Oh That My Grief Were Throughly Weighed (Job 6:2-3)

2022-06-04

There was a man who lost everything he owned in one day. He went from riches to poverty. He went from being honored to being disrespected. He went from perfect health to having his skin ravaged by boils and worms. He lost his 10 children in one day. Even if health and wealth were restored, nothing replaces them.

There was a man whose wife told him to blaspheme and drop dead. He had three friends who, without evidence, accused him of sins, and that his “punishment” was not enough: “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth” (Job 11:6). They mocked and ridiculed and ignored the man’s pain.

There was a man who swayed between the extremes of desiring death and wanting to see God face to face to understand the whole matter. Days and nights dragged on endlessly in pain in body and spirit, with no one to comfort.

Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. (Job 6:2-3)

Job was that man, but he is an everyman who suffers without answer. We get a glimpse of the spiritual warfare behind the scenes, but questions remain. If God does not give the answer, who else can? One day He will answer. One day that Redeemer will stand on the earth, on that latter day. One day He will comfort those who persevered through grief and calamity. Let the would-be comforters beware.

Despite anger and despair, Job trusted in God. This does not mean that he was perfect through his pain. This does not mean that he did not scream at God and demand answers. Yet Job did imperfectly trust in God, though everything in the world told him not to.