Where Is My Hope?

Why does the comfort my friends offer make me feel worse?

Job's friends come back a second time with shorter speeches and the same verdict, and Job tells them they are miserable comforters. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar each explain his suffering to him, and none of it lands where he actually hurts.

Then Job answered, “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters! Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you, but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

Job 16:1–5

“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away; which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself. In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish. The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them. They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded. For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid. Did I ever say, ‘Give to me’? or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance’? or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors’?

Job 6:14–23

As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

Proverbs 25:20

Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:15

Can I tell God that I think he is the one who did this to me?

Job does not soften it. He says God has worn him out, torn him in his anger and handed him over to the wicked, and he says it to God's face. He is not hedging or filing a complaint through intermediaries.

“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased? But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate. You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face. He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me. God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target. His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground. He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant.

Job 16:6–14

Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

Job 13:15

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever. Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?

Psalms 44:23–24

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy. Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding. He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.” Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.

Lamentations 3:1–20

What do I do when I have no hope left but I still want to hope?

Job's hope is not confidence that things will improve. He says his days are past, his plans broken, and then in the same breath he looks toward God anyway. It is hope held with nothing underneath it.

My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it? Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”

Job 17:11–16

“For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.

Job 14:7–9

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence. My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

Psalms 42:5–6

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Is there anyone who can stand between me and God and plead my case?

Job wants an advocate, someone who will argue a man's case with God the way a neighbor argues with a neighbor. He is asking for a mediator, and he does not know yet how far God will go to answer that.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high. My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

Job 16:19–21

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment. There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid; then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

Job 9:32–35

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,…

1 Timothy 2:5

Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 7:25

My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

1 John 2:1

Does God really answer when I cry out for justice?

Job is sure his cry is heard in heaven, even while he is certain nothing will come of it on earth. He says his witness is in heaven and his plea is on high, and then he says his hope of vindication will die with him. Both are in his mouth at once.

“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger.

Job 19:23–27

“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry. They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol. They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

Job 21:7–15

But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches. Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence, For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus”, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me— until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.

Psalms 73:2–17

He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Luke 18:1–8