Tuesday
“Oh, that I knew where I might find him” (v. 3)
Psalm: Psalm 101
Background
The book of Job explores the problem of suffering. Job, struckdown by devastating and disfiguring illness, struggles to makesense of it. He cannot accept the superficial argument of hisfriends that people suffer simply because they are wicked. He feelshis suffering is unjust. In our passage he struggles with theremoteness of God. It is not that he does not believe in God;rather, God seems far off and inaccessible, and his cries ofdistress seem to be going unheeded.
Many people have found themselves in that situation, or know ofothers who have experienced it. The one thing Job refuses to do isto abandon faith altogether. In spite of his protest he clings onto the conviction that God is fundamentally just.
If you reflect on verse 3, quoted above, you may find it helpfulto set alongside it John 1:18, "No one has ever seen God. It is Godthe only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made himknown."
To Ponder
- To what extent is it ever true to say, 'People suffer becausethey are wicked'?
- If, in your experience, God seems remote, how do you deal withthat?