Observation: Job is at a place where everything that had given his life meaning, joy and identity has been lost. Everything he highly valued has been taken away. It is in this place of deepest brokenness that he says, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.”
Application: It is an interesting exercise to read the book of Job focusing only on his words, to the exclusion of his friend’s opining. As we read in so many of the Psalms, Job seems to have mastered the art of writing laments, and this is nowhere more evident than in this particular chapter.
A good lament holds the seeds of being tremendously healing if done properly. Lament can be far more than just a litany of losses, complaints and railings against a God who has seemingly abandoned me in my season of greatest need. If all I am doing is complaining about pain, there is little hope for recovery or benefit. I am simply wallowing, declaring God to be nowhere near, perhaps even hoping others will see and join me in my sorrow.
The most healing laments, though, begin with a clear-eyed assessment of the source of my deepest pain, but they don’t stop there. Those circumstances are almost always “out there”…external to me…things like sundered relationships, profound financial loss, a world roiling in sin that crouches ever closer. And even if I have a frightening medical diagnosis, even that is actually external to me because at my core I am a spiritual being, created by a god whose love is never ending, never diminished in the slightest by all these frightful things. I must remember that all of these will one day pass away.
Verse 15, then, begins the turning, going beyond honest reflection on Job’s present suffering. In the midst of pain and loss, he says to the Lord that no matter what happens…even if he were to kill him, Job will still hope in God.
Could I have written that verse with the same conviction as Job? During seasons of horrific loss in my own life, I must realize there is nothing wrong with confession of loss and its attendant pain. But there is an important difference between honest admission and negative words spoken over myself. If I allow my heart to become bitter and trust in God to dim, then despair and darkness are all that remain.
It is only by trusting fully in what he has said about himself and what he declares about his undiminished, unconditional love for me that enables mine to become a world class lament. “Yes Lord, all this stuff is painful… but you are…what is he again? Now I remember: You are able, you are good. Your love never fails. You are my God, and I will ever adore you.
Prayer: In Jesus’ name I will hope in you O Lord, no matter what. I am your creation as the clay is the potter’s. No matter the outcome of life’s greatest pain, you may do whatever you will with me because you are good, and your love for me is never-ending. Lord Jesus, I pray that my response will be as Job’s. Amen and Hallelujah!