"Oh God, please just let me have 2 things and then I won't hide from You. Please stop punishing me long enough for me to talk freely. God, please remove from me this dreadful fear that I have of You and what You will do to me. Then when You call me before You, I will be able to speak.
You can speak and have me reply or I can speak and then You reply. Either was is okay with me God. How many awful things have I done? Please show me what I am doing to bother You. Please reveal to me my sin.
Why do You no longer bless me Lord? Why am I now treated like an enemy?
You are so big and I am so small and insignificant. Why would You want to spend so much time destroying me? Why am I worth so much time and attention? For You must be keeping track of terrible things I have done. You must be bringing back to me punishment for things I did many years ago when I was wild, young, and reckless. You have me imprisoned and watch every step I take.
Man wastes away like something rotten, like a piece of clothing eaten by moths. Man is born of woman, then lives but a few short days - days of hardship - and then he dies. He springs up like a flower and withers just as quickly. LIke a shadow, he is here one instant, then gone the next.
Am I really that important to You? Are you going to call me before You for judgement? There is no way I can possibly be pure and holy! No man can be like You God! You alone are perfect and holy!
Man's days are already set before him. You have set a limit on how long a man can live. So won't you please let me live my short time out? Can I please put in my few remaining hours without you following me, and punishing me every moment?
At least a tree has hope for the future. Cut down a tree and it will grow back again. Even if its roots grow old and the stump dies, wehn you water what is left, a strong young bud will spring forthe and grow again!
Not so with a man. He dies, is buried and that is that. Like a river that has run dry, a buried man remains in the ground. He lies down and does not rise back up until the end of time.
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God, if only You would work out a special arrangement for me. If only you would let me die and then bury me in the tomb until You are no longer angry with me. I would wait in the grave until the hour of Your anger has passed by. Then, at the time of Your choosing, You could rasie me up to life again! You would once again long for a relationship with me.
I will wait for You to call to me. You will call and I will answer when You are ready to establish a relationship with me once again! Surely then, You will watch over me but not keep track of my shortcomings. You will then take my sins away from me and not hold them against me! You will do away with my sinfulness and love me just the same!
But just the same way a mountain can be laid low - the same way one large rock can be moved from place to place - the same way water can erode a stone into nothingness. That very same way, God can take a man's hope away from him.
God, if you overpower a man, he is utterly obliterated! If You inflict him with pain, he is so troubled that he is unable to really even care what happens to his children. His children may do great things but he will be too troubled to notice! His children may fall and do terrible things and he won't even see it! He will be too busy with his own problems and his own pain to notice the pain of anyone else.
Next Chapter Begins Another Section! Job and his friends speak the second time around!
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