Job 7:1-3
“Has not man a hard service on earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
Tag: Life Can Feel Futile
In chapter’s six and seven of Job we are reading both Job’s response to his friend, Eliphaz’s, words of “encouragement.” Eliphaz as, in essence, told Job that the reason for his pain and suffering is his sin. Job responds as most of us: He defends himself. But, what is recorded in chapter seven is more Job’s response to Eliphaz AND to God. Job seems to be turning his complaints to God and begins to wonder about life as a whole. In the above text we read that life can be quite futile. Job is painting a picture of life based upon the view of his current lens: Pain and suffering. When we experience pain and suffering, we can often think that life is very futile and not worth living. Remember, in the beginning of chapter three of this book, Job wished he had never been born:
Job 3:3
“Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
He would soon become suicidal:
Job 3:11-13
“Why did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
Elijah, the prophet of God, also spoke with this heavy heart:
1 Kings 19:4
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
Yet, even in all abundance life can seem to be futile. Read Solomon’s words about life:
Ecclesiastes 2:4-11
I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Life can seem futile. It is only when we look through the lens of Christ’s Words that we can understand that IN CHRIST we have joy and peace. This word is meant to be futile. It is not meant to satisfy the longing in our hearts. What we long for is ONLY found in Christ. We should all have the same lens as Job. We should see the weight of this world as a struggle and a tiresome burden. It should force us to run to Christ and rest in His Words:
Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
We can find the rest we need in the arms of Christ!!
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