There Is Not One

Henry Fuseli "Silence" c. 1799

“Man who is born of a woman

is few of days and full of trouble.

He comes out like a flower and WITHERS;

he FLEES like a shadow and continues not.

And do You open Your eyes on such a one

and bring me into JUDGMENT with You?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

THERE IS NOT ONE.

Since his days are determined,

AND the number of his months is with You,

& YOU have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

look away from him and leave him ALONE,

that he may ENJOY, like a hired hand, his day."
(Job 14:1-6)

It's unsettling to me how much my prayers and laments are like Job's. I don't feel abandoned by God: I feel tormented by Him. Suffering is easily turned into a vicious lie when we mistakenly see ourselves as the object of it. But Job's suffering wasn't about him at all. It was about the love of God, and so is mine. Intellectually, I get it. And yet I still sob, "Just leave me alone!" because sometimes, I don't care about the greater meanings of things. All I can see is that I am hurting day after day after terrible day, and I've had enough. It's not my fault I'm weak. God made me weak. 

Trust, like love, isn't an emotion: it's a decision. Why on earth would God bother Himself with such a useless person as myself? I can't say. What I can say is that God isn't trying to mold me into the person He wants me to be through endless these trials and tribulations. There is not one who can be molded into perfection through trials or a lack of them. We all react just like I do, like Job did: "Leave me alone, God! BACK OFF! I can't take this, and I HATE YOU for thinking that I can!!!" But God can bring a clean thing out of an unclean:

Jesus died to make me the person God wants me to be,

and so I AM that person: albeit sick,weak, helpless,

and powerless to change what is happening to me.

God doesn't allow hurting just for hurting's sake. If God allows you to ache, body or soul or both, He has something wonderful planned for you. Not an entire book of the Bible named after you, no, and probably not a fortune 3x over what you've lost, but perhaps another soul added to His flock with your help, or a minuscule taste of what Jesus endured on the cross and a greater understanding of all that has been done for you, for your salvation. That isn't only worth dying for: it's worth suffering a lifetime for.

So with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, I give yet another resolute nod, and somehow with the strength of God, I find myself saying, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done." (Luke 22:42b) TRUST: it's the choice of the New Generation. Get it? Heh.

The suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day is Psalm 102:2a. PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress."

Click here for more on the story of Job.

The Enigma of Job #2

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man! I will question you, and you will answer ME! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?!” (Job 38:3-4a)

Poor Job. In the middle of his demands to talk to God face to face and plead his case of innocence, God actually showed up. Can you imagine? If God actually showed up every time I demanded answers from Him... *shudder* ...I don't even want to think about it. And boy, was God ever angry.

Don't get Him wrong: it wasn't Job's lamenting of, "This hurts! I can't do this! Please take the pain away!" that got to God. We're invited to "by prayer and supplication make our requests known to God" (Philippians 4:6b). No, it was the whining of, "I don't deserve this," and "God's wrong for doing this to me," that necessitated an intervention. We can see Job's point, can't we? His suffering was the product of a bet between God and Satan. How much less deserving can you get that that? I've been driven to that same point once or twice. It's a natural(ly sinful) place for our hearts and minds to go when we're bombarded with bad luck, hardships, and suffering: WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS??? NOTHING!!!

...um, everything? Job's assumption that he was blameless was a sin. No one is righteous apart from Christ. Me? Oh, I'm certainly not assuming I'm anywhere near blameless, believe me, but am I really this much to blame? Well, yeah. On the one hand, we all deserve suffering, and to what degree is notwithstanding: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 2:23). But on the other and more important hand, what we deserve isn't the point. And thank God for that. God is not punishing us. He doesn't work that way because Jesus died for the sin of the world and the sins of everyone in it. God wasn't punishing Job. On the contrary, Job got a much-needed chance to repent, and repent he did. He realized that he needed a savior just as much as the next guy (see The Enigma of Job #1). But that wasn't the only point to Job's suffering.

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon 
"Crucifixion"
1822

Do you think Job—all covered in boils and ashes and being yelled at by God—ever dreamed he'd be in the Bible? But he is. He's part of that beautiful Means of Grace and a comfort throughout the ages. And of course, there is Jesus: the number one point to all suffering everywhere. Yes, Jesus died for Job, too. (We can get into the whole retro-activity of the crucifixion, which occurred both within time and outside of time some other... er time). That means Jesus took on Job's suffering, and Job then participated in a small part of Jesus' suffering in his trials.

