Job 14:1-6

Summary: Job continues, this time more directly at God. If mankind has such short lives, he asks, then why fill them with such punishment? Why not let them rest?

Response: Askreddit has this question all the time, "if you could go back in time to when you were younger, knowing all you know now, would you?" And my answer is always an emphatic no. I may regret things, but I'd be terrified of not getting to meet my children again. Like deathly scared of it. Lord, help me to accept the good with the bad, seeing it all as blessing from You. 

Job 13

Summary: Job wonders aloud if his friends are comfortable lying for God's cause, and kindly asks them to stuff it. He then goes for God, claiming that only an innocent man would dare try to approach the Almighty. He wants two things: first, for his affliction to stop; then, for God to come and name his sins.

Response: "Does God need your help?" "Are you really okay with lying for God's cause?" "Would He be happy to see you doing this?" I feel like the first half could easily be slung at today's American church. 

But Job is just about ready for this to be over. The bad news for him is that we're now a quarter of the way in. Lord, reveal to me my weakness, and fill me with Your perseverance. 

Job 12:7-25

Summary: Job, still replying to his third friend Zophar, makes more or less three points: knowledge of God's power (especially, Job claims, the power to destroy) is well known, even to creation; Job, as a person with ears, has a right and duty to discern what he hears as godly advice or not; and that God is capable if not responsible for all kinds of destruction, leaving nothing as too sacred or important that He could not topple. 

Response: It's easy to take a force-of-nature view of God, that stuff just happens and there's no use talking it through with Him. But I wanted to dig into discernment. I think this is Job's strength, that he keeps listening and digging deeper, and hasn't (yet) come to a satisfying conclusion. Lord, help me to search for Your truth for me. 

Job 12:1-6

Summary: Job replies now, to Zophar and the group of friends as a whole. Sarcastically, he lauds them as the pinnacle of wisdom before challenging that he, Job, is not any less capable of reason. He also notes the idea that only the wicked are punished, but points out that wicked people prosper often on earth. 

Response: Lord, grant me platonic wisdom. Help me to know that I do not know much at all. 

Job 11

Summary: Job's third friend, Zophar, speaks up. He hears Job challenge God to court, and wishes God would take him up on that offer. For God, he says, knows if men really are faithful or not, and deals with each accordingly. Therefore, Zophar recommends, Job should pay for forgiveness of whatever secret sin he's obviously holding onto. 

Response: Do I do this? I get a lot of "he said/she said" in my job and have to make some assumptions. If I rely on my instincts, they're usually right, but I don't want a student to feel like they are always in danger of being in trouble just because they've been that way before. Lord, help me to show Your grace and mercy today. 

Job 10:8-22

Summary: Job is trying to reconcile that God lovingly creates him but also seemingly harshly judges and punishes him. He feels trapped, like God is a lion toying with its prey. If life is so short and pointless, he wonders, then why go through the trouble? Why not just go straight from cradle to grave?

Response: Real emotion, check. God handles our biggest questions, check. Dramatic irony, check. Like, what else can I say? Job needs time to get all this out, and it's not like his first two friends have really been any help. I got visibly upset about being late for an appointment yesterday. Do you think I could hold it together for the loss of my earthly possessions, children, and health? No! I'd be a babbling mess. I'm surprised Job can get out the words he can, even the fun Hebrew practice at the end of doubling a word as adjective and noun to emphasize it (the dark darkness). So Lord, thank you for Your patience with me as I blow up over the absolute stupidest things. Give me Your grace, that I can show You to those around me.

Job 10:1-7

Summary: Job continues, planning out loud what he would say to God. He wonders if God really wants to punish him, a decent if not good man, and let wicked people flourish. He asks if God only has human perception and is therefore biased against him somehow. 

Response: Job starts asking "why." It's a big shift. I have to admit that "why" is thrown around with abandon at my house, from "why do I have to try broccoli" to "why can't I run into the street" and beyond. Lord, help me to trust You. Not to look at Job and think I'm any better or wiser, but just to look to You. 

Job 9:25-35

Summary: Job explores other futile possibilities: he can't simply grin and bear the punishment because it is so great; and he can't try to "go to court" to resolve this dispute with God because, not only is God the other party, He is the Judge and Jury as well. 

Response: Again, these are all fair feelings to feel. If anything, I feel like this year in kindergarten has been attuning me to kids' talk, what is just play, and what edges into real and dangerous talk. But more than anything, I've been able to ask students how they feel and it's been on me to be able to handle and accept that genuine feeling. Yep, you are legit mad about that, I get that. Nope, you just like to cry for attention.

Lord, thank You for being big enough for all of my problems and all of my blessings. Help me to continue finding how You've made me in Your image, and help me to embrace that and not fear it.

Job 9:22-24

Summary: Job brings his friends' arguments in for a landing. If God is responsible for carrying out justice in the world, but there seems to be no justice in the world, what does that say about God's ability to dole out justice?

