Why me and not them?

And so the conversation back and forth continues. Job 20 sees another response to Job from his friend Zophar.

Zophar: Sorry, Job, I can’t keep quiet. I can’t keep what I’m thinking to myself. I’m really upset. Really worked up. I can hear what you’re saying against us, against me and I need to speak up in response.

You know how it’s been right from the start for us humans. The lives of those who live without God may shine bright for a moment but they soon fade. Like a dream, the godless man disappears. The bad that is inside him turns all that is good in his life to bad. He can’t enjoy anything he has worked for in the end. And all because he didn’t treat the poor fairly and stole what didn’t belong to him. All that’s left for him is distress, misery, suffering and terror.

And what comes to my mind on reading that?

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

Always treat others as you would want them to treat you. An important life lesson right there.

Job: Listen to me, my friends. Listen carefully. That would bring me great comfort in itself. Just to be listened to properly for a change. Bear with me while I speak. After that, you can do what you want. Mock me again if you want.

I’m not complaining at you, at any human being in fact. Just look at me. Take a really good look. Are you not absolutely appalled at at what you see? I am. The state I am in terrifies me. Are you telling me you wouldn’t be impatient if you were in my place?

I look around me and just can’t understand how bad people seem to get on in the world. They grow old. They stay healthy. They’re more and more successful. They have great children. Their animals are healthy. Their homes are secure. They’re happy. They have much to celebrate. They have everything they need and more besides. They die in peace.

And yet their whole lives, they have rejected God. Ignored His ways. Done their own thing.

Yes, sometimes, people like that get what’s coming to them, but not always. Where’s the justice in that?

And when we die, we’re all reduced to dust. Every one of us. Our bodies lie side by side in the ground, regardless of what our lives have been like. Whether we’ve had a good life or a life filled with suffering.

Who ever has had the courage to confront these people with what they have done? With what is potentially coming to them?

So don’t try to console me with your nonsense. It’s all lies.

Don’t tell me you’ve never thought like Job. That it’s never crossed your mind to question why something bad is happening to you rather than someone else. To even identify someone who you feel deserves it more than you do. To envy those whose lives seem to be running so smoothly. To feel some sense of justice when someone who has wronged you suffers. To feel some sense of indignation when a really good person goes through unimaginable suffering.

It happens. We’re human. We want there to be a formula. We want to be be able to explain. We need to understand. We can’t sit comfortably with the unknowns. Basically, we find it hard to trust that God knows what He’s doing. What He’s allowing.

Trust seems so simplistic. So naive. So easy and yet so hard.

Is that really the way forward? Trusting God for the answers. Answers we may never grasp this side of heaven.

Let’s give it a go.