Stumbling

Stumbling

The fool stumbles in the dark

Over what he knows not

Like the sorrow of Job

To those who wonder

But the comedy of Job to those who know

And knowing

Cannot Guide

Sorrowing all the more.

In my early days training as an Ancient Near Eastern Scholar, I was shocked to discover that the biblical book of Job is labeled a comedy. I saw nothing funny in it. It is a story of suffering and loss and betrayal in it. A good man becomes a better man through a series of trials and a revelation of God that is greater than anything he had imagined during his righteous days before his world fell apart. Here, I discovered, comedy referred to the readers informed witness to the stumbling about by the characters who have no idea what's going on. This is the fools lot in life… to stumble constantly without any understanding of what exactly it is that is tripping him up. The wise man knows what ails him, but finds himself unable to convince him of the facts of his sad sack case. Both grieve.