15. mean: ordinary, common, low, or ignoble, rather than cruel or spiteful.
The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers 59
creed does not do this," he says, "neither does my experience, or my way of looking at things." It was grief that brought Job to this place, and grief is the only thing that will; joy does not, neither does prosperity, but grief does. The great factor in the life of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is this very thing—". . . Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him" (Isaiah 53:10). Once grief touches a man he is full of reaction, he says spiteful things because he is hurt, but in the end grief leads a man to the right point of view, viz. that the basis of things is tragic. As long as I am happy and things go well, I say what a famous philosopher said—"This is the best of all possible worlds." It plainly is not, and the Bible reveals why it is not. The world as God originally designed it, was the best of all possible worlds, but it has now become the worst of all possible worlds; in fact, the Bible reveals that it could not be any worse than it is. Individual men who take the wrong line get worse, but the world itself cannot get worse. Grief brings a man to see this more quickly than anything else, and he longs for an umpire who will hold the scales.
although many of us would rather tell a lie for the honour of God than face the facts. A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Job will not accept anything that contradicts the facts he knows; he is not splenetic, he does not say God is cruel, he simply states the facts—"It looks as though God is rejecting me without any reason, all the facts go to prove this and I am not going to blink them." Job will not lay a flattering unction to his soul on the line of expediency. No man ever puts a stumblingblock in the way of others by telling the truth; to tell the truth is more honouring to God than to tell a lie. If God has done something for you, you will know it unmistakably, but if He has not, never say He has for the sake of other people. Job sticks to facts, that is what confuses his friends; but in the end Job is brought face to face with God.
5. The Case for Refuge ( Job 10:18–22) Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. ( Job 10:20–21)
There is no use telling Job that there is no God or that he has not suffered: he has had too much experience of God and of suffering. It is useless to tell him that his creed is the umpire that arbitrates between himself and God: it leaves too much unsolved. Job is the type of man who could never rest in the Church, or in the Scriptures; he needs living Reality. The man who rests in a creed is apt to be a coward and refuse to come into a personal relationship with God. The whole point of vital Christianity is not the refusal to face things, but a matter of personal relationship, and it is the kind of thing that Job went through which brings a man to this issue.
"I see no way out," says Job. He lies down, not in weakness, but in absolute exhaustion. Job is not talking in a petted mood, but saying that unless God will be a Refuge for him, there is no way out, death is the only thing. In every crisis of life, as represented in the Old Testament as well as in the teaching of Our Lord, this aspect of God is emphasised—"God is our Refuge"; yet until we are hit by sorrow, it is the last thing we seek for God to be. There is a difference between the weakness of refusing to think and the weakness that comes from facing facts as they really are. Job is seeing for the first time that God is the only Refuge, the only way out for him; yet he cannot get at Him through his creed, it is all confusion; the only thing to do is to fling himself on God.
4. The Conceptions for Rejection ( Job 10:1–17) Job's utterances are the last word in the expression of certain forms of grief. These particular verses are stately and terrific; Job is trying to state to his own mind why God seems to have rejected him, and also why he should reject the way God is being presented to him—
It is this aspect of God which is at the basis of the Redemption. When a man gets convicted of sin (which is the most direct way of knowing that there is a problem at the basis of life), he knows that he cannot carry the burden of it; he also knows that God dare not forgive him; if He did, it would mean that man's sense of justice is bigger than God's. If I am forgiven without being altered, forgiveness is not only damaging to me, but a sign of unmitigated weakness in God. Unless it is possible for God's forgiveness to establish an order of holiness and rectitude, forgiveness is a mean15 and abominable thing.
Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of Thine hand. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet Thou dost destroy me. ( Job 10:7–8)
All along Job bases his conceptions on the facts which he knows, and this is the only thing to do,
The human problem is too big for a man to solve, but if he will fling himself unperplexed on God he
15. mean: ordinary, common, low, or ignoble, rather than cruel or spiteful.