September 13, 2010
Job's Wife
My microwave started making scratching and vibrating noises so Bill crawled through the attic insulation to see if an insect was caught in the vent. We finally concluded that something big, maybe a katydid, was trapped between the inner and outer sides of microwave itself. Aside from taking the microwave off the wall and actually dismantling it, there was no way to get to it – and even if we could get to it, we’d likely have to kill it to keep it from getting lose in the house. After seven hours of listening to the creature scratch and vibrate against its metal tomb, I considered there might a little bit of Job’s wife welling up in me…I really wanted this thing to die and get it over with so I could move on. (Job 2:9 NIV)
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Gail;
-----It is hard to have compassion for a bug. Generally, when they cross paths with us they bring at least annoyance, and sometimes real trouble. They are little, so they seem insignificant. And they are not usually cute at all. And they are many. I have heard that the majority of the body mass of living animals on the planet is bug mass, and that if all bugs were the size of basketballs they would cover the entire surface of the earth deeper than Noah’s flood. All of these things will die, as well as all the other animals, and us, too. So what is another katydid?
-----But that is not the way it looks at the situation. There are some truly awful ways for a katydid to die. They have problems with viruses and bacteria. There are parasites which do disgusting things inside them. They may be fortunate to be eaten by a bird, because other insects and spiders would eat them alive, slowly. I guess the most painless way for them to go is as a splat upon your windshield. But they all do have to go, and it doesn’t seem like God is too choosey about how that happens for each of them. This poor bug is trapped in a perpetual struggle it doesn’t have enough mentality to figure out. And I doubt it has the contemplation to ponder all the other possible endings to its life, but to it, this one is real and not comfortable.
-----The world serves up treacherous circumstances seemingly at its own whim. Everything in it finds its own trouble sometime during its life. The fact that this katydid experienced an end horrifying to itself is no more weighty than the facts of billions of other creatures experiencing troubles and ends quite personally as well. Even though this is a hefty weight of suffering, it is not God to whom cursing is due before dying, like Job’s wife suggested.
-----I don’t know what He will do for the katydid when it has breathed its last. And it is obvious He does not normally intervene before then. But to us, before we breathe our last, He has given comfort for our times of trouble. Indeed, we being the highest form of life He created have directions from Him about how to receive this comfort. Moreover, along with those directions He gives us are instructions that, when followed, will reduce the likelihood of troubles happening. He is no more to blame for our personal troubles than He is to blame for every trouble of all living creatures from the time of the Fall. The broken, twisted, deceitful conditions of the world are most to blame. Many things happen regardless of how cautious we are. In failing to follow His instructions, we ourselves are next to blame. He is only to be praised in that He gives an eventual end to the troubles for anyone who desires what He determines to be right. And He is to be praised in that eventually He will put an end to this entire broken existence that has been vexing trillions of creatures over all the years.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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