January 20 – Reading 20

January 20 – Reading 20

by Chris Rainey | January 20

“THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE?”
(Job 11:1 – 14:22)

Those who know do not speak,
Those who speak do not know. (Lao Zi, The Way of Lao Zi)

The wind howls, but the mountain remains still. (Japanese Proverb)

Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom – Job 13:5

This week’s reading returns Job to his friends’ “echo chamber” – a closed system where certain information, ideas, and beliefs are reinforced–with Zophar continuing to pummel Job for not being willing to confess the “sin” that led to his demise.  There is a kind of “believer” that sees others who struggle not as fellow human beings or image bearers but as inferiors who must be straightened out immediately. This is what we see in Job’s friends. They are self-righteous and condescending, frustrating Job to the point of sarcasm (12:1) because they will not even consider the truth that Job has not sinned with respect to his sufferings. The “comforters” lecture and cajole him until he finally tells them they are “worthless physicians” who would help him a lot more by just keeping silent (13:4-5). Job, a wounded man desperately in need of a little help from his friends, gets no help at all. Have you ever felt alone with your struggles? Job sure did! How does Job survive? He holds on to faith despite his many doubts.

In chapter 14, Job wrestles with the brevity of life, and he seems to think his own life might be approaching the end. Yet, he sees “hope” in the shoot of a tree, which buds and creates new life (14:7-9). But then Job says man is not like the tree; rather, he sees man dying and not rising again (14:12), only later in the chapter to rally his faith again in a verse that suggests he will someday have a renewal, a word often used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for a “change of clothes.” Is Job glimpsing the afterlife? We’ll have to wait until chapter 19 to hear more about that from Job. In the meantime, it is clear that Job would prefer to hear the “sounds of silence” from his friends than anything else.

Let’s Pray…

Lord, there are so many “sounds” all around us today. Voices of friends and enemies, voices in the media, voices in the marketplace. So many voices. Yet there is but one voice I need to heed – Your voice. Father, help me to be quick to listen and slow to speak.