Job Pt 11 – Your Arms Are Too Short to Box With God

Way back in the day when we were taught and believed it was a sin to go to the movies I went to see “Your Arms Are Too Short to Box With God” starring Patti LaBelle at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco.  I justified attending my first live performance because it wasn't actually a movie, besides, how could anything with the words “God” in the title be wrong?  Well, I didn't get struck down by lightning; I've had ups and downs but that's a part of the life process but since I’m a walking in success I guess God didn't mind at all.  He probably fell back on his thrown and shook his head wondering what in the world was wrong with his well-intended children and their misconceptions, rules and regulations that they defined as sin.  At any rate, the point is that this memory popped in my head as I wrote this declaration last night while reading about Zophar’s misconception of God.  You know what yawl, sometimes we have God all wrong with all of the rules and regulations about stuff he probably could care less about unless, now hear me well, unless you idolize that thing, it is harmful to you and/or others.

In Chapters 12-14 Job let his friends have it and it was all Zophar could take but by the time Job had finished, Zophar was as hot as fish grease.  He was so mad that he looked like he turned deep purple.  He stood up and paced back and forth as he stared at Job as if he was wondering whether he should punch him or spit on him.  Bildad and Eliphaz got a little nervous when they saw the veins in his neck pulsating.  They looked at each other and whispered that this was not going the way they had planned and Zophar looks like he’s gonna lose it any minute.  Just then Zophar opened his mouth and said:  “I’ve had enough dog gone it!  Maybe I’m missing something.  Perhaps sir, you are a complete imposter because our dear and wise friend would not speak so foolishly.  Are you Job from Uz?”  Job gave him the ‘blank stare, are you an absolute idiot stare’ but never opened his mouth.  When Job wouldn’t acknowledge his question Zophar continued:  “Since you won’t answer me, I will take your silence as an affirmative that you are indeed Job.  My dear friend I must tell you that I have respected you for all these years as a wise, fair and godly man but the more I listen to you the more I realize what a complete idiot you are!!  I don’t know if it’s the “Old Man’s disease”; if those sores are also in your head; if that gook oozing out of your body is actually liquid brain matter or what, but you have completely lost it.  How dare you trivialize our wise counsel and dismiss our visit with you as if it is nothing.

All you have done since we got here is whine and complain.  My words haven’t passed judgment over you.  Your guilty words have condemned and incriminated you because of the sins so heinous that God had no choice but to pour out his wrath and judgment to make you an example. 

There are countless elders that have been around longer than you, but you talk as if you’ve been around as long as the mountains and that you were in on God’s brainstorming sessions when he planned all of this.  You don’t know any more than we do and your insight is no greater than ours.

You’ve allowed your emotions to get the best of you, up today, down tomorrow like an untamed woman who is having her season, lashing out and spitting fire in whatever direction that suits you.  Do you realize you are pitting yourself against God with the words that are running out of your mouth like a river overrun by a bursting dam?  You cannot possibly believe that a mere mortal can be sinless before God who doesn’t trust anyone, not even his holy angels.  God sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves so how much more will he see the faults of smelly and foul human beings?” 

Job was about to interrupt when Zophar put his hand up and said:  “I’m not finished so sit down and

shut up!!  You need to know my thoughts on this whole matter.  It’s what wise men and women have always taught, holding nothing back from the wisdom they learned from their parents which was: those who live by their own rules and not God’s can expect nothing but trouble, and the longer they live the more they can expect.  The wrong eats away at them like the sores on your body.  Every little sound terrifies them.  They have no peace, afraid of their own shadow so they take extra precautions by offering sacrifices all the time, even for their own children whom they have trained to live wicked lives just like them.  Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes and it strikes with a vengeance leaving them hopeless of things ever getting better so they wander around like nomads without direction, not knowing what to do, where to go and begging for help from anyone that comes their way.  They live in constant terror with their backs up against the wall in constant crises mode with no end in sight like a woman when birth calls and the pains are so great that they are on top of each other.  Why?  Why God they cry out seemingly innocent when they know exactly why they are in this state.  It is because they insist on shaking their fists at God, defying El Shaddai to his face. Always and ever at odds with God, always on the defensive as they try to box with God.

It doesn’t matter if they are trim, fit and healthy with youth on their side they will end up living worse than junkyard dogs with no place to call home.  They will never get ahead, never amount to a hill of beans.  They’ll end up like shriveled up weeds brought down by one puff of God’s breath.  What is my point?  Whoever invests in lies gets lies for interest, paid in full before the due date.  Talk about a return on investment!!  The godless are fruitless—a barren crew; a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.  They have sex with sin and give birth to evil.  Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit.”

Chapter 16:  Well that did it for Job, he was done with them and he told them so when he said:  “I’ve had all I can take from yawl, you’re nothing more than a bund of windbags blowing hot air.  What a miserable group of comforters.  What is your problem that you go on and on and on like a nagging bitter woman.  You would think I did something personal against the three of you!  If you were in my shoes I could talk from a place of logic and accusation, but I would never do that, I would console and comfort to make things better.  Neither speaking nor silence makes me feel any better.  I’m tired, man!  I’m tired; I’m tired….

Job then fell to the ground and grimaced in pain as the sores on his knees and back of his legs re-opened but he completely dismissed them as he cried out to God in utter anguish that surfaced from deep within his soul:  “God, the lives of my family and mines were a total waste.  I’m like a dried up prune. Your anger tears at me, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes burn holes in me—God, my enemy!  People take one look at me and gasp.  Contemptuous, they slap me around and gang up against me and God just stands there and lets wicked people do what they want with me.  I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up. He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around. O Earth, don’t cover up the wrong done to me!  Don’t muffle my cry! There must be someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—My Champion, my Friend, while I’m weeping my eyes out before God.  I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.”

I’m out of time, we’ll have to pick it later.

In His New Excellence,

Tania Not Tanya