Job 15:9. "What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?" This is Eliphaz, Job's friend, speaking to Job in the midst of Job's suffering. Job's friends came to him to try to give him counsel and help in his terrible afflictions, but they simply did not understand what was happening. They had long ingrained, preconceived notions about suffering and righteousness into which Job's situation did not fit. Job saw that something was different here, and kept trying to talk about it the best he could, but his friends did not understand. So we get this exasperated outburst from Eliphaz - what does Job know that they do not? What does he understand that they don't? Job doesn't understand what's going on, but he knows that it's different and somehow more meaningful than the "simple" answers his friends are offering. Eventually, Job will have a conversation directly with God, and while he will still won't get a complete answer (because we are not capable of understanding the mind of God), he will come to understand that God has reasons for everything He permits, and His plans extend far beyond what we can see to accomplish the greatest of goods.

Once, during the lockdown, I had a telehealth visit with a nurse practitioner about another matter, but she wrapped up by saying "You got your COVID vaccine right?" When I said no, she was visibly upset, and gave me all the reasons I should get it, ending with "Or do you know something I don't know?" Exactly like Eliphaz. I said I didn't "know" anything, but I was suspicious of many things, and did not trust the "vaccine." This nurse, like Eliphaz, was so enmeshed in the world and the way it presents itself, she could not see beyond the narrative, even when there was plentiful reason to be suspicious. But Job knew something else was going on in his suffering, as did I and many others during the suffering of the last few years.

Something more is still going on. It would behoove all of us to humbly accept that whatever it is, it is from God, and try to live by His rules and follow Him through it. This is the only way we will get where He is leading us, and the longer we put our trust in other people, in the "princes" of this world, the more we are going to suffer.