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More Fruit – Study of Job 9:26

Job 9:26

Skim past like skiffs of reed,

   Like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

 

I had an image of a little kid at a park with his toy boat, that looks like a fish, and just got taken by a bird. The real image here is that people are people and they have been making boats long enough for the image of a skiff of reeds to be in literature. Of course, I could be projecting, and they really just mean a clump of reeds rushing down stream after a flooding rain. I often catch myself forgetting that the past of man is full of smart people who had a much smaller quantity of data to deal with. I have an impossibly complex system of ids and passwords to use the computer and tv that I can hardly function, much less know if you can make a skiff out of reeds that would float swiftly as in the image of this verse.

“Skim past” was “go by”, “pass by”, “passed away”, “pass swiftly”, “dart away”, “slipped away” and “speed by”. Almost feel like I should have made up my own phrase. “Skiffs” was also “boats” or “ships”.

“Like an eagle” was also “like a vulture” or “swift as a vulture”. “Swooping” was “hasteth to” in one clearly odd source. “Prey” was also “food” one time. Eagle, swooping, and prey just seemed to go together.

I like the double use of “sk” in the first stitch as much as the flow in the second of related words. It is odd how the days pass and your mind perceives it a slow or fast depending on various aspects or perspective. I worked so hard yesterday that it took me over half an hour to physically recover and I got nothing else done the whole day. Or at least that was my perspective today. I did get a couple things done once I thought about it. It was weird to be working on a task and not having to track my time.

I went to an industry meeting last week for the first time since COVID and I noticed that everyone in the room looked old. They were, but I do not know if it was a function of no new people or all the young people too afraid to get out in public and on the video call or some other factor unrelated. Last night I was somewhere else, and I noticed a bunch of old wobbly people coming out from a function that I was almost old enough to attend (you actually had to be 60, so that is a long way off). But I noticed they were old looking.

I think back to the perfection of life in Eden and the long lives lived before the flood. What would I do different if I had 900 plus years to live? What would I do if I did not live in a cesspool of sin? (The world around me, not me alone.) Can you imagine 970 years in the same small village with your family growing around you every generation? Can you imagine never having to work and eating all you wanted? I think people confuse retirement with living in Eden and I know 970 years of 57 channels and there’s nothing on would drive everyone crazy, not to mention running out of food.

The current goal is for people to live up to 120 years and the average is about 76. Working from the age of 20 until the age of 60 and having to support yourself for 60 years without working seems a daunting task. My father-in-law is 89 and worked until he was 87. Not sure he will make it another 31 years, but he seems to be enjoying life going to church, meeting with friends, and taking care of the family.

Our expectation is to live today as if we will wake up in heaven tomorrow with whoever we helped get there. To cherish the day, each day, for the blessing it is and could be. I try to go to bed each night hoping to be better at using tomorrow. Maybe I can listen to the Holy Spirit calling me to make each more fruitful than the past.

 

(Written 9/8, Posted 9/29, job 198)

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