Day 5: Kick the dog.

It is a very hard burden to be falsely accused. When another sees you as loathsome and is constantly harsh and angry toward you, when you have done nothing evil toward them...this is a miserable place to find one's self.

How can I not love Job? His souls speaks so clearly of his pain. Life has become for him so meaningless (like eating the white of an egg 6:6) because he cannot figure out how he has offended God.

Bottom line, he has not offended God at all. God is proud of him, sees him as his faithful servant. But of course, Job is not privy to this information.

Job is wrestling with a "strong, silent-type" God and knows he cannot win or even get a hearing. It's as if Job is declaring, "I'm the dog that is being kicked for no reason relating to me."

Job knows he can't get an ear with God, even if his testimony about himself is true.

The power structure is uneven. God holds all the cards and they are all high trumps. God is prosecuting attorney and judge. There's no way Job can get a fair trial. "He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both." 9:32,33 The heavenly posse has already thrown the lynching noose around the high branch. Guilty before even having the chance to prove one's innocence. God will not listen to reason.

This truly would be a place "without hope." 7:6

I am sad for Job, but I cannot relate. I have never been in this place...a place of complete hopelessness. Bildad's words reflect more my Pollyanna and Little Orphan Annie mentality: "The sun will come out tomorrow!" 8:20-22

One of the arias from the Messiah is from the book of Job. "I know that my Redeemer lives." Job 19:25-27 With layers of resurrection history, we hear this as a proclamation of Christ's victory over death.

But in Job, it is really an indictment against God. "Somewhere," says Job, "I have a defense attorney who has equal power with you and will plead my case. He will be MY redeemer against the weight of your fines against me."

Having been a child who has never known a day without My Redeemer, I have never known the hopelessness of Job.

But I wonder how many people live under Despair's oppression. How many people feel as though they have been faithful, like dogs to their masters, only to be kicked for no reason and to be silenced by powerlessness?

My Redeemer, teach me to pray. "Teach me, and I will be silent." 6:24