Job 5-7 Belief in God is a Challenge, Ask Job

June 2nd, Job 5-7

       Record your thoughts in the darkest moments of your life. Record them after your children are all dead, your livestock wiped out, your body covered in boils and your wife telling you to just curse God and die. Write down what you think a week after a betrayal or a relational wound and this is what Job's voice sounds like.
       I think Job's thoughts were hard for his friends to hear. I mean, I might think the same thing too, but I don't say it out loud! We're uncomfortable with earth shaking thoughts like David's..."How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever."
       Job asks God, "If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?" Not the same thoughts as... The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
       Like yesterday I want to reemphasize that we sometimes are only willing to say what we think we are supposed to say and suppress what's really going on inside of us. Jesus says "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Blessed are those who get out, what is inside. Here's the weight inside my heart, Lord I don't get any of this. Why is this useful to you or me? These are useful expressions. Saying it isn't any worse than thinking it.
      For those of us helping people work through their pain. Statements made in the midst of people's pain, does not require us to fix their theology in the moment of it's expression. When Job addresses God as "You watcher of mankind" he is certainly de-personalizing God. It's the effect of so much pain and a belief in a loving God that has to come to grips with great loss and whose to blame. David didn't really think that God has forgotten him forever, but in certain moments of our life it kinda feels that way. If that thought lingered for months and years, you might step in!!
       As we read through Job this week, I invite you to step into some of your hurts of life. Things that haven't been worked through very well. Listen to the story, Job, his friends. Sort out the good from the bad counsel and remember the core truths about God in the midst of the great questions that come our way.