Author: Danny Panter

Re:Verse passage – Job 13:15-16; 14:1-2, 14-17 (day six)

How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! Job 14:1

Suffering, or any of the hard things in life, have a way of making us really think about meaning and purpose. We can’t help but ask, “What is the meaning of all this?”

So, while suffering is a result of the Fall, if we allow him, God will use it to shape our thinking and understanding of the world and the purpose of life itself. That’s what Job has been doing in his painful musings and complaints, particularly in chapter 14. His reason drives him to an extraordinary and hopeful conclusion…almost (he lands more or less with his hopefulness in tatters).

And we are there with him all along the way.

I think there are two main reasons Job is in the Bible, one it reassures us that it is okay to be driven by suffering to feel deeply about life and to ask wonderful and terrible questions about its meaning and purpose. A faith-filled life is not void of these kind of deep and resonant contemplations, but full of them as we live and breath in the world this side of eternity. Two, we have a guide in Job in reasoning through suffering, leading us down a needed path towards a divine and eternal end-in awe of God and fellowship with him.

Job doesn’t allow us to take life for granted. Ponder it. Rejoice in it. And long for God.

ReVerse passage – Job 9:32-35 (day six)

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. John 3:30

It seems to me that Job’s view of God only increases. Even at his lowest point or his loudest complaint, his perspective of God doesn’t seem to diminish. Often in our suffering, the world seems to shrink around our sorrow and pain; it is hard for us to see beyond our looming fear.

Not so with Job, his increasing view of God leads him to make some insightful conclusions and revelations about God and himself.

It got me wondering, what if it is my diminished view of God that keeps me from fully realizing my identity in Jesus, or bearing the kind of fruit he desires for me? Seems to me, he must increase, and I must decrease.

Re:Verse passage – Job 7:1-21 (day six)

 As the Scriptures say,

One of the most painful parts of Job is the lack of resolution-until the very end of course. Through the suffering, conversations, debate and complaining, we long for just a little bit of resolution along the way, but it is no where to be found. Just silence, or the annoying drip of his friends accusatory words.

In this way Job is intended to remind us of what real life is like. When does everything resolve itself when you want or expect it to? Does everything wrap up nicely at the end of every day? Does every conversation or argument conclude with a story book ending like out of some rom-com?

In an interesting kind of way, Job (the whole story) reminds us that God knows what real life is like, and not only, but he is sympathetic to our weaknesses. And that alone is enough to keep me moving forward, one foot after the other.

Re:Verse passage – Job 2:1-10, 3:11, 20-26 (day six)

Reflections on Job 3 and Psalm 37:4 while in Kenya.

Would I take delight in the Lord if I had no fresh water to drink, or a bath to stay clean? Would I take delight in the Lord if I had little food to eat? Would I take delight in the Lord if I slept on a dirt floor, and my little brother didn’t make it past four? And what if I had no father who cared, and a mother who had no time to spare? Would I take delight in him then? What if rather than a little, I had nothing at all, and all life around me seemed to hang on only by a thread? Would I take delight in him rather than dread?

Would I take delight in him?

But what if I saw his promise in the colored banner that arched across the sky, or the sun which gave its merciful light? Would I take delight in the Lord? What if I saw that tooth filled smile, and the purest laughter without pretense or guile? The boy kicking the thread bare ball, and my sister with her stick-thatched doll, what if I saw the simplest joy in it all? Or what if someone touched me, and told me of the SON who could rescue me from this merciless life? Would he be enough to pull me through this indiscriminate strife?

What if I saw him in others when they gave of themselves; knew his love, and peace, even when all else failed? What if hope prevailed?

Would I take delight in the Lord?

Yes, yes, even then, with nothing at all, my joy and hope would rest in him.

Re:Verse passage – Job 1:1-12 (day six) 

Have you ever considered why God included poetry among the various genres of biblical literature? We can be so enamored with what is being said, parsing out all the details, that we can miss the how.

Poetry and prose capture the human experience in all its subtlety and nuance, bringing real life emotion to the surface in ways that no other genre can. Fear and joy, doubt and faith, anger and celebration all find their home in the poet’s verse.

Poetry is the Word becoming flesh-in a manner of speaking. (Not THE WORD of course.) It is God saying to us, “I am with you. I understand. It is okay.” Biblical poetry is God’s way of letting us know that it is okay to work out our salvation in the midst of a sinful broken world.

Oh, and by the way, it is also intended to read out loud.