Job’s life is hopeless. He has lost all his possessions. His open sores are both physically painful and socially isolating. His friends are not helpful. All he has to hold on to is his belief in God and in himself and even that is being undermined.
So it’s not surprising that he longs for the release of death. And yet we begin to see a glimmer of hope that God does care for him—hope that is not yet a certainty.
Read More death, despairThis reads like total cynicism and complete despair. Like a treatise on the hopelessness of being a human being. One could almost imagine this as a pre-suicide note in a television police drama. And it is Job who is talking: Job, our biblical hero.
What does it mean to be a human being? A birth, a troubled and short life, and a death. A temporary pain to oneself and to others. “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” wrote Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century. And this chapter seems to echo those sentiments.
Read More pessimism, despairAfter such a devastating attack it is amazing that Job can even lift his head for a response, can even open his mouth to defend himself.
But often the best defence is to go on the attack. So, yes, Eliphaz, you are a miserable comforter, a bag of wind yourself. And if I were in your shoes I too would find it just as easy to mount the attack, to gather the insults, to punch and pound an opponent.
Read More death, despair, blameThis is a chapter of utter despair! Job is now mocked by the homeless rejects of society, perhaps criminals, driven into the desert to scratch out an existence in the parched land. The young men whose parents showed him deference in the last chapter now make up jokes and songs to taunt him. They attack him physically. He is overwhelmed by terror. Everything that gave meaning to life in chapter 29 has vanished.
Read More despair, honesty
Abandoned. Alone. Nothing left to live for. Hardly sounds like words one might expect from the mouth of a king. And yet, David pours out his wretchedness before God. The darkness is a real and living thing, threatening to overtake David’s very existence, to cause him to “fall into the sleep of death.” The depth of such depression knows no economic boundaries, distinguishing little between prince and pauper.
Read More dépression, despair, trust, hopeI curled in a fetal position, dark eddies of despair threatening to overtake me. My world was crashing down around me. I gasped out to God for help, for a small measure of peace. Over time, he pulled me from that dark place. But it didn’t come easy. I had to believe God could – and would – take those burdens I carried; I had to believe he was listening.
Read More despair, prayer, hope, dépression, rest
The story of Peter’s betrayal of Jesus is well known. So are all the mistakes he made (like losing his nerve and his faith when he tried to walk on water) and the mistakes and blunders all the disciples made.
It’s easy to judge from a safe distance.
Read More grace, despair, forgiveness, restoration, failure
Read Reflect We can well imagine that when Jeremiah hears disparaging reports about the nation and sees similar evidence around him, that he might slide into despair. The many messages of judgment that God gives him and which he must communicate to the people he loves and cares for do not ease his discouragement. These […]
Read More strength of character, despair, hope, faith
The Story of God seems to have faltered. The promise of the return of God’s people after the exile of judgment and all the glory to follow which predicted that Jerusalem would become the centre of world salvation seems to have been shipwrecked on the shore of reality (Jeremiah 31:16-40). A few of the exiles have returned, and the temple has been rebuilt.
Read More despair, kingdom, confession, reality, promises of God, petition
I curled in a fetal position, dark eddies of despair threatening to overtake me. My world was crashing down around me. I gasped out to God for help, for a small measure of peace. Over time, he pulled me from that dark place. But it didn’t come easy. I had to believe God could – and would – take those burdens I carried …
Read More despair, prayer, hope, rest, dépression