only wicked people perish at God's hand, and that Job should rest on the laurels of his good deeds. 

Response: Our glut of news might have many detriments, but one good aspect is knowing for sure that there is much injustice in this world, from rulers that have no right or tact for doing so to countless people trampled on by the rich and powerful. What innocent perished, Eliphaz, and what uprightness is destroyed? It numbers among the millions, every day. 

This is not how it "should" be, of course, but this is where God's people come in. It is our duty to offer help, peace, justice, even grace--to be God in the world. Not through legislation, but through action. Even just in our homes, but hopefully stretching out into the world too. 

Job 3:20-26

Summary: Job continues; fine, if the day I was born had to exist and I could not be stillborn, why can't I just die now? Why should God give life to any suffering? Job says his pain is so great that he cannot eat or rest. 

Response: Welcome to theodicy, the problem of evil, or "why does an all-powerful and loving God allow suffering?" That question "why" is the most tempting. What's lost rarely if ever seems worth what's gained. Lord, help me to trust You in all circumstances. 

Job 3:11-19

Summary: Job, continuing his wish to not be where he is, wishes aloud he were stillborn. In death, he thinks, is rest and peace away from life, which he sees only as torment. 

Response: "There was going to be a 'but'..."

"You're a butt!"

Years ago I looked at Psalms this way. I hated the ones about warfare. But I was taught of a kind of beauty in the way David is so very honest with God, that no emotion was too strong. I have to remind myself of that here. Job does not want to do subtlety and subtext. The man hurts! He did everything right and lost everything and everyone and now even his body is rebelling against him. It is reasonable to look at all of that as a torture, as a big practical joke played on poor Job! That's natural! Lord, if nothing else, help me to explore and show my true feelings to You. You know it all anyway; no sense in hiding it. 

Job 3:1-10

Summary: Having suffered material loss, the loss of his children, and now severe personal physical pain, and after mourning silently for a week, Job speaks up, cursing the days he was conceived and born for letting him come into the world and experience this pain.

Response: So first off, I think it's kind of neat how he goes about this. Job wants God to undo making the day, so he unchecks each box of creation. Let there be light? Make it dark. Moon and stars? Take 'em out, make this day literally not count. Separate land from sea (which may have had a leviathan fight in it at one point)? Bring that big fishy back into play for a night. Also, the writers really didn't like having the word "curse" written down, so they wrote "blessing" and figured the reader would understand the sarcasm. The sarcasm filter has been needed since the beginning of literature!

But yeah, other than it being Ash Wednesday, kind of a downer. I guess what I can say is that it's okay and even natural to have these feelings, at least in the sense that you don't have to ignore them or bottle them up. Job gets them out in the open to deal with them, which is more than we can say about a lot of our feelings. And God is big enough to accept these "blessings" all the same. 

Job 2:11-13

Summary: Three of Job's friends come, intending to help him along with his grief. But they see him from a distance, and he looks nothing like their friend. They join in serious mourning, and sit in silence with their friend for a full week. 

Response: Sometimes I feel like our world goes too fast to properly grieve. The most recent death in our family was our fifteen-or-so-year-old cat, a true family member. We grieved as we put her to sleep, but had to be "better" in front of the kids in an hour or so. Job and friends ripped up the cloaks everyone always saw them in; Job himself shaved his head, which was unheard of. It's as if to say, the people I lost were my life; I cannot go back to being the same person without them. Which is poignant and touching. And God is with us as we grieve. Lord, help me to realize You are here with me through everything.