#652 Up

“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;

the graveyard is ready for me.

2 Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their provocation.

3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up security for me?

4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—

the eyes of his children will fail.

6 “He has made me a byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

7 My eye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like a shadow.

8 The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10 But you, come on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11 My days are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

12 They make night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’[a]

13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,

if I make my bed in darkness,

14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

15 where then is my hope?

Who will see my hope?

16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?

Shall we descend together into the dust?” Job 17

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for I am at my end, where else can I look? My friends will only mock me, there is no comfort there. He is crying out to God for a treaty, a covenant of peace between himself and heaven, but asking God to supply the security for his side as well. His friends cannot help because God does not open their hearts to see, and Job recognizes something profound in this, that they shall not prevail. They continue in their slander.

Job describes himself as a byword, and this would be true even now, none would ever seek such humiliation, but rather we ask that God not have such conversations about us. It is an interesting theater, and Job plays the part of one who would be mocked and spit on later, He would be the security for Job. 

He then reminds himself of the righteous, he steadies himself to maintain clean hands, to hold on to his integrity. We should know the truths of scripture, the promises of God, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Job is up and down with the pangs of affliction, but there is a glimmer here, that he sees himself the winner, as overcoming, if he can just hold on. Their are righteous men who find this appalling. We find our truest friends at the lowest point of our humility. Continue in the truth, hold fast to God, for He has the only answers, sees all things. It is a hard road here, but there is so much to learn from the man who became a byword, the story that God used to teach angels. 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [b]we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but [c]we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5: 1-5