Job 5:26

You will come to your grave in ripe old age,

   As grain-shocks are gathered in high season.

Transitions have great importance in many forms of media. My favorite transition of all time is: FIVE …YEARS… LATER from the Avengers End Game movie. It had such huge emotional impact and I really enjoyed it. One of the many issues I have had with reading and studying the Bible is how often the demand for fewer pages has pushed the words into formats that make it difficult to understand transitions. The stock market seems to have made a transition a couple months ago and everyone probably wishes they had sold everything and were not having to experience the current downturn. The problem works both ways and if you missed the transition to down, you will miss the transition up.

Back in verse 16, the author ended a section and verse 17 started a new one. Every time I get to a new verse, it seems I am having to realize again that this transition happened before I can push forward. When I read this verse again, I had to remember we are well past “the crafty” as the subject.

The only variation for “come to“ was “reach”, and neither seemed a big meaning changer. “In ripe old age” could have been “in full vigor”, “at full age”, “still robust”, or “in vigor”. “Full” seemed too plain. “vigor” and “robust” carried a sense of “still at it” that seemed counter to the intent of the verse, so “in ripe old age” it was.

The only variation for “grain-shocks” was “sheeves” (more or less) and the intent seemed the same. “To the threshing floor” was a vivid option for “gathered”, but “ripens”, “cometh”, “are taken away”, “mount”, and “heaped high” all pushed the expectation that the underlying word did not have a direct English translation and “gathered” was sufficient to the intent. The last variable of “in season” or “in their season” seemed irrelevant.

I started a review for the next class I am leading and the main take away from my reading today was the aspect that stewardship is for the journey. And the little daily actions, while important, are overwhelmed by the overall goal to provide for the long haul. The drive to pull money out as the stock market falls is great, especially with the crashes of history to scare us. But unless we get a signal from God, the expectation should be that by the time we need our funds, they will be there. My retirement is in the future by at least six and a half grades of the younger kid (before college and maybe four to six more for college and graduate school). I expect the market to go up and down two or three times during this period, but I have no more ability to see the changes than anyone else. So I take my little daily steps and know the journey will end and hope that I can enjoy being of service along the way.