Hope Is Not Cruel

“Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?” (Job 3:23 AV)

 

Job is pretty despondent here.  And for good reason.  Satan was allowed to touch everything important to Job, excluding his wife, to test his integrity and relationship with God.  Messengers came and told Job he had lost his servants, cattle, and children.  That wasn’t enough for the Devil so he was allowed to take Job’s health.  Job sat wholly depressed and mourning the loss of his family.  He rued the day of his birth.  He wishes he had never been born.  The above verse is a question of the purpose of life.  His in particular.  Why would God give the physical ability to live to a man who has no idea why he is alive and there is nothing he can do about his circumstances?  But there is another understanding of the word ‘light’ as used above.  The understanding of ‘light’ harkens back to verse 20.  In that verse, light is hope or prosperity.  It is the reason to live.  It is the glimmer that keeps us going even when things are very difficult.  The question Job is asking is more of a statement of complete defeat.  Why give a man hope when he doesn’t know what lies ahead or why things are as they are, and there is absolutely nothing he can do about it?  May as well let the man perish.  This is what Job is feeling.

Life is impossible sometimes.  We all will go through times of deep trials that seem so bleak that the sun never shines and each day is a monumental challenge.  We are greatly disappointed if the sun comes up and we have to start another day.  One of the hardest times of my life was a few years back.  I have three sons all born within three years of one another.  In less than two years, all three had gotten married, moved away, and started families of their own.  My ministry was coming to a close and I felt there was no ministry left.  We had gotten potentially bad news regarding my dear wife’s health.  It was so bad that when we went away for a week, I can remember sitting in the passenger's seat, looking up into a cloud-puffed blue sky, wishing I would stop breathing.  I even tried to accomplish just that.  It wasn’t too much after that when my closest pastor-friend, my organist, and my mother passed away.  With two years, the LORD had allowed life-changing events condensed into a very small timeframe.  It was difficult, to say the least.  However, there was still hope.  I sat on my front porch and phoned a friend.  This friend had been so for almost twenty years.  We had talked it out and he brought that glimmer of hope.  There were no answers that would change the circumstances.  My sons were still gone.  My friends were still up in glory.  My ministry was still coming to a close.  I was hedged in.  I didn’t know the future nor could I do anything about my circumstances.  Job’s question was my question.  If there seems to be no purpose for the trial or no purpose of life, why give hope?  Isn’t that cruel?

The fact of the matter is, hope is an indication of a future purpose and plan.  God would not give hope if there was no road to travel.  The patient that suffers from a terminal disease has no hope.  That is, in this life.  Their hope lies in eternity.  That future hope is what gets them through the presently hard day.  Hope is not cruel.  Hope is the energy that provides that which is needed to endure the troubles of life.  Job needed to see the fact he was still breathing as proof God had a plan through it all.  The same is true of us.  Life will have its ups and downs.  Some of them rather severe.  But Paul tells us God’s grace is sufficient.  The grace and hope which comes from God, which is our light, will provide that which is needed to continue on in the faith God has grown in our hearts.  When I think of the above verse I think of Job sitting in a circle hedged in by thorns and thistles.  He cannot pass and his life is pretty much controlled by circumstances.  But a hedge is not a covering.  He can still lookup.  The sun will shine through.  The light of hope can pierce the thorns.  God is where He has always been.  He hasn’t moved.  He hasn’t changed. And He has a plan for it all.