14th.: Please Do Not Condemn Me, Part 2
Today's talk is a continuation of Job's second prayer from yesterday with:
“If I sin, then thou marks me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. If I be wicked, woe unto me.
And if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion. Therefore see thou mine affliction, for it increases.
Thou hunts me as a fierce lion, and again thou shows thyself marvelous upon me. Thou renews thy witnesses against me.
And increases thine indignation upon me. Changes and war are against me.
Wherefore then has thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me.
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little.
Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness,
as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.” (Job 10:14-22).
Job reiterated that if he had sinned, then he deserved this punishment.
And if he had not sinned, he would not threaten God.
Yet, even with this attitude, he was confused.
He found himself to be on the losing end of a war, against a superior force.
If this is how things shall be, he stated that he would rather not have been born.
He again asked God, “Why is this so?” (see Job 10:18).
Job did not know it at that time, but, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (Rom. 15:4).
God had prepared Job’s life, and faith, to be an example to us.
God may let us suffer for the eternal benefit of others.
That is something to keep in mind, as we pray.