How beautiful is Job. How soul-wrenching beautiful is Job. I can’t begin to feel his anguish. And his words, to me, sound almost as if for a brief moment he wants to denounce his belief in God. He just doesn’t know what else to do. But in all his torment and anger and grief and failure to understand, he STILL calls out to God. He calls out, “WHYYYYYYYYY?????” basically, but he says it way more eloquently. Three times he asks, who am I to bring God to court?
Have you ever had one of these moments when you just accepted whatever it was? One of those “give it to God” moments because you were at the absolute end of your rope? This might be a weird thing to say, but I hope you have. No, I don’t hope you suffered and hurt like Job did, but I hope that if you did suffer terribly that you gave all your suffering to God and that He healed your pain. And if you are suffering now, I hope you are able to look to dear Job for comfort and trust that it, and peace beyond understanding, is coming. And here’s why:
I want to direct your attention to the last four verses of this chapter. I’m going to type them out so that they might stick in my memory banks a little longer today:
“God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together. The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.” – Vs. 32-35 (NLT)
Y’all, my heart just melted. You know some scholars think that the book of Job was written before any other book in the Bible. It’s origination is quite mysterious, and let’s be honest, the opening chapter is hard to comprehend in earthly terms. And these four verses to me just add a super WOW factor. It’s sort of like Job “thought” of Jesus – like he may have given God the idea. That’s not what I’m saying. At. All. BUT I’m saying, Jesus is born right here on these pages in those last four verses. Job says, “If only there were a guy who I could talk to, who knew what it was to feel this kind of pain and could tell God everything I’m feeling and saying. If only there were a guy like that … if only … “ And eventually … there is.
Writing prompt: if only
What if Jesus never arrived?
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