Job 17:1-16: a reflection

1“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me. 2Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation. 3“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me? 4For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them. 5He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail. 6“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face. 7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow. 8Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless. 9Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. 10But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you. 11My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. 12They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. 13If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, 14if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ 15where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it? 16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”

Job is at a low ebb in this passage. My spirit is broken, he says; my days are extinguished; the grave is ready for me. He is mocked, worn down by sorrow, his plans shattered, his hope seemingly gone. And yet, in the midst of this darkness, a flicker of something else breaks through: Yet the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will grow stronger. Even in his despair, a resolve to hold on flickers up.

Notice that flicker of resolve amid the despair. Job is not pretending to be fine; he is broken, mocked, hopeless, honestly at the end of himself. And yet even there, a determination stirs: the righteous will hold to his way. It is not a triumphant confidence, but a small, stubborn resolve to keep holding on, to keep to the way, even when everything in him is broken. In the depths, a spark of faith refuses to go out.

That flicker is worth holding onto in our own low places. There are times when we are broken, mocked, hopeless, honestly at the end of ourselves, and we cannot summon a triumphant faith. But even there, a small resolve can flicker up: to hold to the way, to keep on, not to let go, even when everything in us is broken. That flicker is not nothing; it is faith refusing to go out in the dark. When you are at your lowest, and cannot manage a strong or joyful faith, do not despise the small, stubborn resolve to hold on. Hold to your way, as Job resolved to, even in the depths; the flicker of faith that keeps holding on when all seems dark is precious to God, and enough to keep you until the darkness lifts.

Lord, Job was at a low ebb: his spirit broken, the grave ready for him, mocked and worn down by sorrow; and yet even there a flicker of resolve broke through, the righteous will hold to his way. Help me hold onto that flicker in my own low places. There are times when I am broken, mocked, hopeless, honestly at the end of myself, and I cannot summon a triumphant faith. But even there, a small resolve can flicker up: to hold to the way, to keep on, not to let go, even when everything in me is broken. That flicker is not nothing; it is faith refusing to go out in the dark. When I am at my lowest, and cannot manage a strong or joyful faith, keep me from despising the small, stubborn resolve to hold on. Help me hold to my way, as Job resolved to, even in the depths; the flicker of faith that keeps holding on when all seems dark is precious to you, and enough to keep me until the darkness lifts. Keep the flicker alive in me, Lord, in my darkest places.