Job shifts the topic from external influences to internal ones. What happens when hope dies?

“How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove?” (Job 6:25). Good question! 

In French (Avise la fin), these are the wise words over the entry of Scotland’s Culzean Castle. 

Weak hands and wobbly knees rob me of my doing and my going. Thank God for strengtheners! 

Are you “able to comfort those who are in any trouble”? You can if you share the comfort of God (2 Cor 1:4). 

A hedge might be called the evidence of God’s sovereign care. But what if the hedge is breached? 

“My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 73:26). 

Job rewinds his life back to its beginning: the baby’s first cry, the parents’ joy. If only it never happened! 

Times of testing test friendships, too. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov 17:17). 

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isa 43:2). When, not if. Through, not into.