Byword

10.26.12

Job 17.6 6 “But He has made me a byword of the people, and I am one at whom men spit." NASB

There comes a point in suffering, where only few will go with you. At first everyone is shocked, dismayed and even outraged. And as time goes along they drift back into the routines laid out for them: kids, careers, etc. They have to because the one who suffers goes alone.

We tend to call ourselves sensitive and compassionate these days. We are the ones who will take up the cause and throw in our lot with the suffering. But bills have to be paid and attendance at work is not something to take casually. In Job’s day there weren’t those who took up the banner and led the walk for the cure. Job felt not only the bite of his “friends” suspicion but also the indictment of the crowd around him: “…He has made me a byword of the people, and I am one at whom men spit.”

I looked up the meanings of the word, byword, and this is what I found: an object of general reproach, derision, scorn, etc. Job was scorned for what happened to him. I have a friend who is terribly, terminally sick. I don’t know why, but he is. But the last thing I am ever going to entertain is the thought that he’s getting what he deserves. No one deserves to be sick. His name is a byword for courageous. Recently another friend died of cancer. Her name is a byword for courageous. Some battles are the biggest of our lives and they are inexplicable, and appear frightening and cruel, and we have to face them alone.

Job’s battle wasn’t the calamity that surrounded him. The loss of his ranch and his children, and the subsequent disease that ravaged him, were mere skirmishes compared to his battle for belief in the mercy and goodness of the Almighty. And all that happened to Job alone, and he alone, gave God Alone the credit.

That takes a special kind of person. That takes courage at a level that only the courageous will venture up to – and suffering, they do it alone, wiping the ‘spit’ of human derision from their self-view: God, why are You doing this!? The next time we find ourselves suffering, either from self-infliction or some other, will we have courage to level our concerns to God?

Because the suffering may be the reason God is growing courage within us. And courage may be the reason God allows us to suffer. But for sure, it is with God we go, either courageously, or kicking and screaming until we realize that maybe, possibly, there is a purpose to all of this that is only known by God and is ultimately revealed to us long after it is over.

And like it or not, suffering will bring out of us beautiful things that we never imagined were in us; and things that could not appear any other way. And things that only a perfectly loving, pure, and Holy God can appreciate: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones. (Psalm 116.15) In some ways I think God longs for our death; but in other ways I think He intends for the death of something in us, so that the birth of something else may happen.

Job indeed became a byword to us, but oh, what a word: The patience of Job! Oh, to have patience like that! Hang on brother, with what God is up to in our lives, everything is possible!