The Soul of the Wounded

They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter. (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.) They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves; among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst. From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong.
Job 24:8–12
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The Soul of the Wounded
Job has a long list of abuses people suffer at the hands of others. He laments that these things are taking place and that he too is suffering.  He complains that those who perpetrate such wrongs seem too often to get aways with it and those who are wounded suffer for no apparent reason of their own while God seemingly sits back and allows it to happen. This is often the complaint against God in general and Christianity in particular, if God is truly a God of love how could He allow such things to happen and then go unpunished.  But this is the wrong question to ask.  What we should be asking ourselves is how is it that I have not been completely destroyed? How is it that I am even given life?  For God is a God of love, as well as a God of justice.  He will not suffer to be in the presence of sin.  We are sinful from conception and deserve nothing but God’s wrath, yet that is not what we receive.  Instead, God sent His only Son to take upon Himself our sins, that which separates us from Him, and Jesus took them to the cross.  There God’s wrath was poured out upon Him, not us, and our sins we paid for.  Then in His infinite love, by His grace, through the Holy Spirit, God brings us to Himself.  Through His Word and Sacraments, we are brought into His family and made heir to His kingdom. Our wounded souls are healed, and we can now cry out not in pain or sorrow, but in joy. For we who were once lost are now found. Christ has made us His own.