Job 35

There are times to speak, and there are times to listen. Job is in a listening time. He has said all he can think to say, all he wants to say. His three friends are also silent, having lost their arguments with Job. But this is the right time for Elihu to speak. His words hold blunt truth and merciful comfort. Just what we all need in the middle of suffering: mercy and truth.

Elihu confronts Job on his motivation – the why behind Job’s questions for God (v 1-4). He then challenges Job’s thinking that God is somehow changed or affected by Job’s righteous deeds or even by his sin. God is unchangeable – nothing has power over Him (v 5-8). Elihu then explains the difference between someone who prays seeking the blessings of God and the one who prays seeking God Himself (v 9-16).

“But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’”

Job 35:10-11

Can you recall a time of suffering in your life that felt like more than you could bear? Can you remember sorrow that took your breath away and woke you up in the night with fear and loss mixed in one cold blast? Or maybe you are in this season of suffering now? Many are. Just turn on the news or scroll through X, and you’ll see that sorrow and suffering are increasing; calamity and tragedy are multiplying across our broken world. It’s dark out there. But there are songs in the dark. God gives us songs in the night.

In Judges 6, God appoints Gideon as the new judge in Israel, sent to save Israel from her enemies. Gideon is reluctant – he has some fearful reasons, but God is persistent that He will be with Gideon through all of it. In the initial exchange between Gideon and the Angel of the LORD, Gideon asks a hard question. “Lord, where have you been in the midst of our suffering?” A question we can all relate to at different times in our lives. God doesn’t answer this question. Instead, He strengthens Gideon to obey and do the next difficult thing, reminding him that He will be with him through it. Sometimes the answer is for us to simply take the next step, do it scared, do it in faith because God is with us.

“Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.’ And Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, “Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?” But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.’ And the LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?'”

Judges 6:11-14

I recently had major surgery, common, but major, with a long recovery time. The goal was a successful surgery, home the same day, and a smooth recovery. Two out of three isn’t bad. The recovery wasn’t smooth; it was complicated and painful. My surgeon consulted with a specialist about my complications – neither one had a robust answer for the problem. I had to just wait it out and see if my body would start working again. I spent one night in the hospital, afraid, in pain, confused, and discouraged. That night, I was up every hour at least, walking the hall, praying, crying. I was asking God why He allowed the struggle. He didn’t answer. But, every time I woke up, there was a song in my mind – not the same song each time, different praise songs, hymns, psalms. God filled my mind with songs in the night. I endured the struggle of a difficult complication only because God strengthened me. In a recent follow-up appointment, my surgeon once again stated that she still does not know what caused the complications. She doesn’t know, but I do – God allowed struggle so that I could hear Him singing with me through some dark nights. I thank God for suffering; it draws me close to Him in the dark.

“I said, ‘Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.’ Then my spirit made a diligent search: ‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?’ Selah“

Psalm 77:6-9