Job 23 and 24: Desire and Terror
Friday, May 24, 2019
Commentary from La Biblia de América: Job continues in his search for a personal encounter with God, both seeking and fearing him; but the judgment of his companions does not speak to his condition. Job finds himself bereft not because he has broken God’s law in any way. His sins do not bring him to this spot of desperation; he suffers innocently from circumstances beyond his control. Yet amid all of this hurt, Job refuses to reject God; indeed, he seeks God all the more with each new wave of pain. Job actually takes refuge in his suffering, frightened and even terrified, waiting for his end. He describes an impotence which we ourselves may feel at a time when we are abandoned and have no recourse. We suffer while the wicked experience success. A victim of bad luck and injustice, Job experiences a reality too awful to be concealed. Further footnotes tell us that verses 18 through 25 have appeared here rather than where they may rightly belong – in a previous chapter – perhaps the copyist could not bear the pain and so thought to bring consolation from another place.
This lament of Job guides any and each of us through a wave of pain so intense that it nearly takes one’s breath away. This level of suffering can only be healed by God . . . and it is upon God that Job calls.
Today’s reading asks us to think about our desire to see and know God . . . face to face. Job’s unquenched yearning is void of any wish to exact punishment or revenge on anyone or anything. Job questions. Job fears. Yet Job does not leave God perhaps because he knows that God has not left him.
The imagery today describes a dichotomy of longing accompanied by fear. Job needs to experience God’s presence in his life . . . and he fears that perhaps he will never escape this place of emptiness where the wicked have full sway. He survives in a twilight world where day and night co-exist, and he fears that the darkness will win out.
As we have observed, perhaps it is for this reason that a later copyist has inserted the words which we know Job believes because they hold truth and because they describe what Job does . . . he refuses to give up, he holds on to hope and he waits.
To him who rises without assurance of his life he gives safety and support.
When we find ourselves in the pit of misery described by Job, we must remember that the force of our yearning will be met, matched, and exceeded by God’s love . . . for he is life itself.
To him who rises without assurance of his life he gives safety and support.
A re-post from May 9, 2012.
LA BIBLIA DE LA AMÉRICA. 8th. Madrid: La Casa de la Biblia, 1994. Print.
For more reflections on the Book of Job click the image above or go to: http://agapegeek.com/category/bible-study/job/
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