For the second day in a row, I woke up with red, swollen, bloodshot eyes. After a salt water rinse, I lay down with a warm washcloth on them. I hoped to open up the tear ducts to allow the fluid to drain. No luck.

I took a Benadryl and was groggy for the rest of the day. If Eliphaz were here, he would tell me I sinned. Tradition taught “bad things only happen to bad people.”

Job 15:20, “Those who live by their own rules, not God’s, can expect nothing but trouble, and the longer they live, the worse it gets.” The Message

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“Eliphaz’s rote recital of traditional wisdom concerning the fate of the wicked (Job 15:20-35) leaves Job unmoved. Job calls such trite formulations ‘long-winded speeches!’ (16:3).” Chronological Study Bible Notes

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Job 16:4, 5, “If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it. But I’d never do that. I’d console and comfort, make things better, not worse!” The Message

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“…Elements of all his earlier hopes – for a mediator (9:33), a witness (16:19), even for life after death (14:14-17) are now drawn together. Alienated from his own family, Job declares that somewhere there must be a redeemer who will stand on his side (19:25-27). Chronological Study Bible Notes

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Job 19:28, 29, “If you’re thinking, ‘How can we get through to him, get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?’ Forget it. Start worrying about yourselves. Worry about your own sins and God’s coming judgment, for judgment is most certainly on the way.” The Message

Job lost everything but he held on to hope in spite of it.

” ‘Glorify ye the Lord in the fires,’ Isaiah 24:15. KJV Notice the little word ‘in’! We are to honor the Lord in the trial – in the very thing that afflicts us….The three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace came out just as they went in – except for the ropes that had bound them. How often God removes our shackles in the furnace of affliction! [see Daniel 3:23, 25, 27.]” Margaret Bottome, “Streams in the Desert” April 3

I will hold on to hope in spite of my affliction. I believe God is removing things that keep me bound. I will be free from them on the other side of this trial.

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