Job

Written in Thailand 250306 2025Hrs:

There has been a rather anti-climatic end to my ATEC in Thailand. During our final battalion mission, one company was moving through a cultivated plot of land, which we do all the time. The farmer of the land thought they were thieves or something took out a shotgun and shot them, wounding 2 people in the process. As a result, the entire exercise was scraped and everybody headed back to camp.

Now the future is uncertain, rightfully we were suppose to finish our ATEC in Thailand and come back to Singapore happily having a sense of pride that all our hard work paid off. But as it is we are left hanging. Some say that we will redo the exercise back in Singapore, others say that we will just extract the results from the missions we have performed thus far. But now it seems to me that all the hard work put into this current ATEC in Thailand is being called into question. An undeserved fate to say the least.

Coincidentally, I have been doing a study on Job who also, due to circumstances beyond his control did not get what he deserved. He in fact came off much worse than original. The book of Job calls into question what was suppose to be the ultra biblical doctrine of reaping what you sow. But sometimes the maths just don't add up, bad things happen to good people, hard work produces nothing etc... It seems insurbordinate to call God into account for such things but Job did. He lashed out at God with all guns blazing and God did not fault him for it. On the other hand, did God provide an answer to Job's predicament? No, when God appeared, He totally avoid the subject and went on ranting about the glories of His creation.

But what I felt was most important was that God's appearance was enough for Job which fell short of his earlier demands for an explanation from God. If only I had the faith that Job had, that the mere sight of God in my current circumstances would be enough for me no matter what happens instead of complaining about how this that happened just sucks to the core.

The book of Job does not provide an answer to all the unfairness in the world, all the sufferings and undeserved fates. It only adds more questions to it, but it does provide another way to approach it, An approach that require good old faith in God that despite what happens we know we have a good and all powerful God on our side. Nothing is impossible for Him. On a side note, I don't think I remember hearing a sermon having been preached on Job. Perhaps that mist change.