The Only Hope is Hope

Job 10-21.  So good, I accidentally read ahead.

As Job's friends challenge his reasoning and test his patience, Job's frustration leads him to be more and more direct - both to his friends and to God.  He seems to be going through a process of deciding who God is and how he relates to people.  Job calls him "watcher of men," "my Judge," "O God," "the Almighty," and "my Redeemer."  These names reveal Job's internal transformation as he goes from feeling that God is targeting him and is too distant to be approached by a man, to seeing God as the one he will direct his honest feelings to and expect to get a response.

The question of whether or not Job will find a way to Hope in God is answered as Job processes what he feels, knows and believes.  He is afraid, and his fear is enough to keep him from addressing God.  He knows God is powerful, that He made Job, and that He doesn't punish the blameless.  Job desires to speak to and argue his case with God, but is unsure if he believes God would give him a hearing or plunge him into a slime pit (Job's words, not mine).  Job's friends are so unhelpful in this decision that he calls them "worthless physicians" whose only smart move would be to stop talking.

Job is unsure where he stands with God.  No one he knows can help, and finding out means risking death if God is not who Job hopes he is.  Job's only hope, is Hope.

With a mix of apathy toward his life, anger over his own turmoil, and conviction that God won't find him at fault, Job finally steps forward to say what's on his mind to God despite his dread and his friends' obnoxious advice.  In this moment Job says, "Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands?  Though he may slay me, yet will I hope in him."  Come what may, Job has turned his misery from cries to no one into conversation with God.  His pain remains, but this Hope allows Job to pursue the answers he desires.  He will wait for the one he believes can renew him.

Although our story has not yet shown Job to get any answers from God, we do see Job start to experience relationship with God after this leap of faith.  When he cries, he feels that his tears are poured out to God.  He calls God his witness, his advocate, his intercessor, and his friend.  Job's heart is being transformed.  Not only is he Hoping, he's seeing that desiring death (as he had before) is counterproductive.  It is preferable, even wise, to have Hope.  Something within Job is being satisfied, and as he continues to seek God he desires even more of Him.  He starts to believe that somehow he will see God.  He is strengthened by the Hope growing within him, even though his situation remains the same.

I am inspired by the encouragement Job finds in God.  But surely God's covenant after the flood was meant to help people avoid situations like this, where they weren't sure if it was safe to have Hope or not.  What happened between the time of the covenant and Job's lifetime, that this message was so lost among Job's people?