1122 - Job Asks God How He Has Sinned
Job Asks God How He Has Sinned
“O God, grant me these two things, …and then I will be able to face you.
Remove Your heavy hand from me, and don’t terrify me with Your awesome presence.
Now summon me, and I will answer!
Or let me speak to You, and You reply.
Tell me, what have I done wrong?
Show me my rebellion, and my sin.
Why do You turn away from me?
Why do you treat me as Your enemy?
Would You terrify a leaf blown by the wind?
Would You chase dry straw?
“You write bitter accusations against me, and bring up all the sins, of my youth.
You put my feet in stocks.
You examine all my paths.
You trace all my footprints.
I waste away like rotting wood,
like a moth-eaten coat.
“How frail is humanity!
How short is life, how full of trouble!
We blossom like a flower, and then wither.
Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
Must You keep an eye on such a frail creature, and demand an accounting from me?
Who can bring purity …out of an impure person?
No one!
You have decided the length of our lives.
You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.
So leave us alone and let us rest!
We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work, in peace.
“Even a tree has more hope!
If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and grow new branches.
Though its roots have grown old, in the earth, and its stump decays,
…at the scent of water, it will bud
and sprout again, like a new seedling.
“But when people die, their strength is gone.
They breathe their last, and then where are they?
As water evaporates, from a lake,
and a river disappears in drought,
people are laid to rest, and do not rise again.
Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up, nor be roused from their sleep.
“I wish You would hide me, in the grave, and forget me there, until Your anger has passed.
But mark Your calendar, to think of me again!
Can the dead live again?
If so, this would give me hope, through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await… the release of death.
You would call, and I would answer, and You would yearn for me, Your handiwork.
For then You would guard my steps, instead of watching, for my sins.
My sins would be sealed, in a pouch, and You would cover my guilt.
“But instead, as mountains fall and crumble, and as rocks fall from a cliff, …as water wears away the stones, and floods wash away the soil, …so You destroy people’s hope.
You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene.
You disfigure them, in death, and send them away.
They never know, if their children grow up in honor, or sink to insignificance.
They suffer painfully;
their life is full of trouble.”
Tyndale House Publishers.
Job 13:20-14:22
Praise be to God!
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