Thursday 22nd May 2008 - Job 10
1 I am tired of living. Listen to my bitter complaint. 2 Don't condemn me, God. Tell me! What is the charge against me? 3 Is it right for you to be so cruel? To despise what you yourself have made? 6 Why do you track down all my sins and hunt down every fault I have? 7 You know that I am not guilty, that no one can save me from you. 8 Your hands formed and shaped me, and now those same hands destroy me. 12 You have given me life and constant love, and your care has kept me alive. 13 But now I know that all that time you were secretly planning to harm me. 14 You were watching to see if I would sin, so that you could refuse to forgive me. 18 Why, God, did you let me be born? I should have died before anyone saw me. 19 To go from the womb straight to the grave would have been as good as never existing. 20 Isn't my life almost over? Leave me alone! [GNB]
Job 10 must be one of the blackest chapters in the bible. It is there because it expresses the deepest groans of humanity. For many religious people it contains words that should never be uttered, but for me the cry is of the people of Burma washed away in the terrible storms, and then denied any help. It is the cries of those in China after a huge earthquake; the cries of the deliberately stricken people of Zimbabwe; the cry of the desolate, the starving, the helpless, the hopeless.
They, like Job, seem to have a case against God. They too are ‘innocent’ in that they were the targets of forces that were not directed against them in particular.
“Leave me alone!” is their cry. But we cannot – we must not.
Despite Job’s words, he clearly still believes God is there (or else, who to blame?) and that he can be made to care. And God has shown that he does care, by sending his Son.
This week I have been collecting Christian Aid envelopes and seen at the same time poverty of people who cannot spare a penny, and the poverty of people who can, but won’t.
There is a well known saying “Christ has no hands but our hands”.
Maybe we need to use them. | 