What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web. – Job 8:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 19, 2012): Job 8

Growing up, I loved to read superhero comic books. Batman, Superman, and Nova were some that I loved to read. But my favorite was Spiderman. I guess I related to Peter Parker in some ways that I probably didn’t realize until I was much older. I was never really a wallflower, but I didn’t enjoy the fight. But I did enjoy – and I still enjoy – the intellectual pursuits that this life has to offer. And yet, at the same time, I also enjoyed the more physical aspects of life. I loved to play football or pickup games of hockey. I liked basketball, but my first reaction on defense was to tackle the ball carrier, and for some reason the rules of basketball seemed to frown on that action. It was like somewhere deep inside of me there was a battle raging – a battle between the intellectual Peter Parker who enjoys the more cerebral activities of life, and the Spiderman persona that enjoys the more physical elements and activities. And at various points in my life, a different aspect of my personality seems to win the battle. Sometimes it is Peter Parker, but at other times it was the Spiderman side of me that prevailed.

In the Spiderman saga, Spiderman is the strong side of the equation. Even his webs are strong, almost unbreakable. He is able to swing from and bind his prey with them. But in real life, Spider webs are inconsequential. I have never been a bug person. And there is nothing worse than walking through a dark space and feeling the spider webs clinging to you as you break through them. It is especially annoying if you don’t know that they are there. But ultimately, the webs of spider are too fragile to cause us harm.

Bildad’s comment is that those that trust in something other than God will find that they are trusting in something that is as fragile as a spider web. It has no hope of holding you up – and all it will ever do is annoy us. But our reality is that we still put our trust in them. In our minds, they are more like Spiderman’s webs than they are like the spider webs of our reality. We believe that they will hold us up, but they won’t.

It is the reality that we need to come to terms with. What we rely on, outside of God, will never be as substantial as we hope. And what we trust to the spider webs of this life will always be in danger of falling. Because the webs of Spiderman exist nowhere outside of the comic books of my youth. 

      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 9