Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy … - Job 10:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 31, 2018): Job 10

Joseph Heller, the author of the war satire “Catch-22,” commented that “There is no disappointment so numbing...as someone no better than you achieving more.” The question of why some achieve success while others labor without it is a hard one for us to understand. Success often comes down to hard work and being able to pursue our goals single-mindedly. But sometimes even that is not enough. Sometimes success seems to come down to dumb luck, or fate, or something else that is well beyond our control. And in the moments when we finally come to understand that, the disappointment can sometimes seem unbearable.

Job is disappointed. He is surrounded by friends who are no better than him. in fact, in the introduction to the story, unbeknownst to Job, God has already judged Job to be the better man among his circle of friends, and yet they seem to be enjoying the pleasures of life while Job suffers. It isn’t fair. Job has been faithful. Job has led an honest life. Job fears God. He has worked hard for everything that he has gained. And now it has all been taken away from him, while his friends enjoy their successes.

Commentators seem to agree that Job is not bitter, but he is very disappointed. This was not the way that he imagined that his life might end. He looks back on his life; he recognizes that the days are short, a lot shorter than he would have imagined at the start. His health has failed. The reality for all of us is that failing health is often what reminds us of our advancing age. As long as our health stays with us, then we feel young. And now, as he contemplates the end of his life, he is no longer surrounded by the family that he once had enjoyed. And in the mind of Job, and in the theology of his friends, the reason for the loss was that Job had somehow failed God.

It is disappointment that causes Job to make one last request. It is too late to replace all that he had lost, but if God would just turn his hard gaze away for one moment, maybe Job could find a moment's happiness before his life came to an end. What Job does not realize is that his strength and ability to meet the challenges in this portion of life is present only because God has refused to avert his eyes. It is the strength of God that has allowed him to move forward through this moment of his life.

Our truth is that often when our circumstances lead us to believe that God is far away, or that he might be angry with us, it is in that moment that he is the closest. In those moments, God allows us to lean on him and use his strength as we struggle to put one foot in front of the other to move forward. And, like Job, the last thing that we need at these times is for God to turn away.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 11