Am I Enough – Job Laments but in Faith

Greetings Dear Reader,

As I read through this chapter I feel so much compassion for Job.  How much anguish must he feel?  The loss of his children, the accusations of his friends, and the feeling that God is doing this to him must all amount to unbearable pain.  We suffer enough from feeling betrayed by friends and family.  How much more must he feel if he thinks that God has abandoned him?

The righteous do suffer.  It is not because of judgment or sin but because of the fallen nature of the world.  In Job’s situation God has something to prove.  Remember that his pursuit above all is to show to his entire creation that there is a path through all of this that is good and just.

We must keep in mind that Job laments from a position of faith.  He wants the suffering to end.  He is angry and hurt. He wants to understand why these things have happened.  In all of his agony he acknowledges that God is sovereign.  He wishes to be set free from the captivity of his circumstances but never denies God’s right to put him in those circumstances.

We can read Job’s questions from two perspectives.  Faith is a filter. It gives us perspective.  If I read Job’s questions as anger and bitterness forged in doubt then I see God as unjust and hateful.  If I read them knowing that God loves Job and sees him as righteous then I can accept that God knows what he is doing; that he really does have a plan for the world.

I must lament the pain and evil that creates it in the world.  I must endure whatever comes my way but I do not have to deny my anger, hurt, and offense at it.  I can call on others to do what is right when they are not.  I can ask God to free me from the captivity in which I find myself.  The key is that I must do all of it in faith. 

Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Whatever is not done if faith is sin.  The just shall live by faith. Without faith nothing makes sense.  I have lost a child.  I have been betrayed by friends.  I have been homeless.  Nothing I have endured compares to Job’s loss and pain.  Still in the midst of those times the only instances where things were bearable were when I crawled through them in faith.  I cannot imagine facing the pain and sorrow without it.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."

Job 10:1–22

 "I hate my life. I will freely express my complaint. I will speak as bitterly as I feel.  I will say to God, 'Don't condemn me. Let me know why you are quarreling with me.  What do you gain by mistreating me, by rejecting the work of your hands while you favor the plans of the wicked?  Do you actually have human eyes? Do you see as a mortal sees?  Are your days like a mortal's days? Are your years like a human's years?  Is that why you look for guilt in me and search for sin in me?  You know I'm not guilty, but there is no one to rescue me from your hands. 

"'Your hands formed me and made every part of me, and then you turned to destroy me.  Please remember that you made me out of clay and that you will return me to the dust again.  Didn't you pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?  Didn't you dress me in skin and flesh and weave me together with bones and tendons?  You gave me life and mercy. Your watchfulness has preserved my spirit.  But in your heart you hid these things. I know this is what you did. 

"'If I sin, you watch me and will not free me from my guilt.  How terrible it will be for me if I'm guilty! Even if I'm righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am filled with disgrace while I look on my misery.  Like a proud, ferocious lion you hunt me down. You keep working your miracles against me.  You keep finding new witnesses against me. You keep increasing your anger toward me. You keep bringing new armies against me.

 “Why did you take me out of the womb? I wish I had breathed my last breath before anyone had laid eyes on me. Then it would be as if I had never existed, as if I had been carried from the womb to the tomb.” 

“Isn't my life short enough? So stop this, and leave me alone. Let me smile a little before I go away to a land of darkness and gloom, to a dismal land of long shadows and confusion where light is as bright as darkness. I'll never return.”