Job 7:3-4 — so am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

O.K. I’m not going to whine … but I do — sort of — know a little of what’s going on with Job.
It’s been so hard for Job. He’s been stricken down in so many ways, and now his sickness makes every day seem like the long, tedious, days of mindless toil that the least fortunate laborer works at every day. It feels to him like he’s been dealing with fruitless toil,day in and day out For months on end. Then he gets to the end of the day and starts a long wait through the night. After each endless day comes a seemingly endless night … And when the sun rises it’s only to usher in the start of another long, tedious day.
I’ve known times like that. Not with the degree of suffering of poor Job, of course, but I have known periods of months on end where it felt like some aspect or another of my life was mindless toil with no visible fruit. And today I suffered another sort of frustration as something just wouldn’t work on my computer!
Job was remarkable in so many ways. He was able to see beyond his own suffering, and use it to understand some part of the general life of mankind. When you look at the first five verses of Job 7 it might look like he’s understanding his own situation in the light of the general plight of mankind:
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as a hireling looketh for the reward of his work; (Job 7:1-2)
In reality though, Job was looking beyond his own suffering, and usIng it to understand some part of the general life of mankind. We all go through those periods of frustration and dreariness. Whether they be times of fruitless labor, or times of sickness, or times of relationship struggles … we all go through it. Job says it again later — “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1)
But Job has the answer too … hidden away in the depths of his despair Is the most glorious affirmation:
For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: (Job 19:25)
As Christians, of course, we cannot but see this as a wonderful messianic prophesy, but it would be wrong not to see it also as Job’s straightforward certainty that God would redeem the months of his frustration. That’s a promise we can rely on. There’s another great promise in the book of Joel, “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.” (Joel 2:25) God can as easily bring fruitfulness as he can the long years of frustration.
So am I naive? Do I believe God always takes frustration away if we wait long enough? I do not. Sometimes that frustration is exactly what we need. But what I do believe is that he will always redeem the time …