Bless the Lord! But, God, I Don’t Understand…

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

Bless the Lord! But, God, I Don’t Understand…
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