Job 7:5

My flesh is clothed in maggots and clumps of dust,

   My skin scabs over and breaks out afresh.

(Written 3/30, Posted  4/12 )

Yuk. Let me just say this is not my favorite part of Job. My brain tells me that my aversion to stuff like this is why I never wanted to be a doctor. I never even took biology, so I often feel ignorant about a lot of things biological or medical. I read that people have read Job and used statements like these to give a name to what ailment he had, but generally I just move on.

“My flesh” was a clear selection over “my body”. “Clothed” was picked over “caked” or “covered”. “Maggots” was chosen over “worms” as it seemed more gross. “Clumps of dust” was created based on “dirt”, “scabs”, “dust”, “clods of dust”, “clods of earth”, “dirty scabs”, “earth clods”, and “clods of dirt”. “Scabs” did not seem the point and “dirt clods” did not seem accurate.

I created “scabs over” from “hardens”, “is broken”, “is cracked”, and “ripples”. “Breaks out a fresh” was chosen over “festering”, “loathsome”, “oozing”, “with running sores” and “breaks out again”. It reminded me of the wound on my arm that I was so careful to tend to in order to avoid a scar. After weeks of care, I threw a baseball and it ripped open all over again and scarred where it ripped open again. Ugh.

For whatever reason, I am reminded of a presentation at church where a man had memorized the Sermon on the Mount and repeated it with the passion and inflection that the crowd might have heard from Christ Himself. It was powerful and shaming. It reminded me of the power in God’s Word, but it shamed me in the lack of passion in my life at the time and in the church I attended.

I am not sure I have the best voice or the skill set, but after I complete this effort of amalgamating Job, I hope to have someone, or several someone’s, portray it on an audio tape for others to hear. I am not sure I could whip up a group to perform it live, but that is a back burner goal as well.

The Bible is full of passion, God’s passion for us, and I like my life better when I can feel and share that passion. In this verse, Job is very passionate about his condition. Yuk, but I believe the goal is to live out our passion for Christ.