Reading
SAA Notes
Miserable comforters, long-winded speeches! Job wants to shake his friends and make them see – this has not happened to him because of some sin of his. The only explanation Job can think of is that God is being deliberately cruel. (16:9,11) His cry in 17:11 rends the heart still.
SJA Notes
* Merciful God, You bless us when we are persecuted for Your sake – Please help us to rejoice and be glad, even in such circumstance.
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.”
Job is stuck arguing with his friends.
Often our arguments are similar. All persons trying desperately to get their point across while simultaneously not wanting to understand or listen to what the others are saying.
Job knows in his heart this is not God retaliating or punishing him for a specific sin.
And Job knows that God absolutely at work in what has happened to him. God is sovereign, His will is carried out.
Job tries to get his friends to see these truths.
And. Job is low. So very low.
Job wants to die. He wants the darkness and presumable peace of the grave.
His mind is cracking, stretching, lonely and desperate.
But.
Job is not without hope. We are not without hope!
As we have seen, and keep returning to, God is at work! His sovereign will is being played out here.
Job however cannot see it clearly at the moment.
This is a hard word for us. Often we are in a similar position. He can’t understand God’s will, why He is doing the things He is doing.
As bad as it was for Job, God does not leave him.
We are able to jump ahead to the end of Job after these readings, it can help.
* Almighty God,
Please fix within us a humble heart, a heart that seeks You, that longs to see Your face.
Please forgive us Lord for our sin.
Please plant Your word deep within us, and grow it, that we would be good soil and bear much fruit!
Amen.