WHERE IS GOD?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Job continued his discourse:

“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone on my head and by his light I walked through darkness! Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.”

“When I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public square, the young men saw me and stepped aside and the old men rose to their feet; the chief men refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands; the voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths. Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them. The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing. I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth.”

“I thought, ‘I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand. My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches. My glory will not fade; the bow will be ever new in my hand.’ “

“People listened to me expectantly, waiting in silence for my counsel. After I had spoken, they spoke no more; my words fell gently on their ears. They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain. When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them.  I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners.”

 “But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them? Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night. In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom bush. They were banished from human society, shouted at as if they were thieves. They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground. They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth. A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.”

“And now those young men mock me in song; I have become a byword among them. They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence. On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me. They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me. ‘No one can help him,’ they say. They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in. Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.”

 “And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me. Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; He binds me like the neck of my garment. He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.”

“I cry out to You, God, but You do not answer; I stand up, but You merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of Your hand You attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; You toss me about in the storm. I know You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.”

“Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls. My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing.”

Job 29:1-25, 30:1-31

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How often do we live in the past? Too often I’m afraid.

There’s something about going back to days gone by that is sometimes alluring and at other times haunting. It depends on the person and the life experience.

Consider someone who has had a painful life experience like a broken relationship which led to a broken heart. Or perhaps a heinous wrong committed against them or someone they loved like an assault, sexual or otherwise. Maybe that wrong even ended in murder or permanent physical or emotional injury. These acts and others have a way of scarring a person, even shackling them in past events in a way that seems to offer no escape. In worst case scenarios, people lose their zest for life, feeling they have no future because of the past and so they choose to take their own life. Suicides happen every day and so many times the person taking their own life feels it’s the only way to flee from the previous pain and suffering they endured.

Yes, living in the past can have deadly consequences.

 We can also live in the past when we’re going through present day hardship, yearning and coveting days that were better for us. Times when life was good. Trial and tribulation can easily do that to anyone. And as we see in our scriptures from Job, Chapters 29 and 30, Job is engaged in living in the past.

First, he details how life was before he was afflicted in Chapter 29.

His household was intact and he had his children around him. In Job’s words, his ““path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.”

In the community, Job was well respected by young and old. When he spoke, people listened expectantly, ready to receive his wisdom and counsel. All commended and spoke well of him as he displayed a commitment to helping others, rescuing the “poor who cried for help” and the “fatherless who had none to assist them”. He was the “eyes to the blind and feet to the lame”, a “father to the needy” and advocate for strangers and those victimized.

Job could never see hardship coming upon him as he “put on righteousness” as clothing and justice as a  robe and turban. He felt he would die in his own house after a long life with his glory unfading.  

“I thought, ‘I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand. My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches. My glory will not fade; the bow will be ever new in my hand.’ “

Yes, in the past everything was perfect for Job. But there was only one problem. He wasn’t living in the past anymore, not anymore than you and I are today. What is past is past and there is no going back, no matter how much you might want to.

No, Job wasn’t in that season of life now. Life wasn’t as good and times were hard. Chapter 30 underlines the contrast.

For now, Job wasn’t respected anymore. Now he was rejected. The young would detest and mock him, even spitting in his face.

His body was filled with pain and burned with fever. His skin grew black and peeled. He sat in a spirit of mourning and sadness, reduced to ashes and dust.

Yes, things had changed drastically for Job and for the worse. But no going back to the past was going to correct his present circumstances. The reality was that he was in the present and the present was in the midst of hardship – hardship he needed to find a way to cope with and the past was not going to help.

So where was God in all this?

In Job’s eyes, God had played a great disappearing act on him.

In the good times, God was right there with him, watching over him, and shining His light on his head. Job saw himself blessed by God’s intimate friendship.

But now in the midst of toil, Job felt God had abandoned him. The intimate friendship had ended.

Despite crying out to God, Job received no answer although he felt God was watching him. Excommunicated and ignored, Job felt as if God was just toying with him along the way to death.

What further compounded the problem was Job’s feeling that his actions should have resulted in a trouble-free life. His words speak to this.

Job questioned why he could have ever been afflicted as he was when he helped people in trouble, weeping and grieving for them. We get a sense that Job thought good works would be his ticket to a pain-free existence. The reality is that life isn’t like that.

Maybe you’re a little like Job, thinking if you do enough good, nothing bad will ever happen in your life. Or maybe you feel that God is with you when everything goes well but disappears when hard times fall.

So where was God really?

The truth is that He was there all the time.

He was with Job in the good times. And He was equally there through the hardship and suffering.

You see, we were never promised a trouble-free life – or as a person once told me, “Go look on your birth certificate and see if it says anywhere that life will be easy.”

No, God never promised a life free from trials but He did promise us that He would never leave us nor forsake us  (Hebrews 13:5) and that He would daily bear our burdens (Psalm 68:19). He is never absent nor is He ever quiet. The problem is that we abandon our faith in Him and in doing so stop listening for His still small voice.

Job would soon discover that God was there all along, ready to help Job through the difficult times until He was ready to restore him. Perhaps we’ll be like Job and travel the road of feeling discarded and shunned by God when the going gets tough. Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll learn from the scriptures, be wary and trusting of God’s promises, and know He will always be by our side as He was in the past, as He is in the present, and as He will be in our future now and in eternity through the promise of salvation sealed by the death and resurrection of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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