August 21, 2018: Day 10 – Job 10
August 21, 2018This chapter is less of an answer and more of a complaint against the Lord. The beginning of this chapter is not really the way that I would want anyone to handle the serious problems which they face in their lives. He begins by stating: I loathe my life. He follows that up with: would that I had died before any eye had seen me. These are not words to live by, they are words uttered by a person who is suffering terribly and simply does not know how to deal with it. He doesn’t see the purpose behind his suffering.
Do we ever understand the purpose behind our sufferings? There are times when we can understand lessons and see the purpose behind what happens to us, but I would guess that most of the time our lessons come posthumously. But this is Job’s questioning of God which falls perfectly in line with Jesus’ questioning on the cross when he states in Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We know that these words come directly from King David in Psalm 22:1 where we hear him cry out in pain. We think this may be after his son Absalom is killed, but nevertheless it is found in a time of intense grief.
I am not sure why we think that it is not Christian to cry out to God and ask where God is in the midst of our pain and our suffering. Some of the best examples that we have in Scripture we find the authors and people crying out wondering why the hand of God in their lives has disappeared. Job is another example of a person of faith calling out to God because he does not sense the presence of the Lord.
It is re-assuring to know that just because we cry out and question where God is in our situation that it does not mean we don’t believe. It just means we can’t see him at that time. It seems we are blinded by the wall in front of us. Of course, that’s where faith comes in and that is where our families come in, including our church family. We depend on and appreciate each other for holding us up when our faith waivers. They remind us that God is still there even when we can’t see Him. We need to be strong for each other.