Response: Like Job, I'm doing my best not to blaspheme here. The world is a big place. Our access to information through technology has made it abundantly clear that the world is not peachy keen. There is corruption to unearth, injustice to right, power to speak truth to. I would say that God invites us to join in the work of reclamation. It's hard, especially since we ourselves aren't perfect, but worth it. Lord, help me see Your hope past a hopeless world.

Job 9:14-21

Summary: Job lays out his predictions on any possible argument with God. How could he hope to get a word in against the Almighty? What good is it for him, a speck, to go against the Lord of everything? Yet he knows he is innocent.

Response: It would feel like an impossible position. Job knows he did no wrong, but has nowhere to lodge a complaint without actually doing wrong. God, I know You really do listen to me. Which is incredible, because I know my stuff is really not that important in the grand scheme of things. I sometimes feel like Job, that I shouldn't even bother You with it. But Lord, help me to continue seeking You. 

Job 9:1-13

Summary: Job, responding to Bildad, attempts to put things in perspective: God up there, me way down here. Who can tell God what to do with His creation? If He wants to undo any of it, that's His call. He could do it without a second thought. 

Response: Again, we have reference to literal Genesis creation parts: dark, light, sun, moon, stars; land, ocean. I just think that's a really cool way to think about it, that God used these specific things and Job talks about God in those specific terms. I mean, I know God is unlimited in power, but I personally feel I can understand it more when I can point to specifics. Lord, help me continue studying Your word, that I can fall back on it when I need You. 

Job 8

Summary: It is the turn of Job's second friend, Bildad. He claims that Job's family was sinning, which is why God killed them, and that Job ought to repent or he'd be killed off, too. After all, he says, God's justice is not unjust; He would not let evil go unpunished, and he certainly would make sure good people are rewarded. 

Response: (Woah, a whole chapter? I can do that?) I know I can let Job tear this apart next chapter, but my word this is savage. "Your dead and not even buried adult children deserved to die because you didn't raise them right enough to not sin." "Your suffering is just because you're not good enough for God to love you." Like how unfeeling do you have to be? And how often have I been that callous? Lord, try me in this. 

Job 7:17-21

Summary: Job asks God some tough questions. Why do you have to watch me all the time? What harm do I do to you if I sin? And if I'm this much trouble to you, can't you just let this pass, one way or another?

Response: One of the most powerful tactics in reprimanding a child (one I have yet to use on mine) is waiting before a talk or defining punishment. The wait is so hard! Can't you just get it over with already! I feel for Job here, not that the losing kids and physical ailment weren't enough already. 

Again, what I see in here is poetry, yes (a lot of saying things twice to get a fuller picture and make things easier to memorize is pretty much the foundation of Jewish poetry), but it describes a very human condition. Lord, help me to open myself up to You. I'm not so perfect that I don't need to show You my fragility. 

Job 7:11-16

Summary: Job turns his ire from his friends and into God. He says he won't hold back, though it seems God restrains him; he wants to rest, but terrible dreams wake him. He feels done with his life, and would prefer to simply die. 

Response: I know, super chipper. But we're not pulling punches here. This isn't the God of dry white toast. If He is God of everything, He can take anything anyone can throw at Him. At the same time, I probably can't toe that line as well as Job. How often do I look on my troubles and blame God? Lord, "may the bones you crushed rejoice."

Job 7:1-10

Summary: Job comments on his experience of life in general. He feels he has had to work hard, expecting rest that never seems to come. The sum total of that work seems to be nothing, vanishing into the ether as soon as it's done. 

Response: On the one hand, it is good to have a slight perspective in this fashion (though this may be a light Puritan work ethic brainwashing still left over in my head): no, love can't all be a bed of roses; and yes, our individual lives are pretty tiny and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Lord, I still know here in my quiet time that You care for me; help me to remember that (and remember that You love each person I come into contact with today just as much) as I go through my day. 

Job 6:22-30

Summary: Job goes sarcasm mode and asks his friends if he has ever asked them to share the wealth or pay for his security detail. If they had something worth teaching, he says, I'd shut up. But, he notes, he hasn't done anything wrong!

Response: "Look at me!" This part would make a great film scene, or at least for the stage. Job is covered in boils and in embarrassing mourning gear. What does he have to gain by this being false? Lord, help me to believe those who are suffering and be Your light to them. 

Job 6:14-21

Summary: Job compares his friends and their support to a river that dries up, that he should expect what is clearly not there. The empathy due him is withheld, he believes, because they fear God will judge them too. 

Response: Am I this fairweather friend? I mean, yes, I know I am awful about keeping in touch, pandemic aside. But I hope I can work on being un-busy enough to make room and time and space for the needs of others. 

Job 6:8-13

Summary: Job wonders aloud if God is somehow restrained in not killing him yet, and wishes He weren't; he knows he isn't strong enough to hear his situation on his own. 

Response: I almost feel like the stereotypical loud person in a movie theater: "but God is not doing this to you! He's the only One to give you this strength to get through it!" Of course, I have extra hindsight and all that. Lord, help me to reach for You in all circumstances.