This post requires two responses. I’ve called the text a modern complaint because of the fact that many men are left in the position Job mentions. They are held in contempt by their wives, and their children are alienated from them. This is fairly typical:
I have a work colleague who was married 25 years, has 4 kids… they seemed great together. Wifey announces out of the blue, that she never loved “him” hates being married, doesn’t want the kids and she ups and leaves with her old high school boyfriend…she is 54. BUT she absolutely wanted 1/2 of everything, alimony and a claim on his retirement, PLUS child support, just because! He’s been going through the court meat grinder for the past year and a half.
So Job’s complaint that the comforts he has built up over many years not being there resonates with modern men. Although many scholars argue that this is the oldest text in the bible, the ancients again show that they are remarkably clear minded and the situation he describes is current.
There are many middle aged men who have been in the situation mentioned above, and they are basically where Job is. Abandoned, and without any comfort from their religious friends.
1Then Job answered: 2“How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words? 3These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me? 4And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me. 5If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me, 6know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me. 7Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice.
14“My relatives and my close friends have failed me; 15the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. 16I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him. 17My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family. 18Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me.19All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. 20My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! 22Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?
23“O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! 24O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; 26and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, 27whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Now, the other part of the text is a testament to the faith of the righteous. Despite being despised, damned, and without any resources or hope or health, Job states he will see God and in the flesh. This is one of the first texts that demonstrate that our resurrection will be of the body. It is also a reminded to us all.
Our job is to remain faithful. Despite our circumstances. Not because of our situation, but despite it. If we can, we are to do good and bring glory to God.
It is not about spiritual growth or how spiritual we sound. Or how happy we are. It is about others. If we look at ourselves, we will despair, for youth is fleeting and the alternative to aging is the grave. But we have time, still to be faithful, to stand, and be no man’s slave, and help others. For we will see him, even if we would prefer not to.
