I had the privilege of being in the prayer room yesterday afternoon and experienced an amazing, humble spirit with a sardine-packed prayer room. It was a sight to see and to experience. With prayer comes insights. Insights often lead to advice. Unsolicited advice is very seldom ever wanted. Many of you have read the book of Job. It’s a challenging story of a man going about minding his own business, when out of nowhere he finds himself in the middle of a heavenly battleground. He loses family, houses, livestock, his health and on top of that confidence in his friends. It’s the discourse among his friends that I want to draw a little focus on this morning, especially in regards to giving advice to other people after multiple days of prayer. You may recall in the story that Job’s 3 friends sit for 7 days and nights in silence with Job. Awkward! Painful! Grueling! Prayerful! Was it empathy? Was it Sympathy? Or were they waiting for the right time to give their all-knowing wisdom? From their human (very human) point of view, they attempt to answer that same haunting question, Why do senseless tragedies afflict men? The major part of the book, written in beautifully poetic language, records the attempts by these men to come to an answer. And the three friends answers are all the same. They answer the question of Jobs problems with smug, dogmatic assurances that only one explanation is possible: he has committed some awful sin. They try to break down Jobs defenses with arguments. Now, they are not necessarily wrong in their explanation. There are tragic events---catastrophes, heartache, pain, and suffering---which do occur because of sin. Any time that we violate the laws of Gods universe, including the laws of health, there is an immediate and sometimes violent physical reaction and much suffering comes from that. But the problem in his friends arguments---and their evil---lay in their dogmatic assertion that this is the only explanation possible for all kinds of suffering. This is where ‘advice’ becomes very dangerous. I call this type of advice ‘the god syndrome. This is where we in our limited knowledge feel that we have the perspective on what God is really trying to tell that person…and my experience has usually resulted in dismal failure. They each take three rounds with Job as though they are in an Olympic boxing match against a man who has his arms tied. Each of them presents three arguments, nine arguments in all, and each plays the same tune. They try various approaches. First they try sarcasm and irony. Then they appeal to Jobs honesty. Then they accuse him of specific crimes and misdeeds. Finally they act hurt and go away, miffed and sulking, pridefully appealing to Job s conscience not to insult them any more. All the time they are attacking his integrity with the argument that if God is indeed just, then the righteous are always blessed and the wicked always suffer; therefore, if an individual is suffering, it must be because there is something wrong in his life. This is their argument. To these men, the explanation is a simple matter of cause and effect and is quite logical. It is neat and tidy and explains everything---that is, unless you happen to be the sufferer. At first Job is slightly irritated with these friends. But then he becomes angry and, finally, sarcastic. In the opening lines of his reply, he delivers a cutting piece of irony: I am sure you alone are the people and wisdom is going to die with you (Job 12:2). Youve got all the answers, youve solved all the problems, you know everything. So theres no use talking to you any longer! With bitter sarcasm he replies that their explanation of his suffering is in error. Resentful, he openly entreats them to understand. He says he cant confess sin because he is genuinely unaware of anything he has done that has offended God. Moreover, he cant believe in justice any longer because their arguments that the wicked always suffer simply are not true. He points out that many people who are very wicked, notoriously wicked, are prospering and flourishing and living in ease, and nothing horrible is happening to them. Furthermore, he says, he doesnt know what to do because God wont listen to him; he doesnt even have a chance to plead his case before God, and he complains that God hides from him and cannot be found. Eventually Job actually shouts at these friends in the turmoil of his confusion, bewilderment, anger, hurt, and frustration. He says he is afraid of this God, who is not the God he has known. He doesnt know what has happened to this dear old friend whom he could always rely upon. Job has taken a strange turn in his attitude now that these awful things are happening to him. He is uncertain what to think or say. The glorious thing about this dear man is that throughout the whole book he is utterly and completely honest. Confused and bewildered and puzzled by what is happening, he simply blurts out his thoughts. He refuses to admit things that he cannot accept: All these pat answers dont help at all! In his desolation he expresses in various ways the ultimate cry of the human spirit. Some wonderful verses emerge from this discourse by Job. Stripped as he is to his very soul, he cries out again and again with some of the deepest expressions of the human heart. In chapter 9 he says of God, “For He is not a man, as I am, that I might answer Him, that we should come to trial together.” Literally, he is saying “would that there were an umpire between us, oh that there were a days-man, a mediator between us who might lay his hand upon both of us (Job 9:32,33). That is the cry of a heart that recognizes that God is higher and greater and richer and holier than man, and man cant reach him. It is the cry for a mediator to come between them (1 Tim. 2:5,6). In the days ahead perilous times will come! When they do and when our friends go through these times, when we go through these times personally, are we going to be like Job’s friends with advice? Are we going to be wise or wise guys. Life is filled with hurting people; me included. They don’t need our ‘pat’ answers from our divine all-knowing perspective. They need a friend who will walk by their side; bear their burden as though it’s there own. Lift them up to the Most High and seek their justification before Yahweh, not their condemnation. Im seeing this modeled before me on a day-to-day basis…I am so thankful! Our country is in a mess. We’re all in a mess. Our country has issues. We all have issues. Our country is divided. We don’t have to be! The 7 days of prayer for national repentance have come to an end, but the process of walking with one another in that reality will not come to an end until we see Messiah face-to-face.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 15:23:28 +0000