Dangling from a Spider’s Web

SCRIPTURE: That’s what happens to all who forget God—all their hopes come to nothing. They hang their life from one thin thread, they hitch their fate to a spider web. Job 8:13-14 MSG

THOUGHT:  In this passage, Job’s friend Bildad accuses him of forgetting God, but it isn’t true. Job hasn’t forgotten God. His faith is robust. What he can’t understand is why so much pain has come his way, despite his love for God. He rather feels the opposite, that God has forgotten him, or worse, is picking on him.

Despite being wrong about Job, Bildad still makes a great point about trusting anything besides God. It’s like attaching your hope to a spider’s web, he says—fragile, dangerous, thin. All around us, people are doing this. Sometimes it’s people we love deeply; sometimes it’s strangers whose lives are on display in the media. Sometimes we recognize our own story in others’ choices. We see the thin threads hope hangs from and we know from first-hand experience how it will end. Another broken thread, broken hope, broken heart.

By contrast, Scripture uses a series of metaphors for God as a strong foundation for our lives when times are hard and hope is faint: rock, refuge, strong tower, shelter. In Psalm 61, David says, “From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!”

That is nowhere near to fragile, thin, breakable, or hanging-by-a-thread. We have a solid God, and solid hope to stand on, even during the worst life can throw at us. And we have stories, like those of Job and David, to encourage us to trust God through it all. God had not forgotten Job, and he has not forgotten you or I either.

PRAYER: Oh God, thank you for being solid like a rock, not fragile like a strand of web. You won’t break when we need to lean, and I am so grateful for that.