“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
Many of us are facing each day with a kind of hesitation; which way will the world tilt today? It’s like we are in a pinball machine and there is a maniacal clown at the controls. One day we are boinking along with happy little bells ringing when suddenly the whammy hits and we get swacked into the stratosphere only to experience sheer terror at the hands of gravity and a black hole beneath our feet. We don’t even have time to question who will catch us when we fall.
If you aren’t familiar with Job (from the Bible) you might like to get acquainted with his philosophies. He’s got a pretty realistic approach to life and some really crappy friends trying to set him straight after the pinball machine of life hurls him into the gutter.
(I mean, can you relate? Have you ever had something bad happen to you and all the squirrels jump out of their trees to tell you how you could have avoided such a catastrophe?)
But seriously, Job asks a lot of really good questions. Here is a sample:
“Why was I not hidden as a stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?”
“Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures?”
You might be asking why we should care – after all – the dude lived a couple thousand years ago. But I think his story bears relevance to today. Job was deeply afflicted physically, emotionally and spiritually. He was wealthy and lost his goods. He had beautiful children and they all died in a day. He was physically afflicted with sores from head to toe, but he didn’t die, even though he longed for it. He was a man who feared God, yet he asked some pretty tough questions of Him.
Like Job, my questions come in waves as the clouds obscure my vision of God. Why isn’t my life the way I expected? Why do the people I love hurt me? Why is there so much evil in the world? Why do good people have to die? Why do my friends let me down? Everyone asks these questions, but they approach them differently. Some become bitter and resentful. They speak fluent sarcasm and take solace in biting actions and words. Others just pretend to be happy. They fill their life with television programs and movies and other forms of entertainment. Some write self-help books. Meanwhile, I quietly wrestle with how to function in a pain-filled, sin-saturated world where even my friends are no real help.
I was jogging earlier this week when I tried to cross an intersection in a residential neighborhood. Two vehicles were stopped at the red light across from the high school. Since I had the right of way, Annabelle and I jogged in front of the first, a large 4X4 truck. But suddenly the owner of that truck ran the red light and nearly crushed us. I jumped back just in time and neither my dog or I was hurt, but the car behind the truck didn’t move. The driver wore an expression of horror and shock that I had not been pulverized like an errant opposum right before her eyes. For what seemed like an eternity, I hugged the sidewalk and we stared at each other. Life and death hung in the balance and this time I stood on the side of life. I praised God for His kindness to my family and to me. The truck never even slowed down.
But the next day when the lower vertebrae on my back went out, my outlook on life shifted. That pinched nerve made it nearly impossible to walk. It wasn’t just pain–it was the inability to move. I have developed a healthy sense of humor about my back – I like to say, “The pain is breathtaking!” while I imagine myself in a York Peppermint Patty commercial. But what I’m REALLY thinking is, that old maniacal clown is swacking me around again and I’m getting ready to drop into the black hole.
Need I even mention current events?
The debate between Job and his friends is epic. They call him a windbag, a heathen sinner who’s being punished, and worse.
“Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” – Zophar
And yet there’s no record of Job smacking them. Maybe his sores were particularly painful that day and he couldn’t move. Either way, God eventually speaks up and puts the friends in their place, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” And then God tells Job who He is.
To me, this is the magnificent crescendo of the symphony that is the story of Job.
God speaks to man…
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?” – God
…and man responds by falling on his face with humility and terror. Poor Job. All he can do is just shake his head and try not to wet himself. Or maybe he did. The text doesn’t say. (I wouldn’t write that in either if it happened to me). I personally always wonder why God doesn’t allow Job’s atoms to dissolve why he’s still conscious and then put him back together again – you know, just as an example of His power. But really, why do we think God is safe? And why do we think we know better how to run this world? And just who the heck do we think we are anyway? (I might be channeling a little Voddie Baucham here…)
Because God doesn’t owe me any explanations. I am flesh and He is divine. The problem is, we forget this sometimes. With all the “Jesus loves me” mooshy stuff, we forget this deity is the one who created the rhinoceros, the alligator, the whale and the sun (which would rightly fry us to a crisp if we were on the Enterprise and got sucked into its orbit without shields). And since the moon hasn’t turned to blood (today) and the sun is still in the sky (and not raining burning cinders onto our faces) I would venture to guess He is still running the universe just fine (thank you very much!). And since we know the bible is true, we can trust that if we repent of our sin by the blood of Jesus, He will forgive us our sin and not incinerate us in a moment of wrath because Jesus atoned for it. The bible says He is waiting patiently, not wanting anyone to perish but wanting everyone to come to repentance.
I have a feeling things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. If you think gas prices are high now, don’t blink. And if you think we’ve heard the worst on Ukraine, don’t hold your breath. And if your still afraid of Covid, take heart; God is in control.
So, pray like there is no tomorrow. Rejoice in hope. Be patience in affliction. And trust that God really does have the whole world in His hands. You are not in a pinball machine and there is no maniacal clown at the helm. And you can take that to the bank (especially when your paper money becomes worthless)!
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