Focal Passages: Job 15:5-6, 9-10, 20; 16:19-21; 19:5-6, 25-27; 21:7-9
Early in May my wife and I visited our son who lives in Baltimore. He is the program director for the Downtown Sailing Center, a non-profit organization that runs a special sailing program for children and adults with disabilities. On Saturday morning we observed about 25 participants and an almost equal number of volunteers sailing the Inner Harbor.
We spoke briefly with a young woman who appeared to be about the age of our son. She shared that she had brought her mother, who was a paraplegic. She did not share what caused her mom’s condition, nor did we ask. What was obvious was she loved her mom, and was doing what she could to help make life better for her. Another sailor was a man named Bob. Apparently Bob was a regular, because even though he had no capacity to get in the boat unaided, and minimal verbal communication ability, he was able to sail solo, and do it quite well.
The question “Who Said Life Would Be Fair?” is a most difficult question to ask and answer. A few years ago my dad had a leg amputated. Since then he’s dealt with other health-declining issues. To his credit, he’s been a trooper. He doesn’t invite or want pity. As best as he can, he strives to live.
Today’s text includes conversations from the second series of speeches between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. As someone once said to me, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” Collectively, they possessed little tolerance for Job’s assertion that he was blameless. Eliphaz called Job “a sinner using crafty language;” Job’s own words condemned him. Bildad and Zophar concurred that Job must be “guilty as sin.”
Job’s counter to these hurting assertions was his continued belief in God: “His heavenly witness is his advocate (16:19) and he knows that his Redeemer lives (19:25).” That being said, Job still could not understand why the wicked and their families were prospering while he was living in torment.