"Job," by Jan (the Elder) Lievens, 1631 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)
Job 10 (New Living Translation)
One of my trusted advisers has suggested that I offer an abbreviated study on Job. So we will be looking at only 13 chapters of Job, instead of the full 42. It seems to me a merciful thing to do for you, my readers! (You are, of course, welcome to read the whole book on your own!)
Job Frames His Plea to God
1 “I am disgusted with my life.
Let me complain freely.
My bitter soul must complain.
Pity Party.
A way of experiencing grief, in which you spend your time feeling sorry for yourself and whining endlessly about how crappy your life is.
Pity Parties can be just for one or for many people, such as your friends, who will try to comfort you or just be there for you while you keep asking yourself what did you do to deserve whatever it is that made you so sad in the first place.
Pity Parties require the proper outfit, which is usually pajamas because you don’t get all dressed up during those feeling-sorry-for-myself moments. Also you should have no make up on or just what remains from the night before; hair undone as well.
They also involve tissues — and comfort food such as ice cream, chocolate, potato chips, cookies, cake, and candy. Low fat food is banned.–urbandictionary.com
2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me—
tell me the charge you are bringing against me.
3 What do you gain by oppressing me?
Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands,
while smiling on the schemes of the wicked?
4 Are your eyes like those of a human?
Do you see things only as people see them?
5 Is your lifetime only as long as ours?
Is your life so short
6 that you must quickly probe for my guilt
and search for my sin?
7 Although you know I am not guilty,
no one can rescue me from your hands.
8 “‘You formed me with your hands; you made me,
yet now you completely destroy me.
9 Remember that you made me from dust—
will you turn me back to dust so soon?
Genesis 2:7 (New International Version)
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
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10 You guided my conception
and formed me in the womb.
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and you knit my bones and sinews together.
12 You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love.
My life was preserved by your care.
Psalm 139:14 (New International Version)
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
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13 “‘Yet your real motive—
your true intent—
14 was to watch me, and if I sinned,
you would not forgive my guilt.
15 If I am guilty, too bad for me;
and even if I’m innocent, I can’t hold my head high,
because I am filled with shame and misery.
16 And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion
and display your awesome power against me.
17 Again and again you witness against me.
You pour out your growing anger on me
and bring fresh armies against me.
Job is searching for an answer to his suffering, an answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people. His answer: if it isn’t my fault, it must be God’s fault. He claims God is out to get him. If that is the case, then, what is the point of living? What is life all about?
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18 “‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb?
Why didn’t you let me die at birth?
19 It would be as though I had never existed,
going directly from the womb to the grave.
20 I have only a few days left, so leave me alone,
that I may have a moment of comfort
21 before I leave—never to return—
for the land of darkness and utter gloom.
22 It is a land as dark as midnight,
a land of gloom and confusion,
where even the light is dark as midnight.’”
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Music:
A modern-day rendering of the same question: Why do we live? “Alfie” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and sung by Dionne Warwick.
What’s it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give
or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Alfie,
then I guess it’s wise to be cruel.
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie,
what will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie,
I know there’s something much more,
something even non-believers can believe in.
I believe in love, Alfie.
Without true love we just exist, Alfie.
Until you find the love you’ve missed you’re nothing, Alfie.
When you walk let your heart lead the way
and you’ll find love any day, Alfie, Alfie.
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New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
DWELLING in the Word 
Rebecca,
What a wonderful job you do on this each day. The artwork and songs, etc. bring each chapter alive for today. You nailed it today.
Thank you so much! It is truly my joy!
good Life-dust of the ground