Week 34 Job
The whole big middle section of the book is a debate between Job and Eliphaz Bildad & Zophar – Eliphaz…Job…Bildad…Job…Zophar…Job. Like that. And as the debate goes on it goes from okay-to-bad-to-worse. If at first EB&Z came to console Job they ended up disagreeing mocking ridiculing and degrading. In the end everyone piled on Job. So chapter 30 is Job thinking-out-loud about where he’s at now:
I am mocked by those who are younger than I
They despise me and won’t come near me
They oppose me to my face
They send me sprawling
They lay traps in my path
They hold me in contempt.
When you think about it Job’s complaints about his friends are probably justified. But then he starts praying and says six things to the Lord that are a bit harder to excuse:
I cry to you…but you don’t answer me
I stand before you, and you don’t bother to look
You have become cruel toward me
You persecute me with your great power
You throw me into the whirlwind and destroy me in the storm
You are sending me to my death.
I figure Job might get a pass on his first couple of comments.
But numbers 3-4-5-6 really move him into the Red Zone.
I guess we all feel sorry for Job. And I guess we can agree that his friends are duds. But calling the Lord a cruel destructive persecutor sounds like one step too far.
Note: quotes from Job 30:1, 10, 12, 15, 20-23 (NLT)