Year 8, Day 123: Job 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I don’t particularly like the humanity that I read here in this chapter.  Job begins by saying, “Oh that I wish …”  He then starts to talk about when his life was good.

I get what Job is saying.  He feels the pain of life now and remembers the joy of life in the past.  I understand what Job is saying.  I feel what he is getting at.  Who among us wouldn’t like to like in the times when life is most enjoyable.  What Job is saying in this chapter makes perfect human sense.  I’m not even going to fault Job for this.  We’d all like to live a joyful life instead of a pained life.

Where I find fault with Job is that Job compares God’s love for him with his joy.  Job speaks as though God loved him more when life was good.  Job indicates that God was closer to Job when life was good.

This is an absolutely natural reaction.  All of us feel closer to God when life is good.  But that’s our perception of reality, not reality.  Just because we think we are closer to God, doesn’t mean God is actually closer to us.  Just because our life is easy doesn’t mean that God actually loves us more!  In fact, if we hear the testimony of the insanely popular footsteps poem, the times in our life where life is the most difficult is the time when God is actually carrying us through life.  You don’t get much closer than that!

The truth is that I am just as guilty as Job for thinking this way.  I often equate God’s love for me to things going the way I want them to.  But that’s my foolish human perception, not a true reflection of reality.  God loves me.  He doesn’t love me more when life is good.  He doesn’t love me less when life is bad.  God loves me and walks each day by my side.  The same is true for us all.

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