August 24, 2018: Day 13 – Job 13

There is a bit of a back and forth between Job speaking with his friends and what I think may also be Job speaking to God and asking for a reckoning so that he can be justified before his friends.  When I was in seminary we teamed up with the Princeton law school and held a mock trial of Job vs. God.  I actually was not involved in it, but was aware that it was happening.  Here we read that Job is “preparing his case.” (vs.18)  I’m wondering if he is not speaking about a case against his friends who are simply wrong in the nature and actions of God.  

There are some, and this trial between God and Job was an example, who see that if God were put on trial, something that Job would not have objected to, then Job just may have won.  But we are brought back to what we saw last chapter.  It is God who created and so it is God who can decide and use whatever system of decision making that He would want.

It seems like there might be a break between vs.12 and vs.13 where the switch comes from Job talking to his friends to talking to God…, maybe.  I do like vs.22-23 where Job asks God that He would just call out to him and since Job is always listening, he would respond.  Job also asks God to reply to him when Job speaks to Him.  

We are going to find Job transition from having an okay view of what is happening around him, to a very hardened cynic.  It is difficult not to be cynical when we have successive and constant and seemingly never ending tragedy befall us.  That is, for now at least, Job’s lot.