as we all struggle to work out our own salavation with fear and trembling, and seeing that we are NOT face-to-face, to reason, each of us bearing different life experiences, different walks with Jesus, different Relationships with God....we all bear sufferings, we bear joy, we all fear/revere God, love Jesus, (that would be my prayerful assumption, may God make it so) we all get hungry, we all get crabby, we might misunderstand one another; you get i'm trying to say.
and sometimes, some of us are Job, and other times we're his well meaning friends, Eliphaz,Bildad, Zophar, and young Elihu, whose learned theology had no helpful, encouraging or comforting word for a truly Godly sufferer.
Because we all suffer, and in our suffering, we might lash out at others, especially when we dont have the restraints of being face to face, in our dialogue and reasoning together.
my feeling is, in these current days of turmoil and dislocation, all of us might be on edge, the news of the "world" spits out fear and loathing to us, day after day. In America, we've lived so richly, and it seems that cup is being taken away.....and like Job, we ask why.
Job makes his complaints, and his friends misconstrue that his complaint is based on one of humankind's greatest temptations, to love the gifts rather than the Giver, when it is Job's greatest pain that he feels God's alienation from him.
So they rebuke Job, and thru the logic of their theology confidently assume they can account for all God's Ways, and what happens is, that they arrive at a stalemate, and then Praise His Name, the LORD weighs in.
we always arrive at a stalemate, and then Jesus weighed in, and gave in, gave His Blood.
i see Jesus Christ all over this Book of Job, and it brings such Joy:
For then you would number my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin;
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
Job 14:16-17
and
"O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
Job 16:18-19
and
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
Job 19:25-27
but in amongst all that, his four friends are just laying into old Job, and in their words, are orthodox Yahwistic theology, which can't be disputed, but........ none of these five men, have any idea, what has happened in Heaven, when the accuser went before God.
this wisdom dialogue, present in Job, between the five men, reminds me in a certain way, of how we all come together...and i dont mean that in a bad way. It just is. God is God and we are not.....and sometimes things just get messy here, and for my part i ask forgiveness to any contribution in this regard.
our theology might be "in order'...orthodox, etc, but we all frequently come to stalemates, or misunderstandings.
and thats okay, because in the final analysis, God spells It all out when He says:
"And he said to man,'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.'"
Job 28:28
respectfully and lovingly submitted, Eliphaz....or is it, Bildad, or Elihu, or Zophar, or Job....nope...its neil.