Daily Lesson for August 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 7 verses 11 through 20:

11 ‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

   I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

   I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 

12 Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,

   that you set a guard over me? 

13 When I say, “My bed will comfort me,

   my couch will ease my complaint”,

14 then you scare me with dreams

   and terrify me with visions, 

15 so that I would choose strangling

   and death rather than this body. 

16 I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.

   Let me alone, for my days are a breath. 

17 What are human beings, that you make so much of them,

   that you set your mind on them, 

18 visit them every morning,

   test them every moment? 

19 Will you not look away from me for a while,

   let me alone until I swallow my spittle? 

20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?

There is an honesty in the book of Job that we just won’t find anywhere else than in those who suffer. 

The writer of Job doesn’t think it’s his job to protect God from hard questions. Job’s suffering is real, it’s vexing, and it calls for questions. “Where is God? Why does God allow this?  Is God doing it Himself? Is God petty? Cruel? Distant and uncaring? Powerless?”

The questions are not necessarily answered. And there is no answer which would satisfy. But though the questions are not answered, they are, perhaps more importantly, nonetheless asked. Job’s questions are our questions. They are humanity’s questions. And the book of Job tells us God’s people should not be too protective of God to ask them. 

A youth leader used to tell us, “God isn’t afraid of your questions.”  I can’t say how many times I’ve quoted that over the years. God isn’t afraid of our questions; nor is God afraid of our anger.

And the church ought not to be so afraid either.