Job 15:24
Anguish terrifies them,
Anxiety overpowers them,
Like a king, anticipating the enemy’s siege.
Trump started his second term as President yesterday. The media is of course focusing on all the negative they think might possibly stick. Most things I read he tried to do are ‘going to be tied up in the courts and legislature for years’. But they freely admit it is what every President does now, and it is simply his following his promise to lead. I just pray he is leading us in some semblance of the way God would intend a Godly leader to do.
‘Anguish’ was also ‘distress and anguish’, ‘trouble and anguish’, ‘troubles’, ‘failing and foe’, and ‘anguish and agony’. (I think I misspelled every word in that last sentence the first time through.) ‘Terror’ was also ‘makes afraid’.
‘Anxiety’ was really taken from the second term of the first stitch. ‘Overpowers’ was also ‘prevails against’, ‘overwhelms’, ‘rush’, and ‘seize’.
‘Anticipating the enemy’s siege’ was also ‘prepare for battle’, ‘poised to attack’, ‘expecting…’, ‘braced for an army’s assault’, and ‘ready to attack’.
My image of the verse is someone who is so afraid they cannot do anything. I’ve been there. Mostly I associate this with approaching attractive women before I met my wife. One of the tv shows we watched recently had a character that visually reminded me of a girl I liked in first grade. While I hope my one-time friend did not turn out like the tv character, I did feel as though I would have been overwhelmed by a life founded on looks alone.
My oldest went on a ski trip. I did once, but I was so afraid I only left the bunny slopes for my one and only lesson. I was terrified of injury, and I could not overcome a feeling of no control. I can identify those feelings with this verse. I could see no way I could learn to control a downhill fall, and I could only see my trying as a prohibiting test of God. Yes, we are to ask God to help us do things only He can do, but to expect Him to overcome my inability to ski just for my pleasure seemed too much.
People’s lives are filled with anguish, terror, anxiety, being overpowered, and being under siege. However, our lives are to be filled with following God, and when these things assault us because of following God, it is then that we must rely on Him to overcome. The kid’s fiancé told me about a meme that I think my wife forwarded him about ‘I’ve met your wife, and I am sorry to say your kids won’t be Division 1.’ My kids inherited my lack of fine motor skills, and it is unlikely my grand kids will overcome genetics in this area. I though this meme was so funny, but I never realized my lack of talent when I was young, so much as assumed it was simply a lack of skill.
God has gifted each of us with talents, gifts, limitations, and a deep-rooted need for relationship to Him. The mix of characteristics that is us are designed to only be fulfilled within a saving relationship to God through Christ. My life could have been so many great things according to the encouragement of my mother included being president. Reality set in before I got my hopes too high, but I know that my life can be great in following God whenever I give up trying to do things in my own power and for myself.
Written 1/21/25, Posted 2/19/25, Job 361