Job 13:25

Would You torment a wind-blown leaf,

   Hound dry chaff?

 

My brain is trying to sort through a whole bunch of different ideas as I start the day. Job is likening himself to things that do not matter. People are not things to be tossed aside. We are made in God’s image with purpose and in his torment, Job is feeling less than loved.

‘Would’ was more often ‘will’. Normally I do not worry about such differences, but here the difference is an ask of God’s character as to whether He is capable of doing something. ‘Torment’ was also ‘frighten’, ‘break’, ‘harass’, ‘tyrannize’, and ‘harry’. I do not think one can torment an inanimate object, so I felt that was a better emotional take. ‘Wind-blown’ was also ‘driven’ and ‘driven to and fro’. ‘A leaf driven to and fro’ sounds more poetic, so I might need to think about that more.

‘Hound’ was ‘pursue’, ‘chase after’, and ‘chase’. “Dry chaff’ was also ‘dry stubble’, ‘dried up straw’, ‘shriveled straw’, and ‘dry straw’. But clearly knowing what chaff means eliminates the others.

The question is rhetorical as God will obviously not do those things. For whatever reason, my mind goes to a coach trying all they can think of to get the athlete to be a little better. This degree of torment that Job is undergoing is made up, but God puts us through all kinds of things to make us the better person that He wishes us to be. The athletes who pursue and win gold metals in the coming weeks will think they might have been tormented by their coaches, but most likely all will be forgiven. Those who do not win might wish their coaches had pushed harder.

I have been asked by a relative to help one of their relatives with some baseball card knowledge. It has been kinda fun so far. From a ‘match my day job’ perspective, I am acting as a peer review on someone who gave this person an offer for their cards. From a pursue my hobby perspective, I am acting as someone who might buy some cards they have always wanted. For a business perspective, I could be looking at inventory to sell.

I do not actually have a baseball card selling business and am only selling to get rid of stuff, so I should not buy to sell. From a peer review standpoint, I need to do only that. From a hobby standpoint, three of the cards are so expensive, that I never intended to pursue them. Actually, all five that I could add to my ‘collection’ are too expensive, and none are up to the normally limiting quality of condition I expect in my collection. Acquiring a card in the condition that I want and costs $8,000 is not an option. Why is buying a lessor condition one for $1,000 (fives times my normal limit for any one card and more than I have ever paid for one card) any better?

Over the years I have a hand full of cards that I had the chance to acquire and was too ‘something’ not too. These failures haunt me to some degree, torment even. I try to forget them, but I learned a lesson from each that I want to retain. God did not put those things in my life to torment an unimportant object, but to have me grow to be better. We assume that Job came out the other side of his story with a better relationship to God. Sometimes the route is torturous.

 

The title is a reference to a Def Leppard lyric from a more recently attended concert.

Written 7/21/24, Posted 8/19/24, Job 308