JOB
DEPRESSION
“Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade and like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages so I have been allotted months of futility and wearisome nights have been appointed to me” (Job 7:2,3).
In contemporary terms, we could say that Job is the powerful participant in an experimental study to satisfy Satan’s curiosity: Will Job curse his Creator if we put him under enough pressure? Job tragically loses his ten children, his servants, pack animals, flocks and houses. In the second phase, Satan sends him painful sores that affect his entire body. His wife and friends turn against him. However, faced with such trial, Job did not sin or blame God for any of the misfortunes (Job 1:22; 2:10).
Despite his faithfulness, Job still went through intense suffering. Today’s verse denotes a deep and persistent pain seen in the words, «months of futility, and wearisome nights.» One of the toughest passages is his desire to die, «Oh, chat I might have my request, that God would grant me the thing that I long for! That it would please God to crush me, that He would loose His hand and cut me off!» (Job 6:8-9).
Job’s life teaches us a fundamental lesson in order to understand the nonsense of life. Compared to other men chosen by God (such as King David, who frequently suffered from the consequences of his own mistakes), Job receives extreme harm and injustice. It is true that, as a human being, Job might have done something wrong, but his main traits were kindness, faithfulness and obedience to God (l: l).
Why did Job have to unjustly suffer? It is a question that is very easy to answer. I (J) met people who were faithful to God, yet they have received disproportionate hardships. I’m thinking about Cliff, a teacher who voluntarily offered to serve in a distant country, and one of the vaccines caused him a reaction that permanently paralyzed his legs. I’m thinking about Peter, a very skillful pastor who suffered from lung cancer without smoking his entire life. And about Marcela, a caring housewife who had to suffer with the painful diagnosis and severe treatment of breast cancer at the age of forty. Many times, they wondered why. Job’s story, even inexplicable in many aspects, makes us understand the cosmic conflict in which we are involved.
It is reassuring to know that «the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning» (Job 42:12). Even if this does not happen in our life, let us remember that God always offers an ultimate solution, «Look to Me, and be saved» (Isa. 45:22).
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Taken from: Daily Devotions for Adults 2020
“A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine”
From: Julian Melgoza-Laura Fidanza
Colaboradores: Alejandra Zavala