Job 13:21

Withdraw Your hand away from me,

   Let not my dread of you terrify me.

That was a letdown. I now assume that this is not the second thing, but the first repeated. Or maybe the difference between the two is just lost on me. I have believed it proper to be in respectful awe of God as long as I can remember. I often do not get how other people cannot figure out everything the same way I can. Of course, most people can do a lot of things I cannot, so maybe it balances out.

‘Withdraw’ was also ‘remove’ or ‘take away’. ‘Hand’ was also ‘palm’.

‘Let not’ was also ‘stop’ and ‘do not’. ‘Dread of you terrify me’ was also ‘frighten me with your terrors’, ‘Thy dread make me afraid’, ‘cow me with the fear of You’, and ‘Your dread strike me with terror’.

Dread to me is a word that would not apply to God. I envision this as anxiety of something not pleasant that has to be done. In my daily reading today, I read about a kind of anxiety called reactive anxiety. I identify with that right now, so I am going to have to do some research. Something I dread.

Now that my brain has been diverted for a moment, I wonder if the second thing is Job asking God to take his infirmities away. That would make more sense, but Job is begging to plead his case more so than be healed. At least, the way I see it at this point of the sequence. As it turns out, Job keeps asking for stuff as the next verses come, so maybe the two things are big and multifaceted.

Due to last nights storm, I did not have questions ready for Bible study this morning. Then when half the group couldn’t come, it seemed like the thing to do to cancel. It is really annoying to go to the coffee shop only to find it closed. Impacts of major storms do tend to get people to come in to work later after the ‘all clear’ is given. Major change from the farms and ranches culture I feel I grew up in where life marches on no matter what. The book I am reading had a character that said ‘win’ and ‘when’ the same way. I was offended until the author went on to say that is how people from Texas speak. Then I was proud to be from Texas. Weird how that pride stuff works.

Written 5/17/24, Posted 8/12/24?, Job 304