Reflecting
on God’s reinstating grace in awful silence!
Job 42: 10-17
V. 10: “And the Lord
restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord
gave Job twice as much as he had before.”
There may be many who
feel that their life is undergoing frequent setbacks; that they do not have
control on anything; that the unending episodes of tragedies have squeezed
meaning out of their existence. The book of Job offers them a vision of God
that may recharge and refresh them to be out there to shoulder life’s
responsibilities once again. Job the protagonist of the Book of Job is a
shattered human being. One by one he loses everything that offered his
existence any meaning. He loses his wealth, he loses his dear ones, he loses
his health, his dignity and selfhood and is expected to curse God for
everything and die. But the Book of Job features deeply engaging dialogues of
this ailing man with both world around him and God who is the creator of that world.
The behemoth, Leviathan
and the roaring sea (Job 40-41) in which they live are symbols of chaos in the
created order. But the chaotic forces of the world are seen to be controlled
and contained by God. It is somewhat enigmatic to know that the beautifully
ordered cosmos is also laced with forces of chaos. Therefore the human life as
it enjoys the goodness of the ordered cosmos; also has to encounter the
challenges of the chaotic natural and social world around. The
vision that Job arrives at is that of a divine who is so immanent and at the
same time transcendent of the life that is a mix of cosmos and chaos. He sees
the divine in perfect control of chaos and instead of destroying or dispelling
chaos God nourishes it into beautiful and meaningful matrices of life. This
vision of the divine makes Job to lay his hand over his mouth in awe (Job
40:4). Our pains and sorrows can be turned into matrices of stronger and
refreshed life, if we will be able to surrender ourselves to the care of the
one who is charge of every happening in our life.
Prayer
Dear God, Help us to take our refuge in You, when life’s tempests
abound. Amen
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