Woe is Me

“My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears to God.  O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!  When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.”  Job 16:20-22

After the harsh rebuke issued by Eliphaz to Job because of Job’s incessant complaining, it was now Job’s turn to issue his response.  With all of those back-and-forth complaints and rebukes, I think that I would have just told my friends, who were more like adversaries, to go home and let me wallow in my misery by myself.  It is bad enough to be miserable, but to have folks make you more miserable by their judgmental attitude only adds to one’s hardship.  However, I suppose that Job saw his time of response as a way to vent his frustrations to his friends and to God as well.

Job began this round of complaints by telling his three friends that he had already heard before everything that they had said to him.  A comforter should comfort, but Job called his friends miserable comforters.  They were like a doctor who prescribes a medicine to heal, but, instead, it makes the patient worse.  The patient would likely seek another doctor, particularly if this doctor was insulted by the patient’s complaint.  Then Job wanted to know if his friends were ever going to shut up!  They thought that they had Job pegged for a hypocrite who talked the righteous talk but didn’t really walk the righteous walk.  They were indeed “miserable comforters”.

Job decided that it did him no good to speak, but it also did him no good to remain silent.  He had to get it out.  He spoke of how God had made him “weary” due to the losses that he had suffered–his children, his servants, his livestock, and his health.  Grief does make one weary for there is no quick relief from the pain and agony of personal loss.  Job blamed God, who, in Job’s mind, treated Him as the enemy who had nearly destroyed him because of His hatred of Job.  Job was quite descriptive of how he viewed God’s treatment of him–tearing him apart with His teeth and almost burning a hole through him with the fire and sharp daggers of His eyes.  Job felt that God had turned completely against him, but he didn’t know why.  He even blamed God for how his friends were treating him.  He desired sympathy and compassion, but only received blame and judgment.  Sticks and stones hurt, but so do hateful words.

Just as Jesus was delivered unto a mob of people who desired to destroy Him, Job felt that God delivered him to people who spoke evil against him and who almost seem delighted or perhaps more so satisfied with their insults and accusations.  He looked on his friends as wicked men.  That’s how they had been describing him.  Before Job’s calamities came upon him, he had lived a life of ease and enjoyment.  He was careful to praise God and faithfully worship Him.  And then, in just a day or two, everything changed.  He felt like God had torn him in pieces, grabbing him by the neck and shaking him until his body fell apart.  He felt like a target, singled out among men to be an example, but wasn’t sure exactly what kind of example he was supposed to be.

Job spent countless hours analyzing and likely overthinking, trying to find the reason why he was receiving such harsh punishment.  However, that’s what humans do–try to figure things out on their own.  He didn’t claim to be without sin, but he couldn’t think of anything that he had done that would justify such harsh punishment.  Eliphaz had accused him of being an oppressive tyrant, but Eliphaz had no evidence of that.  Eliphaz was implying that Job must be guilty of horrible things based on Job’s situation.  Why, an innocent man would not suffer so.

Surely, Job thought, that he must have an advocate in heaven who believed him, would defend him, and declare him innocent.  His friends convicted him without evidence, even hearsay evidence.  In this Job was a type of Christ, convicted and condemned, yet innocent.  Job desired that one would represent him before God as one who steps in front of the judge to defend his neighbor who was wrongfully accused.  Job wanted desperately to be found innocent before he passed from this life to the afterlife.  He didn’t want to die with everyone believing that he was an evil man who only pretended to be righteous before God and before his friends and neighbors.  He wanted to leave a legacy of a man who tried to do good in his life and not the wicked one whom his friends made him out to be.  At the beginning of his difficult journey, he wanted to die to escape the pain and misery, but now he seemed to be more concerned about living to clear his name and restore his relationship with the LORD God.

Next week:  Where is Hope?