What
happened in between? My reading is that Job had a bad case of entitlement. He
basically says, “Let me state my case before God. I’ll prove my innocence and
convince God He was wrong to put me through all this suffering.” Even the oft
quoted verse “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” actually ends with “yet I
will argue my case before Him” (13:15).
I haven’t used those exact words,
but that has been the motivation in my heart at times. “I’ve done these good things,
I’ve trusted You and praised You, and yet I’m suffering. I’ve endured various
types of suffering, and yet You still don’t bring me relief.” Sometimes it
seems like we should be entitled to things we don’t get. Not just material
things, but the spiritual blessings that come from being a child of God. He
says we’ve been blessed “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3), and yet those blessings often seem so
elusive.
Now’s
a good time to confess that I don’t always practice what I preach. I can write
about true hope being founded on the expectation of God’s promises, while
simultaneously wishing God would change my circumstances. And when He doesn’t,
I can get angry enough to want to argue my case before God. Hope can quickly degenerate
into entitlement if I’m not careful.
So
where does that leaves us? A few thoughts come to mind—
1)
It does no good to argue with God or try to bargain with Him. His ways and
means are so foreign to us that all we can do is put our hand over our mouth as
Job did.
2)
There may be a bigger story taking place than we can ever imagine. I’ve often
wondered exactly how the heavenly dialogue of Job 1 was revealed in order to be
included in Scripture. Did God tell Job what had happened, or was some other
writer enlightened after the fact?
3)
God’s promises in Scripture are true whether we believe them or not, and
whether we experience them for ourselves or not. Despite Job’s fears that God
wouldn’t even listen to him (9:16), he found out that God not only heard him,
but knew what was going on better than Job did.
4)
Sin can hinder us from seeing what God is doing. Whether it was Job’s sense of
entitlement, or the Israelites’ fear that God wouldn’t provide for their needs
in the wilderness and in the Promised Land, sin can get in the way. It can make
a small problem bigger, and it can make it last longer. I’m sure the Israelites
felt entitled to enter the Promised Land after their slavery in Egypt and
wandering in the wilderness, but they found out they had missed out on the
blessing because of their lack of faith. The Promised Land then became the
dream of the next generation.
What
it boils down to is: confess and repent of what is revealed to be sin, trust
God to keep His promises, and pray for the eyes to see what He is doing and the
endurance to wait for His timing. Easier said than done, but I’m working on it!
