Contemplative Bible Reading

Job 36:2 (New Living Translation)

Let me go on, and I will show you the truth.
For I have not finished defending God!

This is part of the back-and-forth among Job and his close friends as they discuss the plight of Job and his misery. And, let’s not forget, Job had been struck with big calamities. And, let’s not forget, Job’s friends were friends. While some of their arguments and advice were poor, they were present when Job needed someone to be present. They sat around a cold camp fire with him for a week.

Elihu is speaking now. Part of this monologue is his attempts to defend God and God’s actions toward Job.

Let’s pause a moment to consider the “defending God” part. Does God need Elihu, me, or any other well-meaning person’s defense? Uh, well, gosh, nope, not at all.

If I am defending God, I am helping God, and God needs my help because I am superior to God, and … I think we are going in the wrong direction here. This train of thought shows that perhaps I am not thinking at all.

And perhaps that is what had stricken Job and his friends as well. Disasters, like those that struck Job, jumble our emotions and cloud our thinking. None of the folks in this long conversation were emotionally stable and thinking clearly. That, more than anything else, explains to me why such bad advice and responses were going back and forth.

Fatigue wins in this weak, imperfect physical world in which we live in physical bodies. It’s just too much for us. We should nap more and talk less. I guess that is the point of this little blog post. Rest before work. Recreation, recreating with the energy given us by God, before deep discussion. We as Christians, have much to share with an unbelieving world. Let’s try to share the best of rest, not the fatigue.