Please see the first post on Job (click HERE) for how I am approaching Job and for an important caveat.
Bildad’s Final Comments
Job’s friends are “over it.” When Bildad speaks this time in chapter 25, he’s very short (6 verses). Bildad questions, “How then can man be in the right before God?” (25:4a) Bildad has a world view and Job (by his life and story) is challenging that world view. Since Bildad is fully convinced that his world view is also God’s world view, then to oppose Bildad’s world view is the same as opposing God. Since God can’t be wrong, Job must be wrong.
How often we do the same thing as Bildad! We think that our denomination, our culture, our nation, our political party, etc. has the world view most aligned with God’s world view. Let us learn from Job’s friends to be cautious of our echo chambers and remain humble.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)
Job: I Hold To My Story
Job’s responses with some sarcasm. Then he doubles down:
2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right,
and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
3 as long as my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak falsehood,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me to say that you are right;
till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
Job has given his story and he’s sticking to it. How I applaud him for standing firm. Stories that disrupt the status quo face quite a bit of opposition. On a slightly different note, but along the same idea, the Church has also faced a reckoning as women’s stories have come out as true when once they were ostracized. Things were said about them such as: she imagined it, she’s co-dependent, she’s a trouble maker, it’s not that big of a deal, she’s being too emotional, she’s too sensitive, etc. A woman was sharing her story of trauma and God was trying to bring to light what was killing a church, a marriage, etc.
Job: I Did Everything I Could Do
12 “But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding? . . .
28 And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding’” (28:12, 28).
Job concludes that God holds wisdom, but He hasn’t told humans where to find it. According to Job, the only thing humans know is to fear God and turn from evil. So, Job plows into his life story – communicating he has followed just that.
2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me . . .
4 as I was in my prime,
when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my children were all around me . . .
21 “Men listened to me and waited
and kept silence for my counsel. . .
25 I chose their way and sat as chief,
and I lived like a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners.” (29:2,4,5,21,25).
Job reflects back, when he sensed God was with him and his children were alive. Notice he described his relationship with God as a friendship, strongly implying God’s betrayal of Job’s trust. Job reminisces about the days when people listened to his advice, when he had respect of both young and old.
But everything is different now . . .
1“But now they laugh at me . . .
19 God has cast me into the mire. . .
20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you only look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you persecute me. . .
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,
and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
days of affliction come to meet me (From Job 30)
Job 30:15-27 is marked in my Bible (check it out!). Job is summarizing much of what has been said in the previous posts – all the traumatic responses. He feels turmoil, unrelenting pain, terror, abandonment, has no relief, and senses danger. He calls to God, but God does not answer him. He helped others, but no one has come to his aid.
To show God that Job has done all he can to follow God’s wisdom (fearing God and turning from evil), Job presents his record:
- Job has been truthful and full of integrity (31:5-8)
- Job has been faithful to his wife (31:9-12)
- Job has been a fair boss, listening when someone had a complaint (31:13-15)
- Job has been actively committed to social justice (31:16-23)
- Job has not engaged in idolatry, neither toward his wealth nor toward creation (31:24-28)
- Plus more!
35 Oh, that I had one to hear me!
(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)
Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary! (Job 31:35)
To be heard. To be answered. To be known. These are deep desires. The desperation I hear is, “What could I have done differently?! What more could I have done, God?! Was I not enough?!” This is how Job ends his cry. Exhausted by the spiraling of trauma, Job has concluded that it wasn’t enough for God, perhaps, he wasn’t enough. I think many of us have been there, thought that.
It’s a somber way to end, but that’s part of the journey with someone in trauma. I resolved to go through Job this time discovering ways in which God is calling us to a deeper emotional wisdom.
By the River Together 