Adios, Alienation! Job 19

May the mumbling commence!

Alienation is a horrible feeling.  It even makes me shudder when I notice it happening – whether it happens at church or on the school bus that I drive (or anywhere for that matter).  It makes me shudder because I know how it feels to be alienated.  I guess all of us do if we have lived for any length of time.  Job is feeling alienated by his friends, and he speaks about this alienation in Job chapter nineteen.  Read the passage below:

            He has alienated my brothers from me;

                        my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

            My kinsman have gone away;

                        my friends have forgotten me.

            My guests and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

                        they look upon me as an alien.

            I summon my servant, but he does not answer,

                        though I beg him with my own mouth.

            My breath is offensive to my wife;

                        I am loathsome to my own brothers.

            Even the little boys scorn me;

                        when I appear, they ridicule me.

            All my intimate friends detest me;

                        those I love have turned against me.

            I am nothing but skin and bones;

                        I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth. (Verses 13-20)

Talk about total isolation and alienation!  Brothers have left Job’s side and kinsman and acquaintances and friends and guests and maidservants and servants and even his wife.  Job has also lost his intimate friends.  Little children scorn him.  Job isn’t even a loveable loser.

What things would cause such a reaction in close relationships in today’s US culture?  There are plenty to choose from.  Alienation can result from mental illness, from physical handicaps, from mental handicaps, and even from simple old age.  Think about it.  As a society, we have segregation from those with mental illness – think mental wards.  We have segregation from those with physical and mental handicaps – think group homes.  And we have segregation from the elderly – think nursing homes.  Many of us either refuse to build relationships with these people or we simply just do not go out of our way to even come in their paths.

I have mentioned mental illness and physical and mental handicaps and the elderly, but these are only the most obvious examples.  There are many more – some that neither you nor I recognize.  We want to segregate ourselves from those things that disturb us – things that remind us of our weakness and mortality.  Each of us is only one breath away from one of these types of alienation.  So, where do we find any hope..?  Read what Job says later in chapter nineteen:

            I know that my Redeemer lives,

                        and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

            And after my skin has been destroyed,

                        yet in my flesh I will see God.  (Verses 25-26)

There is hope in the Redeemer, Christ the Lord.  Indeed, he has stood upon the earth.  His living Spirit still moves in the earth.  It is because of our living Redeemer that we all have hope.  For each of us have our abilities and disabilities, our strengths and weaknesses.  Each of us are painfully and vulnerably mortal – at least until we embrace our Redeemer.  When we embrace Christ Jesus into our lives, we are guaranteed to see God in our flesh and with our very own eyes.

Praise the Lord!  

“Hallelujah, thine the glory!  Hallelujah, amen!  Hallelujah, thine the glory!  Revive us again.” 

Remove all isolation and alienation.  Remove all our fear.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out