Job 19:16

I summon my servant, but he does not respond,

   Though I plead with my own words.

 

It is Thanksgiving and we are back from vacation. A tornado missed our house by about a mile while we were gone, so I am very thankful for that. Both cats this morning are acting like they missed me. I should be thankful for that too.

‘Summon’ was also ‘call’. ‘Does not respond’ was also ‘gives me no answer’ or ‘would not/does not’.

‘Plead’ was also ‘beg’ or ‘entreat’. ‘With my own words’ was also ‘myself’ or ‘with my own mouth’.

The underlying sentiment here is that sometimes a servant might not answer someone else’s call, but they were sure going to answer the call of their own master. During vacation, someone asked how I knew that I was getting signs from God and not from Satan or some random demon. I told him that I just knew, but the more it comes back to me, I recognize that it is through practice. Christ said that His sheep would know His voice. I recognize His voice because I spend so much time listening to Him and listening for His answers.

This, of course, means I know when I am messing up more so that one who is not a Christian, and more importantly, than others who have the Holy Spirit to guide them and are not practiced at listening. I spent a lot of time with my wife this week, and I had a few moments when we did not see eye to eye on things. It is frustrating, but we are different and it happens. I assume it will keep happening as long as we are both on earth.

When trying to find Christ in this verse, I see it as something He might say about us. Job was trying to convey that he had lost all authority in his house due to his illness. But when applied to us, it might simply show how desperate Christ wants to be involved in what we do and how it hurts when we do not respond.

I do not have servants, but I do have coworkers who I try to lead. One of my big goals is to keep them working on the most important things at all times. It is very frustrating when they do something not critical before something critical. I try to make it easy, but it still does not happen. Maybe next week I need to emphasize this aspect of the daily priority list. Maybe like the Ten Commandments or the two golden rules or maybe the one main thing. Maybe we are all like this, and I just ignore my own faults too much.

Written 11/27/25, Posted 1/10/26, Job 416/1070