A Hard Service

“Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
Job 7:1-3
+
A Hard Service
Job now shifts his focus of blame from Eliphaz towards God.  He is overwhelmed with his current situation, as any of us would be, and finding no relief or wisdom in his friends’ words he turns to God.  Job feels as though God is an unrelenting commander.  Forcing him into battle time and time again without relief or support. Job feels conscripted into an army he wants no part of.  This frequently happens to us.  We feel like we didn’t sign up of this.  When life is difficult, and things don’t turn out the way we had envisioned we grumble and turn against God.  We shake our fists at the sky and demand to know why God would treat us this way.  Quite often this is the reason many give for abandoning their faith.  “A loving and just god would not allow such suffering and pain to happen to me, after all, I’m a good person and I don’t hurt other people.” But we know this is not true.  We are not good people, “we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” Yet God, in His love, still provides for us, still cares for us, so much so, He sent His Son to die for us.  A hard service none of us could endure.  Christ, the only innocent man to ever live, drank God’s cup of wrath for all, suffered the humiliation of the cross, and the pain of abandonment by the Father, and He did it all for you. So you could have a relationship with the Father.