“For All Us Worried & Anxious Heretics”

Job 1:21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 

John 9:2 His disciples asked him,  “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 

John 9:3 Jesus answered,  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.

Job 16:1 & 2  ¶ Then Job answered: “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. 

Job 16:3 Have windy words no limit? Or what provokes you that you keep on talking? 

Job 16:4 I also could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.  I could do like you – but you know what?  I could do this too:

Job 16:5 I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

Job 16:6  ¶ “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? 

“In a sense Job must replay the original test of the garden of Eden, with the bar raised higher.  Living in paradise, Adam and Eve faced the best-case scenario for trusting God, who asked so little of them and showered down blessings.  In a living hell, Job faces the worst-case scenario: God asks so much, while curses rain down on him.”