Wednesday 01 October 2008
- Bible Book:
- Job
"Now I would be lying down and quiet; I would be asleep; then I would be at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth who rebuild ruins for themselves, or with princes who have gold, who fill their houses with silver." (v.13-15)
Background
This part of the book of Job is a poem of complaint: a lamentand a curse, which emphasises Job's vulnerability. Even though thetheme of the poem is death, and desire for death, Job still longsfor restoration of order and a normal life.
This outburst came after a week of silence. But then, despairing,he even began to curse the day he was born. He starts lookingforward to resting in Sheol - the place where ancient Jews believedthey went after death - and sees it as a place of peace andquiet!
For Job, this is about much more than suffering and loss: itbecomes an intellectual-existential struggle which shakes thefoundations of human values and divine justice. If righteous peoplesuffer without obvious reason, then God, who controls the cosmicorder, comes under question. But according to Job, rather thantackling such unanswerable questions, it is better to be dead,where restlessness and vulnerability are reduced to peace andrest.
But a stray light of hope enables Job not to turn the blame on God,and the story reveals the fact that the struggles of human beingscan neither be explained away wholly as natural phenomena nor asGod's overriding control in the lives of man. This may make us feelextremely vulnerable, but it is mostly in our vulnerability that webegin to recognise God and deepen our faith.
John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism said, "When I wasyoung I was sure of everything; in a few years having been mistakena thousand times, I was not half sure of most things as I wasbefore; at present I am hardly sure of anything but what God hasrevealed to me".
It is difficult to understand and explain God's involvement in therealities of the world, but God is with us in our vulnerablesituations - although sometimes, silently.
In India last year, around 20,000 farmers committed suicide becauseof debts they had no way to repay. These farmers supplied food toall people for cheap prices, but were not remembered by those inpower and in urban centres. There is a need to restore hope in theminds of the farmers that God still cares for them.
To Ponder
Why should righteous people suffer?
In our inability to understand and explain God,in the reality of calamities and illness how can we still believeand walk with God?
To what extent is death an answer to oursuffering?
Can we still hope for God to be with us even atthe breaking point of vulnerable situations? Have you ever feltGod's presence at these times?