The Three Words!

“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” Job 13:15

In Hebrew, three words and an exclamation point.  Literally “! He-kills-me but I-will-wait (hope)-for-Him”   The most compact declaration of the meaning of life ever spoken by a man who knew what it meant.

What really matters to you?  What would be your last wish in front of the firing squad?  What is so crucial to you that it alone keeps you going?

We don’t get enough of Job’s theology.  Our appreciation of his story is usually limited to empathy (and fear) of his disaster.  We focus our attention on all that he lost, not what he kept.  That’s because we don’t share Job’s bookkeeping technique.  When it comes to life on planet earth, we all cook the books.  We try to keep what’s given and connive to get more.  Loss of assets, loss of health and loss of family are universally feared.  Instead of making temporary entries into our corporate ledgers, we fill the columns with permanent ink.  When a loss occurs, we have to make a red ink entry to delete it from the accumulation pile.  And that red ink makes us think that somehow what we had belonged to us.  It’s our loss and we grieve it.  We count by subtraction.  We start full and count from the top down.  But Job starts empty and counts from the bottom up.

Job has a different perspective.  For Job, all the entries are in pencil, and life, God and the devil all have erasers.  With that perspective, Job confronts his total collapse as a divine recall.  Don’t get me wrong.  Job is no stoic.    He doesn’t just shrug it off as another turn of the wheel.   He is distraught.  It’s sackcloth and ashes time.  It hurts beyond description.  But it is not the end.  There is something else that anchors Job’s hold on life.  Something far deeper than possessions, health and family.  And in these three words, Job summarizes the only theology worth having.  If you know what these three words really mean, you graduate with a PhD in spiritual insight and application.  Job knows.  The last entry in the books is this:  Even if God kills me, I will still hope in Him.

The meaning of a man is determined by his hope. It is the final statement of character.  It is the last line in the epitaph.  What we are really made of, and what we really live for, is found in what we hope.  By our measures, Job was at zero.  There was nothing left except death.  Defeated.  Finished.  But Job had a three-word theology that catapulted him beyond the stars.  Job waited and hoped for God.  That was enough.

What do you wait for?  For a turn of events.  For a new beginning.  For restoration of loss.  For justice.  For reward.  For satisfaction.  For “normal”?  What you hope for fixes the final meaning of your life.  Don’t settle for too little on your books.  Only three words can’t be erased.