Job 7:13

When I thought: My couch will comfort me,

   My bed will share the burden of my complaint,

(Written 4/11, Posted 4/21)

Continuing with the sleep theme, Job describes expectations of the physical helping the mental. We do not need a bed or a couch to sleep, but it certainly seems to help. Job knows the couch and the bed do not help his problems, but the time in sleep would seem to make them more bearable. But that is not happening. But it certainly can in our normal lives. I was overwhelmed all week from driving almost six hours on a spare tire from Dallas at fifty miles per hour. It was a long process and it took as much out of me as I feared. It was not until Saturday that I got enough extra sleep to catch up and the week in between was more than I could bear.

In place of “thought”, my sources had “say”, “think”, and “tell myself”. I felt the past tense and the mental work were better fits. In place of “bed”, some had “couch”, the opposite is true for the other stitch. I put them in the order each of the rabbis used. The only alternative for “comfort” was “console”, but it seemed an incorrect one off.

“Share the burden” was selected from among ”ease”, “share”, and “bear a part”. It just felt better. And finally, I had suggestions of “sorrow” and “lament” but picked the favored “complaint”.

Rest is a big driver in the quality of our lives. My youngest recently asked what would happen if we did not need to sleep. I have heard of people who live with a significantly lower level of sleep than the rest of us. As with water, too much is poisonous and too little generally makes everything go worse. Job was not getting any sleep and it was making everything worse. Job reminds us that sleep and rest are aspects of the life that God planned for us and to not follow the innate needs of our bodies leads to trouble.