July 4, 2025, Job 17:1-16

July 4, 2025, Job 17:1-16

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
    the graveyard is ready for me.
² Surely there are mockers about me,
    and my eye dwells on their provocation.

³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
¹³ If I hope for Sheol as my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”

Job continues in his suffering as he approaches what he believes will be his death.  Although he doesn’t understand his suffering, he maintains hope that God is just and fair.  

I was just in a conversation this evening regarding not understanding a particular situation this side of Heaven.  God doesn’t call us to understand everything, He simply asks us to keep our faith and trust His purpose.  If you struggle with lack of understanding a life situation, please remember you are not alone.  But please understand in a much larger sense “you are NOT alone!” God is with you, walking beside you and maybe even carrying you leaving only His footsteps in the sand while you rest in Him. 

Robin Adams