Today's Meditation
Read Job 13
“Look, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. 2What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. 3But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. 4As for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless physicians. 5If you would only keep silent, that would be your wisdom! 6Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips. 7Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him? 8Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God? 9Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another? 10He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. 11Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you? 12Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.
13“Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. 14I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. 15See, he will kill me; I have no hope; but I will defend my ways to his face. 16This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him. 17Listen carefully to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears. 18I have indeed prepared my case; I know that I shall be vindicated. 19Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. 20Only grant two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face: 21withdraw your hand far from me, and do not let dread of you terrify me. 22Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. 24Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy? 25Will you frighten a windblown leaf and pursue dry chaff? 26For you write bitter things against me, and make me reap the iniquities of my youth. 27You put my feet in the stocks, and watch all my paths; you set a bound to the soles of my feet. 28One wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
I'm struck in this chapter by Job's prayer which begins in verse 20. "Only grant two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face: withdraw your hand far from me, and do not let dread of you terrify me. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me. How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin....For you write bitter things against me, and make me reap the iniquities of my youth.."
As has already been mentioned, Job doesn't blame God for the tragedy that has come upon him, but wants to understand what he's done to deserve it. It believes that he's led a righteous life and feels that God's punishment from the sins of his youth are too high. He fully wants a recounting of what he's done to deserve such treatment.
There's a song from the Sound of Music, where Maria and the Captain are out in the garden at the Gazebo when she sings, Something Good
Perhaps I had a wicked childhood
Perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somewhere in my wicked, miserable past
There must have been a moment of truth
For here you are, standing there, loving me
Whether or not you should
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good
Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good
For here you are standing there, loving me
Whether or not you should
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good
Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth
Or childhood
I must have done something
Something good
This is the opposite of what Job is praying to God about, but the same principle applies. Perhaps Job had done something terrible in his youth and is now paying the cost. He must have done something bad, for here was standing there in the ash heap mourning the death of his children and the destruction of his property.
Even Jesus' disciples, when they came upon a man blind from birth, wanted to know who sinned, was it the man or was it his parent's that such a life was given to him. We are quick to assume that if you are healthy, wealthy, and full of fortune, you must be blessed by God and "have done something good" and if you are poor, without work, have had tragedy after tragedy then you must have sinned or done something bad.
But Matthew 5:43-45 says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
As Job grows closer to God through this, he will eventually understand how the rains fall on the just and the unjust alike, but right now he is stuck in this belief, just like Jesus' disciples were many years later. We, still, often believe this. But as God shows Job and as Jesus shows his disciples, these things simply happen to everyone and our purpose in them is simply to glorify God whether in triumph or in tragedy.
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