Bless the Lord! But, God, I Don't Understand...
“The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord” I always
thought of this famous quote by Job as somehow being a steady acceptance of the
unthinkable, heart-wrenching, mind-blowing progression of tragedies that suddenly
hit this man one after the other (Job 1:21). I don’t know why, because when I
sit and actually put myself in his position, the words steady and accepting
don’t even enter my mind as adjectives fit to describe the emotions.
Perhaps my original
thoughts were because I’ve always thought of “blessing” God’s name as
a form of praise. BUT what if….
Job’s cry is from the
deepest anguish imaginable. He just lost all his kids! Every. Single One. It’s
an explosion of grief and his mind simply cannot process it. “But these are
good things from You, God! Now You’ve taken them away!” Maybe it’s an
expression of “I DON’T UNDERSTAND, GOD!!!” Who could?
Too overwhelmed by
grief he falls, and as someone who believes, fundamentally, in God’s
faithfulness and goodness. He falls at God’s feet. He’s on his knees because he
can’t stand. (This is what the word “bless” means—to kneel.)
Maybe, Job is at God’s
feet, burying his face because he is in too much agony to stand. Maybe this
place and this position are the only sources of strength and comfort he has,
and he wants to make sure that God is his only focus. He can’t look around at
his circumstances, it’s too painful. Not to mention it’s full of questions and
resentment is lurking, just waiting at the edges of his consciousness for an
opportunity to take root and derail his confidence in God. So, instead of trying
to stand on his own or look around, he blesses (he KNEELS) at God’s feet in
desperate need for His ever-renewing mercy to help him get through the next
breath, the next moment. It was an act that acknowledged where he can’t, God
can.
Maybe the act of
kneeling before (blessing) God in humble desperation was a source of strength
and comfort and gave Job the focus he needed to endure the unimaginable. The
tragedy itself was grueling. But it got worse. Society judged his character,
dragging his integrity through the mud of their own preconceptions and
perspectives, leaving this man with no support system to help him gimp his way
through.
Choosing to focus on
the Lord and not allowing his perspective to be skewed by well-intentioned
friends and family, Job stayed in a position of humility at the Lord’s feet. He
didn’t understand why this could possibly happen, but he also refused to
believe that God was anything but worthy no
matter what. Surrendering our understanding and our need to understand and
choosing focused faith when the unthinkable happens just might be the highest
form of worship and praise to God that we could ever give.
“Barak.” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Updated
Edition. Retrieved from BibleHub. https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1288.htm