Job begins to recount the mighty attributes of God that places God far beyond mere mortals. Interestingly, (spoiler alert) these are some of the same things that God asserts later in the book for why Job doesn't understand!
God as the creator of all things is far beyond mortals in wisdom and knowledge.
But even as ignorant as human beings may be, we still know when things have not worked in our favor. At some level, every person has felt cheated before. Anyone who has watched competitive sports would say that their team hasn't always received a fair shake. Every person living has probably heard from their parents growing up that life is not always fair.
But there comes a point where injustice moves past annoying and hovers around catastrophic. When our life track is substantially altered, it may be that we would like some answers from God.
J
ob recognizes that the power differential is such that he would have a difficult time making a good case before God anyway. He would be too intimidated to make rational points.
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| Sometimes life seems stacked for others |
When we experience some type of life-changing loss whether it be a loved one passing too soon or news of an unforeseen illness or being unexpectedly laid off, we are often left asking the question, "why?" Sometimes people may believe that this is a consequence for some type of sinful behavior. But if you didn't do anything that would be worthy of the supposed penalty, you may still wonder about the justice of the universe.
If anger is one of the stages of grief, dare we be angry with God?
The fact that Job is in the Bible at all indicates that God doesn't duck these kinds of feelings. In order for us to move past anger, it is far healthier to express it in prayer than to repress the emotion and pretend we are okay. In my experience, it will eventually come out.
If God wants health for us, which I believe to be true, then God is big enough to take us at face value throughout the whole of our lives. Even when we're angry.
Prayer for the day:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Amen.
The Serenity Prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, Union Theological Seminary, 20th Century
Photo by A Guy Named Nyal via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
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