Job 7:1-7
February 5, 2012
Dearly loved by God in Christ Jesus,
What man other than Job has suffered publicly almost as much as Jesus? The reasons for the suffering were very different of course. Job suffered in the opportunity to use his faith and trust God. Jesus’ suffering even to death on the cross was the ransom price of our reconciliation with the holy God. Isaiah said it so perfectly in chapter 53, “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” [5]
This contemporary perhaps of Abraham has come to be what we might call the “Poster Child for suffering.” The expression the “suffering of Job” has come to be equated with having to bear severe burdens. Sometimes people also speak about the “patience of Job.” Once you have read the book, you know that maybe “the impatience of Job” is more accurate.
We will center our attention on what Job says about his life in light of his circumstances at the time. These are the words of a believer, a child of God, under great duress. Satan had been wrong to accuse Job before God, “stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.“ [1:11]Doesn’t this bring to mind Paul’s words in Romans 8 in our epistle lesson? “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” [33]
It is not unusual for us to develop unrealistic ideas or expectations about life. We can begin to look at life through the lenses of what we expect it to be, or wish it were. Job Vividly Describes the Realities of Life.Difficult and seemingly hopeless.Short and not so sweet.
Job does not mince words; life is difficult and seemingly hopeless. This is true for nearly every person to one degree or another, at one time or another. There are very few, if any people who skate through life always on smooth ice.
Job compares the realities of life to the soldier drafted into the army and the hired man; warfare and difficult labor. The words “hard service” literally mean warfare. Both the soldier and the laborer struggle in their callings as they eagerly look forward to the time their conscription and servitude comes to an end. Job adds the slave to the comparison. The slave does not have any reward or wages for his labor. He has only the time at the end of the day when he can finally rest in the evening shadows.
Recall that Job had lost his wealth, his family and his health. Job was not a man who had little to lose. We would not be exaggerating to say that other than his very life, and a wife who told him “Curse God and die,” [2:9]and friends who told him that God was punishing him for his sins, Job had nothing.
Job’s days and nights were filled with futility and misery; sorrow and pain.“So I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.”Sleepless Job tossed and turned during the night as the hours seemed to slow down. Ever been there? His body was racked with pain from festering boils with the disgusting things that come with them. The maggots and decay that generally come to the dead were already eating his flesh.
In spite of all that the LORD preserved and protected Job’s faith. Here is where the epistle lesson ties in. Job vividly describes the realities of life even as he enjoyed the realities of God’s great love for him in the promise of his Savior from sin. God had known Job. The LORD called Job to be his own and conformed Job to the image of the coming Christ through faith. Job was living in the glory of God’s grace and mercy even as he had to endure life’s hardships.
Job vividly describes the realities of life. These realities are in our lives to one degree or another. These realities make our lives difficult and different from what we expect them to be, or wish they were. We know God is not punishing us for our sins because the Father already punished Jesus for our sins. People who tell us otherwise or encourage us to curse God and turn away from him do not know what they are talking about and we must ignore them.
Like Job we have not earned better days nor deserved worse. It is the way life is in this temporary fallen world. In the gospel lesson we heard about Peter’s ill mother in law and all the other people who were suffering illness and demon possession. With Job we accept these realities in the context of our faith in God our Savior; difficult but only seemingly hopeless.
Life is not hopeless at all. Christ is near with his healing power as he sees fit to use it. With Job we hope in our living Redeemer.We will see Jesus with our own eyes after worms have destroyed these bodies when he stands on the last day on the earth.
Job goes on to give the alternative view to the expression that something is short and sweet. Life is also short and not so sweet.
Job used the picture of a weaver’s shuttle. The weaver’s shuttle is the piece of wood that carries the web of thread back and forth across the loom. The web of thread must be cut in order to remove the shuttle from the loom. To paraphrase our suffering brother in Christ, we are holding on to life by a thread and how quickly God cuts us off. Such a condition looks humanly speaking short and not so sweet.
Job added the picture of a breath. How long can you see the puff of your breath in the winter? It does not last very long at all. Our lives are short in comparison to eternity. They can be short in comparison to the lives of other on earth. Our lives never are short to God but just the length he determines. Life is not always sweet but as the hymn writer declares, “Sweet the moments rich in blessing, Which before the cross we spend. Life, and health, and peace possessing, From the sinner’s dying friend.” CW 111s.1
Job wondered if life would ever return to the previous good days with their happiness.Job’s life did return to days with wealth, family, and health. The Lord gave Job 140even better years after he restored to Job those blessings.
We see the realities of life from our point of view.We must also see things from God’s point of view.God has known us, chosen us for salvation, called us, and glorified us in Christ. Job vividly describes the realities of life. In them with Job we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Amen. <SDG>