Daily Devotional • September 2
A Reading from Job 12:1-6, 13-25
1 Then Job answered:
2 “No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know such things as these?
4 I am a laughingstock to my friends;
I, who called upon God and he answered me,
a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock.
5 Those at ease have contempt for misfortune,
but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace,
and those who provoke God are secure,
who bring their god in their hands.
13 “With God are wisdom and strength;
he has counsel and understanding.
14 If he tears down, no one can rebuild;
if he shuts someone in, no one can open up.
15 If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
16 With him are strength and wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leads counselors away stripped
and makes fools of judges.
18 He looses the sash of kings
and binds a waistcloth on their loins.
19 He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows the mighty.
20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted
and takes away the discernment of the elders.
21 He pours contempt on princes
and looses the belt of the strong.
22 He uncovers deep things from the darkness
and brings deep darkness to light.
23 He makes nations great, then destroys them;
he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
24 He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth
and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
25 They grope in the dark without light;
he makes them stagger like a drunkard.
Meditation
We can hardly blame Job for his sarcasm as he responds to the hurtful words of “comfort” offered by his three friends. When those around us suffer, we often stumble, not knowing what to do or say. Like Job’s friends, we grope for explanations and solutions, and blurt out well-intentioned but unhelpful (even hurtful) words. Or we fail to show up at all, held back by our discomfort or our fear of missteps. In this modern “information age,” our culture is saturated with self-help books and blogs, how-to videos, and endless search results, creating the illusion that there is an explanation and a solution for every problem. But it is only an illusion. There is mystery in suffering. Job knows that “with God are wisdom and strength, he has counsel and understanding,” but God’s wisdom and understanding are often out of our reach; we see through a glass darkly.
Job, in his suffering, is sitting in an in-between place – a wilderness – where he believes in the wisdom of God, but he doesn’t yet trust in it. Like the father in Mark 9:24 who asked Jesus to heal his son, we can imagine Job saying I trust you Lord; help my distrust.
In the wilderness of suffering, wisdom does not lie in neatly packaged explanations and solutions. According to Job, those who seek such understanding are wandering in a “pathless waste” and “groping in the dark without light.” True wisdom lies in the ability to trust in God’s providence in the face of suffering that we do not understand. Surrendering our need to understand is the path to a peace that surpasses all understanding. When Job proclaims that God “brings deep darkness to light,” he is not referring to the light of understanding but the true light, the eternal and perfect light of God’s presence and love.
Monica Coakley, a graduate of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Ika – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Durham, North Carolina