“Trouble and distress terrify him, overwhelming him like a king prepared for battle.” (v. 24)

We get confused about our troubles.

We tend to think of them as things that are, things that exist in this moment and that drag us down. We count all our difficulties, and we lament their existence.

But the trouble with our troubles isn’t the troubles themselves.

Job’s friend uses an apt analogy: A person’s troubles aren’t a wave that crashes into him. They are an opposing army. And, more curiously, they aren’t always attacking. Sometimes they are merely arrayed and arranged for the assault.

You and I? We are wearied and worried by these things—not because of what they are, but because of who we have to be because of them. We look around and see Trouble’s army, and we know that a fight is coming. We know cost is coming, even if the cost is unknowable. We know that, because these things surround us on every front, we will be pitched into a battle we cannot hope to win in our own strength.

Job’s friend leverages this for a reminder toward repentance. The rest of the Word would leverage it for your repentant trust in the Almighty, who has overcome the world.

— Tyler