Theological Commentary: Click Here
When I read
through Job 6, I hear Job’s humanity ringing true. That is both a compliment and a cautionary
tale. It’s great to study humanity; it’s
dangerous to study humanity. We learn
about ourselves best when we study ourselves.
We also can get the wrong idea or even learn bad habits when we study our
own kind.
For example,
take Job’s words. He has a pretty grievous
error in this chapter. He thinks the
Lord has cursed him. In one respect, He
has. God has removed His hedge of protection
and allowed Satan to direct His wrath upon Job.
God is even the one that has lifted up Job into Satan’s attention!
However, Job
doesn’t see the whole picture. That’s a
point that hits home quite frequently for me.
How many times do I make mistakes in judgment or action because I fail
to recognize the whole picture? God hasn’t
cursed Job because of dislike, vengeance, punishment, or any other reason. This has happened to Job so that Job could
learn a bit, so that Job could be a witness to others, so that Job could be
restored into an even greater stature than he had before Satan found him! Job cannot understand this, though, because
he cannot see the endgame as God can.
Don’t get me
wrong. I’m not saying that it would be
pleasant to go through what Job went through.
I’m not even saying that I wouldn’t complain. The truth is that I am just as likely to be
doing what Job is doing here as Job is!
I’m just as short-sighted as he is; I’m just as human. I think what has happened to Job is pretty
awful. We must remember that in the end,
we who are with God win because God is all powerful. In the end, we have life eternal with the
Lord. Our perspective should never lose
sight of the fact that in the end, we will live in life eternal with our Lord
because He has saved us. That’s the end
of Job’s current misery: life eternal with God.
This brings
me to the hopeful side of humanity that I see in this chapter. As short-sighted as Job may be in his
accusations, there is proof that he is living with the hope of the
eternal. There is such hope in Job
6:5-8! Job is in such a low place that
he would rather die than live. While
that isn’t particularly hopeful, Job response to this condition is. While Job would prefer to die, he understands
that such a decision is God’s. Job doesn’t
act upon his desire to cease life, Job is willing to put up with his condition.
In other
words, Job won’t kill himself. Job is
willing to give God the time and space that He needs. Job may not know the salvation and
restoration that is coming, but Job is willing to allow the space in his life
for God to provide for it. Job believes in
the sanctity of life and that life is best left in God’s hands. This is faith in its purest form. Even in the midst of Job’s darkest pain we
see the bright ray of hope and faith at work!
Truthfully,
I think this is a major part of the book of Job. This is what life looks like when we live in
faith. We can stare into the darkest
day, recognize our pain, understand our own shortsightedness, but still give
God the room in our life to show us His hand.
The greatest act of faith is to be in a place where we have no hope and
turn to God and continue to choose Him.
After all,
isn’t that what Jesus did on the cross?
Jesus stared into the darkness of death, allowed Himself to be
crucified, and gave room for the Father to show His hand at work?
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