HANDMADE
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, you have captured and enraptured me with your love. Today, continue your transforming work in my life.
Read JOB 10
“I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,
but tell me what charges you have against me.
3 Does it please you to oppress me,
to spurn the work of your hands,
while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as a mortal sees?
5 Are your days like those of a mortal
or your years like those of a strong man,
6 that you must search out my faults
and probe after my sin—
7 though you know that I am not guilty
and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
8 “Your hands shaped me and made me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9 Remember that you molded me like clay.
Will you now turn me to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese,
11 clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?
12 You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit.
13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart,
and I know that this was in your mind:
14 If I sinned, you would be watching me
and would not let my offense go unpunished.
15 If I am guilty—woe to me!
Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,
for I am full of shame
and drowned in[a] my affliction.
16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion
and again display your awesome power against me.
17 You bring new witnesses against me
and increase your anger toward me;
your forces come against me wave upon wave.
18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?
I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
19 If only I had never come into being,
or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
20 Are not my few days almost over?
Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
21 before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
22 to the land of deepest night,
of utter darkness and disorder,
where even the light is like darkness.”
Footnotes
- Job 10:15 Or and aware of
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker’ (Psalm 95:6).Job pours out his frustration to God. What is God playing at, bringing suffering on him while others get away with all kinds of wickedness (v 3)? It’s a familiar complaint. I’ve heard hospital patients ask why they should suffer when the newspaper is full of stories of rogues prospering. What is your response to this question?
Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) introduced the idea of ‘faith seeking understanding;’ we can start to believe without understanding everything about God. For Job, this is a painful process. Like the psalmist (Psalm 139:13), he knows that God made him and holds him in his hands (vs 8–12), but why does he bring such pain? He knows God is just – and that he is innocent.
Though he remembers the good times God gave him (v 12), it seems as if God has turned against him. As in his earlier lament (chapter 3), he still wonders if maybe it would have been better not to have been born (v 19).
As we leave Job for now, he is still in physical pain, he still protests his innocence to friends who fail to understand him, and life brings little joy. But he continues to believe in, and speak to, the God who made him. Job, his friends, and readers have had their preconceptions about God’s justice challenged.
Apply
Reflect on the times you have faced difficulties. How did they affect your understanding of God and your relationship with him?
Closing prayer
Lord, I acknowledge that life presents me with many challenges. However, I know that you are always with me and will guide me through the storms of life. I love you and praise you.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.