Comments on: Job 3:1-26 http://rtbt.bostonvineyard.org/2008/08/23/job-31-26/ A Community of People Discussing the Bible Thu, 17 May 2012 15:50:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Karen.Stevenson http://rtbt.bostonvineyard.org/2008/08/23/job-31-26/comment-page-1/#comment-25 Karen.Stevenson Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:58:40 +0000 http://rtbt.bostonvineyard.org/?p=165#comment-25 Sometimes its hard for me to really get in the picture of Job's life....I guess the equivalent would be losing my job, having my house come crashing down, losing my family and being left with a physical infliction...yuck! That would be really hard to recover from - talk about faith being tested and what would you pin your life on to move on? It's being stripped of life to the very bone and trying to find satisfaction out of nothing. That is hard! I think what I hear Job saying is he'd built his life up and had been blessed and the prospect of having to start over again (or something like that) seems doomed and he'd rather not have started out as all. I guess its that we didn't ask to live, but are given life and left with choosing how best to live it, even with all the things that come at us. Sometimes its hard for me to really get in the picture of Job’s life….I guess the equivalent would be losing my job, having my house come crashing down, losing my family and being left with a physical infliction…yuck! That would be really hard to recover from - talk about faith being tested and what would you pin your life on to move on? It’s being stripped of life to the very bone and trying to find satisfaction out of nothing. That is hard! I think what I hear Job saying is he’d built his life up and had been blessed and the prospect of having to start over again (or something like that) seems doomed and he’d rather not have started out as all. I guess its that we didn’t ask to live, but are given life and left with choosing how best to live it, even with all the things that come at us.

]]> By: brian http://rtbt.bostonvineyard.org/2008/08/23/job-31-26/comment-page-1/#comment-19 brian Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:39:50 +0000 http://rtbt.bostonvineyard.org/?p=165#comment-19 From the Job Daily Guide: Up until now, Job has been maintaining a very fine balance, equally mourning his losses and accepting with equanimity his change of fortune. At this point, though, he gives full vent to his mourning. I think what provokes this outburst is the fact that he can't think of a reason to get up and move on. Job has lost his hope, and along with it his appetite for life. What's the point of living, he asks, if you spend your whole life wishing you would just die already? Job wishes that there was some way that his birthday could just be removed from the calendar, as if it's somehow wrong that a day could exist which would honor his birth. Maybe he even fantasizes that if his birthday were to disappear, he too would suddenly vanish. Without a birthday, he couldn't have ever been born. If he was never born, he couldn't suffer. If he never suffered, he wouldn't have to figure out how and why to go on living after his suffering. Job's sense of the value of his life has been shaken, and he's having a hard time recovering it. What would you say makes your life worth living? Have you ever had a difficult time believing that there's a good life ahead of you? What kept you going? What did you or would you need from God or others to reignite your hope? From the Job Daily Guide:
Up until now, Job has been maintaining a very fine balance, equally mourning his losses and accepting with equanimity his change of fortune. At this point, though, he gives full vent to his mourning. I think what provokes this outburst is the fact that he can’t think of a reason to get up and move on. Job has lost his hope, and along with it his appetite for life. What’s the point of living, he asks, if you spend your whole life wishing you would just die already?

Job wishes that there was some way that his birthday could just be removed from the calendar, as if it’s somehow wrong that a day could exist which would honor his birth. Maybe he even fantasizes that if his birthday were to disappear, he too would suddenly vanish. Without a birthday, he couldn’t have ever been born. If he was never born, he couldn’t suffer. If he never suffered, he wouldn’t have to figure out how and why to go on living after his suffering.
Job’s sense of the value of his life has been shaken, and he’s having a hard time recovering it. What would you say makes your life worth living? Have you ever had a difficult time believing that there’s a good life ahead of you? What kept you going? What did you or would you need from God or others to reignite your hope?

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