Job 7:16-21

Beloved of God,

This evening’s Bible passage is Job 7:16-21 (NRSV). It starts out very negatively, as one might expect from Job, but—from a Christian perspective—really perks up toward the end.

¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
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?
Why have you made me your target?
Why have I become a burden to you?
²¹ Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

The words are Job’s. He’s in a foul mood, and who can blame him, given all he’s been through? I chose this passage because some of us, faced by COVID-19, may be battling similar thoughts.

Job’s fed up with life and with God. He wishes God would quit bothering him. He asks God why God cares about human beings. Would God, please, focus on something else and just leave Job alone? And, why does God make so much fuss about sin? It’s not as if human sin harmed God. God’s at a safe distance, always watching us to find fault but himself undamaged by our sin. (Or, we might be tempted to say, by COVID-19).

If Job’s sin is such a problem for God, Job says, “Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?” This is where everything turns around for the Christian reader. For God has pardoned our transgressions. He has taken away our iniquity. Isaiah foretold Christ’s sacrificial death:

⁴ Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

Far from being untouched by our sins, God loves us so much that he was willing to take the full penalty for our sin on himself. Christ died on the cross, not only in physical agony but also in the mental anguish of feeling utterly forsaken, all so that we would be spared that penalty. “What are human beings,” Job asked of God, “that you make so much of them?” We are those whom God loved enough to die for.

There’s even more good news to be found at the end of Job’s complaint. “For now I shall lie in the earth,” Job mutters at God. “You will seek me, but I shall not be.” God will finally have to leave Job alone, because Job will die and altogether cease to exist. He’ll end God’s interest in him by dying. So there, God!

But, just twelve chapters later (19:25-27), Job has understood a very different truth:

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
²⁶ and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

Death is not the end. Christ rose from the dead and so shall Job and so shall we. This is how much God loves us, this is why he bothers with us, this is why our sin hurts him, and this is how he rescues us from the consequences of our sin. We are forgiven because Christ died. We will see God with our own eyes because Christ rose from the dead, “the first fruits of those who have died” (1 Cor. 15:20).

We may be tempted at times to despair like Job. It’s not unreasonable under the circumstances. But, when we face our situation—however bad it might be—in the light of what God has already done for us and will yet do for us in Christ, we have good reason to give thanks and to sing God’s praise, even in the midst of our present troubles.

Peace,

Max