Job 16:1-2

Then Job answered:

I have heard plenty of things like these before,

   Wretched comforters are the three of you.

 

One of the concepts that I have been wondering about is where does entertainment sit among the objectives of old age. Of all of the things wrong with this world, I hear many described as responses to the demand ‘Entertain me!’ My vision of Biblical times was old people telling the stories of in the Old Testament to the kids while sitting around the fire after dinner just before going off to bed after a long day of struggling to eke out a living.

‘Plenty’ was also ‘many’, ‘often’, and ‘much’. ‘Like these’ was also ’such as’ of ‘of this sort’.

‘Wretched’ was also ‘miserable’, ‘mischievous’, ‘clumsy’, and ‘worthless’. ‘Comforters’ was also ‘counselors’. “Three’ was also ‘all’.

My idea of entertainment is something that I can turn off a portion of my reality and watch a story on tv. When the show is trying to be too real, I get mad at missing basic truths. When the show is trying to be too over the top, I simply think it is dumb. My new question is whether this idea of entertainment has any value to me.

We did watch a movie over the weekend as a family unit, and we had a good time with a movie that stayed inside its box. It was funny and we laughed. I would not have watched it on my own, but watching in with the group was good. It had a little positive message that was buried amongst a larger story. It reminded me of the stories I told the youngest before bed most nights.

But the benefits of entertainment I like are the teaching moments for kids. When we get old in our society and the kids are not around, what purpose should entertainment hold? Does watching tv make a life worth living? Is seeing every Star Trek episode a valuable goal? And I am not trying to pick on just tv, reading books, some over and over, has to have its place for some cause.

Yelling cuss words at the tv when your college team loses another big game has no benefit? Does jumping up and down and yelling when they win have benefit either? I struggled a while back watching my Astros led by a manager who never did anything I liked. I didn’t watch them on tv for years. I wondered how I could enjoy my favorite ‘pasttime’ mad. This past year without him was better, but was I better off for having watched?

If I look at this verses, I see two options, to spend more time listening to those around me and to seek to comfort them. Hopefully, this blog is somehow helpful to others. But I need to work on the listening part.

 

Written 2/24/25, Posted  7/14/25, Job 376