Job 15:7

(First pass)

Were you born first among men?

   Or brought forth before the hills?

The first stitch had many variations, but they all boil down to the same question.  The same for the second.

 

I had all that before I turned the page to find I had many more notes and a solution.

 

(Second Pass)

Were you the first, bearing all mankind?

   Were you created, before the fall?

My logic is all over the map on this one. In this version, the question is still about Adam. The second is still about time of creation.

When I first worked on this, I made notes as to whether the reference was to Adam, as if he had some special place in all this. But since Adam wasn’t born, it would be his first son Cain the murderer. I decided that was definitely not the reference being made by Eliphaz. In the end, I went with a position rather than a timeline. It reads almost the same, but the lack of clarity seems appropriate. To me the reference isn’t to Cain or Adam, but to the concept of being created before any other man was around. The Christian perspective puts this as only Jesus and making Job deny Job being deity.

Now, I simply am overwhelmed. But I am going with the first pass as it seems cleaner.

The kids are out of school this week and we chose to stay home rather than go somewhere. The wife is going to work, but I want to take some time to do things with the girls. The college kid has to study and the younger one has homework, but hopefully they can get that done anyway. Either way, I need to make hay while the sun shines.

Now that I have some knowledge of my medical issues, I have a better grasp on moments like now when I just want to sleep. This desire to stick my head in the sand and let the world go by is physical in nature no matter how hard that same sentiment pushes on my spiritual side. As much as I do not want to take on anything God is not calling me to, I do want to be a better husband, father, family member, friend and it will take activity to succeed at these. I’m hoping my new plans will help me do so.

When I reread the first stitch, I am reminded of our study in Romans that discusses the position of privilege the Jews were struggling with in coming to terms with Jesus as the Messiah. Jews had a special place in God’s heart, but Paul tells us it was a position of responsibility to love others and show the love of God and not to isolate and alienate. We were talking about a friend who has trouble overcoming the thought that she is smarter than everyone else. While I was tagged the smart kid at a young age, I was also hammered with the wide swath of things I could not do, much less do well. I didn’t really understand the concept of celebrate the strength of others, but people who play the piano, don’t drop food on themselves every meal, or understand other people’s motivations are miracles to me who cannot.

I know that Job knew that he was blessed by God to get to where he had been. I know that Job wanted to continue having a life in communion with God. I know that those around him could not understand his drive to recapture the comfort of knowing God was with Him. I learned this past week that sometimes my best desires are not necessarily the will of God. So now I know even more that I need to remember I am not to seek a path of ease, but to seek the strength of God to follow His path of choosing.

 

Written 11/25/24, Posted 12/15/24, Job 344