The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
Job 5 - No mention of any women.
Job 6 - No mention of any women.
Job 7 - No mention of any women.
Job 8 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
This entire section is mostly Job bemoaning how crappy his life has become and how much he wishes it to end. But during this time he also asks several times what he has done to God to deserve this. Job does not understand his transgression and only wishes to make it right again. The sad part is that Job has done nothing wrong to deserve this so he can never get an answer and he will never know that he has done nothing wrong.
I could understand and appreciate these chapters if it was some natural disaster that took everything from Job. He bemoans the fact that human life is short and generally full of pain and sadness, which it is. The only guarantees in life is pain and sorrow. Then the meat of the story would be about how God eases human suffering and can bring light where there is darkness.
This is not the case, though. Instead this story is about how God brings sorrow and pain onto humans himself and then (maybe) decides to alleviate it, but only if you do everything correctly and never cross him. If Job had cursed God in this book that would be it. Job would be left to live his sad pathetic life with everything he ever had taken from him. But Job did everything correctly and followed all of God's arbitrary rules so he gets a reward after he's suffered for some time. Job is special, though, and not everyone gets a reward in the end. Even then, could a shiny new house and family make up for the murder of his previous family and all of the suffering he has had to endure? Even if you could replace his things, replacing children is just not something that is easily done. You just can't replace people.
I'm sorry, I could never find comfort in such a fickle God. The best you could do is HOPE God helps you out in the end, and along the way wonder if you happen to be doing everything correctly according to guidelines you will never know about. And there's no guarantee God will help you even after that, since it may not be part of his "plan" or some nonsense.
I think I'll just stick to taking care of myself instead of waiting for help that may or may not come from an invisible being.
Friday: More Job
"The best you could do is HOPE God helps you out in the end, and along the way wonder if you happen to be doing everything correctly according to guidelines you will never know about. And there's no guarantee God will help you even after that, since it may not be part of his "plan" or some nonsense."
ReplyDeleteIn other words ....
"Yes, yes, yes, God is there. Just keep tithing and everything will be fine. See you on the Sabbath!"