I Like the Book of Job

I cannot eat for sighing; my groans pour out like water. (Job 3:24 NLT)

I know many people think the book of Job is depressing. It’s not very popular. First there is a rich man named Job, who fell on some very hard times. Not good. Then some windbags get together and yak, and blah, blah, blah. And then, in the end, Job becomes rich again. This is basically the whole book. All 42 chapters—minus a lot of details. But it’s because of these details that I like the book.

First Job was rich, but because of fire, theft, and a house collapsing, killing his sons and daughters… Then, to make things worse, his health failed. Yet, he never cursed God. Being a caregiver to my wife, I know what stress is, but I don’t know if I could handle what Job went through. All this happened in the first two chapters of the book of Job.

Most of the rest of the book describes Job’s friends coming to talk with him. They talk about how righteous Job is, then how sinful Job is. They also talk about how righteous and just and powerful God is, and also how unfair He is. They talk like they all koew it all. But when you pay attention, you’ll realize they don’t. My Dad would call this, “Just flapping their jaws.” Basically these were just four men talking like morons. God even said so. OK, God did not use the word moron.

I have read the book of Job several times in the past. Some say it was written 4500 years ago. Yet, in it I have found ancient mines and mining tools. If we were talking about modern times, we would say verse 11 is a small hydro-electric dam.

But even though all this is true and very interesting (to me anyway), I am getting off topic. Chapter 3 is hard for me to read. Is this how my wife feels? Her health started to fail last year. I have been her caregiver ever since. She remembers how things used to be. How her body and her mind used to be. She knows how things are now, and she mourns for those days in the past. I do, too. Her body is a shell of what it used to be. She knows the stress I’m under. Even though I try to hide it, I know I fail. By the end of June, we will be married 40 years.

Job, with all his suffering, said he needed a mediator (Job 16:18-22). Sounds like he is referring to Jesus. John 16:6 says, “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me’” (NLT). Jesus said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me” (John 14:1 NLT). I do trust Him.

But to be honest, I am also sad and sometimes angry about what is happening to my wife. I know we have a mighty and awesome God. I have seen miracles. I have seen God heal! Just like Job, there is so much I don’t understand. All I can do, and all I have done, is call out to God and trust Him.

Maybe I like the book of Job, because I can relate to it.