Job 29:1-16: a reflection

1Job again took up his parable, and said, 2“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; 3when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, 4as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent, 5when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me, 6when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me, 7when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street. 8The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood. 9The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. 10The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. 11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me, 12because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, 13the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. 14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. 15I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. 16I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

In the depths of his suffering, Job looks back with aching longing on his former life, and what he misses most is revealing. He remembers the days when God watched over him, when God's lamp shone on his head, and, tenderly, when the friendship of God was on my tent. It was not mainly his lost wealth or honor Job pined for, though he lists those too, but the sense of God's nearness, God's friendship, that had once filled his home and now seemed gone.

Notice what Job names as the treasure of his former days: the friendship of God. He had known a season when God's presence was near and real to him, when he walked in God's light, when the friendship of God rested on his home like a warmth over everything else. And now, in his suffering, that nearness seemed withdrawn, and its absence was the deepest of his losses. What he longed for most was not his prosperity but the felt friendship of God.

That longing names something true about the deepest good of our lives. The friendship of God, the sense of his nearness, his presence resting on our lives like a warmth, is a treasure beyond wealth or honor, and its absence is felt more keenly than any other loss. If you have known seasons of God's nearness and now feel it withdrawn, you know Job's ache. And if you have that friendship now, treasure it above all your other goods. The friendship of God is the deepest good there is. Long for it, treasure it when you have it, and, in its seeming absence, hold on, for the God who was Job's friend did not finally abandon him, and will not abandon you.

Lord, in his suffering Job longed most not for his lost wealth or honor but for the friendship of God that had once rested on his tent. Teach me that your friendship, the sense of your nearness, is a treasure beyond all my other goods. When I have known your nearness and now feel it withdrawn, meet me in Job's ache and hold me. And when I have your friendship, help me treasure it above everything. You did not finally abandon Job; do not abandon me. Draw near, and let the friendship of God rest on my life.