Poor Job! Everyone turns against him: friends, wife, and even the Lord. At least it seems that way. At the town dump he struggles a long time with doubt about God’s presence, doubt about himself (what had he done to deserve this?), and doubt about whether or not his life is worth living. It wasn’t fair!
How like us. Life can bring such devastation, we can’t even talk about it. Like Job for seven days and nights of silence, veterans I’ve known refuse to talk about their combat experience. Who would understand? Would you? Would I? They’re probably right. We couldn’t appreciate the depth of despair such experiences force on them.
If only God would level with Job–and with us. Why do we have to go through such misery? Why do we have to endure such doubt, such isolation from those we love, and such alienation from the God we need? Job’s experience portrays about the worst series of disasters to befall a person: loss of possessions, employees, children, health, and wife’s support. And without any word of explanation. What does it mean?
In the absence of any clear explanation (even the Lord’s speech doesn’t give Job the answer he wants) we also must piece together our experience to make sense of it for ourselves.