I don't know what our individual lessons are or if there are any. I really don't, but I do know that God promises our suffering isn't for nothing. No, none of us will end up in the Bible: that's already been written from beginning to end. But God knows what comfort, what hope, what peace we can bring when people look at us in our sorry states and we simply point to the cross, and we know it too. So, maybe the chance to repent isn't the point for you. Maybe your suffering has nothing to do with you. Maybe your hardship is for the sake of someone else altogether, for a purpose greater than you can even imagine.

Suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day is Psalm 119:169b

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"Give me understanding -------> 5 count inhale

according to Your Word." -------> 5 count exhale

For more on Job, click here.

The Enigma of Job

Ainehi Edoro
"Suffering Job 2"

"When I hoped for GOOD, evil came, & when I waited for LIGHT, darkness came. My inward parts are in turmoil & never still; days of AFFLICTION come to meet me. Now my soul is POURED OUT within me; these DAYS OF AFFLICTION have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones, and the PAIN that gnaws at me takes no rest... GOD has cast me into the MIRE, and I have become like DUST & ashes.”

(Job 30)

* * *

Poor Job. His hardships (and there were hardships a-plenty) were the product of a bet between God and Satan. There's no sugar-coating it. It's right there in black and white. How unfair is that? Have you ever heard anyone say they just don't like this book of the Bible? That God did Job wrong? Do you ever feel a little bit like Job sometimes? Well, Job's story certainly doesn't give us the warm fuzzies we hope to gain from the Word of God, does it. Or does it?

"That's the comforting thing about Job," my husband said to me once.
"What comforting thing?" I asked, having never heard such a statement about Job before.
"No evil assaults us that God hasn't allowed," he said.

Oh, well, that makes me feel much better. God knows all about my suffering, He allows it, He can stop it, but He won't. Still no warm fuzzies here. So, Satan can't touch us without God's permission. WHY DOES GOD GIVE HIM PERMISSION??? Cripes. This isn't rocket science. Does God love me, or not??

I get confused. I get sucked into the belief that love is only about pleasant feelings, that it has nothing to do with suffering and pain. We're so quick to forget that the greatest act of love the world has ever known was one of sheer suffering and pain, the worst most unbelievable suffering anyone could ever imagine, wrought with bitter betrayal, total abandonment, undeserved shame, gut-wrenching physical torture, and grief enough 
to make the Son of God Himself cry.

Jesus' perfect love, for us and for His Father, led Him into suffering for our sake, so that, in the end, you and I could love without tears. But today, love in the world isn't just laughter and warm fuzzies. Just like it was for Jesus, real love is giving your life for one another. It's living in a sinful, fallen world and pressing on through the turmoil and the pain and the suffering to fight the good fight for the sake your brother (1 Timothy 6:12; Philippians 1:23-24), for a good greater than your own comfort and well being.

Look at it this way, Adam and Eve had nothing but warm fuzzies in Eden, and it still wasn't good enough for them. So watch out when Satan tries to tell you what love ought to feel like. Next thing you know, you've bitten into an apple trying to find something that feels better than perfection is. And no, Job wasn't blameless, not after his troubles began anyway. He thought that being blameless entitled him to a better life than he had. That his good behavior and devotion to God meant that God was wrong to allow his suffering. Therein lies his sin. That's why God came to him and shouted quite angrily, “Brace yourself like a man! I will question you, and you will answer ME! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?!” (Job 38:3-4a)

Eep. And Job sees his error and changes his thinking. And probably his pants.

Here's Job today: a comfort to generations throughout the ages, a model in times of peril. His suffering was for our sake as well as his own. He got the chance to repent, and we have the comfort of his story, and faith through the Word of God. Do you think he'd turn around from his place in heaven with the rest of the saints, smile and say, “It was worth it”? I bet he would. We'll all say the same thing one day, but it's a lot easier to say it on Job's side of heaven than it is on ours. Until then, we know we are forgiven through Christ, and we suffer. It's not a but; it's an and, although it's not the end.

I didn't make this video. It's a little cheesey for my taste, but the song makes a good point.

Careful... it's a tearjerker. Here's Laura Story's "Blessings."

*

Suggested verse to repeat to yourself if it's a difficult day is from Isaiah 43:1b

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

“I have called you by name, ----------> 5 count inhale
you are Mine." -------> 5 count exhale
*
For more on the Enigma of Job, click here.