"I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me." (Job 30:20, NIV)
"....You do not answer;..you merely look at me." There was a song which came out years ago called "How Insensitive." It was the song of a person who had fallen "out of love" and the extreme heartbreak of the one from whom he had parted. One part says, "'Why,' she must have asked, 'did I just turn and stare in icy silence?'" What a painful experience. But how much more painful when a person interprets life's suffering in such a way, people who believe our Lord Jesus Christ "just turn[ed] and stare[d] in icy silence." We know in our right mind that He cannot do this. He is Love Personified. His "hardest" responses to people were always in His love, His compassion, His knowing-best for all humanity.
From chapter 26 to 31 Job speaks with no response from the "friends." The debate, the accusations, went on and on in the early chapters of the book, and, of course, we know about the young man who came along, seemingly in deference to age, but really no better than the other 3. In the six uninterrupted chapters Job's mourning seems to get worse, " I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me." Could Job have also said, "just turn and stare in icy silence?"
"Suffering can drive us to the Father's heart to seek His healing, care, protection, and encouragement. Suffering can also disillusion and embitter us. It can drive us from God with questions born of despair. When the latter occurs, we need to recognize it as a temptation of the Evil One. That sort of temptation can only fine its mark if we wrongly assume that God's love for us and the reality of suffering don't go together. But they do. We are promised grace, not an absence of difficulty and suffering." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Father, in Jesus' Name, I know there is no "icy silence" in You, just a silence when I could never understand though You were to speak. Amen.
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No "limited warfare"-- read at: www.jerusalemberlinwashington.blogspot.com
"....You do not answer;..you merely look at me." There was a song which came out years ago called "How Insensitive." It was the song of a person who had fallen "out of love" and the extreme heartbreak of the one from whom he had parted. One part says, "'Why,' she must have asked, 'did I just turn and stare in icy silence?'" What a painful experience. But how much more painful when a person interprets life's suffering in such a way, people who believe our Lord Jesus Christ "just turn[ed] and stare[d] in icy silence." We know in our right mind that He cannot do this. He is Love Personified. His "hardest" responses to people were always in His love, His compassion, His knowing-best for all humanity.
From chapter 26 to 31 Job speaks with no response from the "friends." The debate, the accusations, went on and on in the early chapters of the book, and, of course, we know about the young man who came along, seemingly in deference to age, but really no better than the other 3. In the six uninterrupted chapters Job's mourning seems to get worse, " I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me." Could Job have also said, "just turn and stare in icy silence?"
"Suffering can drive us to the Father's heart to seek His healing, care, protection, and encouragement. Suffering can also disillusion and embitter us. It can drive us from God with questions born of despair. When the latter occurs, we need to recognize it as a temptation of the Evil One. That sort of temptation can only fine its mark if we wrongly assume that God's love for us and the reality of suffering don't go together. But they do. We are promised grace, not an absence of difficulty and suffering." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Father, in Jesus' Name, I know there is no "icy silence" in You, just a silence when I could never understand though You were to speak. Amen.
****************
No "limited warfare"-- read at: www.jerusalemberlinwashington.blogspot.com
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
