With the short attention span so common in today’s culture, it’s easy to look at the life of the main character in The Book of Job, acknowledge his unfortunate (and prolonged) situation, then yawn, shrug and move along. As my four-year-old grandson occasionally exclaims: “Boring!” We might be amused by another person’s disaster shown on a YouTube video, but the awkward moments better come quickly or our attention will be drawn elsewhere.
Over the last several months, as I’ve been studying through Job, I’ve meditated on his suffering and composed a sonnet for each chapter. Unfortunately, arriving at the 17th chapter of Job, there’s a sense we’ve already traveled down this road. Job’s friends have chided him, he’s responded to their monologues and the entire exercise repeats itself. Just as with a prime-time episode of CSI (at whichever city), the tendency is to expect (even demand) some resolution by this point!
In this chapter and last week’s chapter/post, Job delivers another reply to his comforters’ contention that God would remove Job’s suffering if only he weren’t so stubborn about admitting his sin! Job refutes their accusations, but mostly addresses his remarks to Almighty God. Continue reading “Holding Onto Hope”