March 23, 2009
Call in hospice, Job believes he is going to die.
Job 17
Judy Wimberley
Central Truth
Job’s thoughts from the pit of suffering and despair instruct us about God, ourselves, and hope.
Key Verse | Job 17:15
"[W]here then is my hope? And my hope, who sees it?" (Job 17:15)
Job 17
Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?
1
My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
2
Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3
Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
4
Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5
He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
6
He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7
My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
8
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9
Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10
But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11
My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12
They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
1
17:12
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
13
If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15
where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”
2
17:16
Or Will they go down to the bars of Sheol? Is rest to be found together in the dust?
Dive Deeper | Job 17
Hearing all the Facebook buzz words, “status,” “friends,” “walls,” and “flair,” I wondered what response Job would receive if he posted his thoughts from Chapter 17 on Facebook?
Job: Status—“Life stinks and my friends, all three of them, are tormentors and spit in my face. There is not a wise one among them and the graveyard is ready for me. I am in darkness, eyes worn out by weeping, losing weight from worry and stress—down to a skeleton. My hopes are dashed. The worms of decay replace my family members. Hope and I will go to the grave to rest together.”
I can imagine Job posting a picture of himself covered in boils sitting on a heap of ashes. I would love to see the responses to that. I can imagine two:
1. “Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, good life.”—God (See Job 42:16)
2. “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”— Corrie ten Boom, Holocaust survivor, prisoner at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp; released by clerical error just before all the women her age at Ravensbruck were killed.
In our deepest pits, God is there, and He has plans. He is the decider of death in spite of circumstances, disease, or our feelings. We can express and unload our deepest feelings to Him just as Job, even in his darkest times, turned to God.
Learning to be a comforting friend rather than a tormentor is a life-learning process gained by prayer and study of biblical comforters. Note God’s comfort of Job in future chapters.
Our hope must be in the Resurrection. Hope went to the grave with Jesus who, though in the deepest pit in Gethsemane and surrounded by tormentors on the cross, emerged victoriously to give us the amazing gift of sharing in His Resurrected Hope. His resurrection is the ultimate Facebook posting for all eternity, and He invites each of us to be His friend. (See John 15:13-15)
Discussion Questions
1. From whom have you received true comfort in your life? What characterized that comfort that made it effective in your life?
2. What hinders you from being honest with God and with your community about your “pit” times?
3. In what “balloons” have you placed your hope, only to see them burst?