And here we come to one of my favorite books of the Bible: Job.
Let the day perish on which I was born.
And so begins the argument of Job to God. What touches me about Job is that he is so open with God and his friends. He knows he did no wrong and he is confused about justice. About how the LORD deals with the evil men of the world. And how he is being dealt with in his own life.
He cries out in pain. Both emotional and physical pain. He is hurt and confused. Job is like all of us in suffering. Though he certainly suffered more than anyone I have known.
The lessons of Job are not about suffering in silence. It is about the struggle of your own suffering and reaching out to God and others.
If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
I may die tonight driving home. God may feel I deserve to die for sins in my life. Or it just may be the time that He acts to take me out of this world.
How I die, or why, or when does not matter. What matters is how I live my life NOW. Each of us has a life that is essentially one-on-one with God. Each of Job's children had that same life. We the readers know, and Job knew, that why they died was not for their sins against God. The plan they were part of was larger than that. Just as the arc of your life is larger than what you see or what you even know as your life.
Lastly, for those that are grieving it is foolish and cruel to feel righteous anger towards them. And it is stupid to vent that anger in hateful words as Job's friends had done. If those that hurt are angry with God, so be it. It is silly to imagine that we can protect God from someone being angry with Him. God IS. He can certainly handle a relationship with someone in pain.
Your calling is to be His hands and feet in this world. Not the hateful mouth.
But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears ...
How true for those that don't want to hear the truth. We stop up our ears. For myself, the way I stop them up is with anger and not letting the other person speak. To fill my ears with noise.
LORD, open me up. Open my eyes to see the hurt. Open my ears to listen to those in pain. Open my heart to feel the pain and suffering of others.
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