Year 1, Week 2, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Job 6-9.

Today’s reading begins with what is part response to Eliphaz, whose first words are recorded in Job 4-5, and part expression to God concerning the depths of his torment. A common theme that will run through the words of Job’s three friends is that suffering directly stems from personal sin: “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.” (Job 4:7-9). It is not that Job’s friends are completely wrong, it is just that their knowledge is incomplete. It is true that obedience reaps blessing while disobedience reaps trouble; however, this declaration is too simplistic to explain all of God’s operations.

For Job’s friends, there is a simple explanation to what is unfolding in Job’s life. The reasoning of his friends could be summarized like this: (a) The cause of all suffering is personal sin against God; (b) Job is suffering; (c) therefore, Job has personally sinned against God. Of course, it is easier for you and I to see something of the error of this simple conclusion. You and I have been privy to revelation that neither Job nor his three friends have. God has said this about Job: “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8b). Job’s suffering is not a consequence of his personal sin against God. Job expresses the impact of his friend’s words: “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.” (Job 6:14-16). Job says that his friend’s words are like a dry creek bed during a drought.

I was struck by what today’s reading reveals about the operations of God. God has not seen fit to remove the experiences of affliction and trouble from normal life. If our expectation is that life should be trouble free, then we will be all the more ill-prepared for the troubles of life. If our assumption is that life should not intersect with affliction, then we will not have a category to grasp affliction. God reveals to us, in His Word, that troubles and affliction are currently normative: “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:22-23). We should learn to expect troubles in this life; we should come to assume affliction in this life: “Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.” (Job 7:1-3).

The expectation of troubles and the assumption of affliction does not necessarily mean that these sort of life experiences become a cinch to face. I am not sure that realistic expectations and proper assumptions do make suffering and sorrow feel light: “My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?…I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.” (Psalm 6:3,6-7). Afflictions still afflict us; troubles are still troublesome. But God’s Word provides the categories to understand this reality.

But God does more than provide the revelation to understand reality; He gives us His presence to provide strength and He gives us His promises to grant hope: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:26-28).

The words of Jehoshaphat, in the midst of great troubles and affliction, are relevant: "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:12). May we too look to the Lord.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe

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