Today we have the first chapter of Job’s continuing lament. I am glad these things are recorded for us. However, do you know that before you talk to your friends, who most times can do nothing to help you, you will certainly profit most from taking any problem to God, through Whom you can do ALL THINGS? Job appeals to The Just Judge or one whose wisdom would assess the enormity of his suffering, as well as its inequity. The understanding of that day was that righteousness preceded blessing and sin preceded suffering. Therefore, Job must have sinned grievously! He knew that he had tried to live blamelessly before God, so added to his terrible losses were confusion and frustration that God had dealt with him unjustly. The only relief he could imagine was death. While I definitely see Job’s point, suffering does pretty much disappoint as a lifestyle, I am not certain that I would want to die while I thought God was mad at me. At this point, God is not speaking and his friends, from whom he would have asked very little, were accusing. It is foolish to put our trust in other frail flawed humans. Even if the conversation seems one way, I urge you to turn to The Lord in all situations. There is no other authentic hope anywhere! We are blessed and instructed to see behind the scenes. Of course, The Lord, Who knows all things, was confident of the outcome. We are also privileged to have some understanding of God’s eternal Purpose in Job’s trials. A pastor friend of mine shared with me an experience with a woman in his congregation who passed away recently just weeks before her 100th birthday. She had lapsed into insentience toward the end of her life, but was able to quote with him a whole psalm as he read it to her. Even though that precious woman who loved God’s Word is gone, she has something to teach us. Search God’s Word, know it for yourself. In times of trial, The Lord can call upon the deposits you have made of His Truth and bring them to your memory. May I suggest one short passage that will be useful for you to memorize. “I will sing of Your Strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of Your Loving Kindness in the morning. For You have been my High Tower, a Refuge in the day of my distress. To You, my Strength, I will sing praises. For God is my High Tower, The God of my mercy.” (Psalm 59:16-17) Job’s friends were poor friends, in the end. They gave him criticism rather than loving support in his trials. Even the best people are unreliable, only God is perfectly faithful. On your deathbed, whenever that day comes, the friend you will want, and the only friend you will need, is Jesus! Be sure you are cultivating a relationship with Him! “Job answered: ‘If my misery could be weighed, if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales, It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea! Is it any wonder that I’m screaming like a caged cat? The arrows of God Almighty are in me, poison arrows—and I’m poisoned all through! God has dumped the whole works on me. Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—so don’t expect me to keep quiet in this. Do you see what God has dished out for me? It’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach! Everything in me is repulsed by it— it makes me sick. All I want is an answer to one prayer, a last request to be honored: Let God step on me—squash me like a bug, and be done with me for good. I’d at least have the satisfaction of not having blasphemed The Holy God, before being pressed past the limits. Where’s the strength to keep my hopes up? What future do I have to keep me going? Do you think I have nerves of steel? Do you think I’m made of iron? Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps? Why, I don’t even have any boots! “When desperate people give up on God Almighty, their friends, at least, should stick with them. But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert—one day they’re gushing with water from melting ice and snow cascading out of the mountains, But by midsummer they’re dry, gullies baked dry in the sun. Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst. Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water, tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink. They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment! They get there, and their faces fall! And you, my so-called friends, are no better— there’s nothing to you! One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear. It’s not as though I asked you for anything—I didn’t ask you for one red cent—nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me. So why all this dodging and shuffling? Confront me with the truth and I’ll shut up, show me where I’ve gone off the track. Honest words never hurt anyone, but what’s the point of all this pious bluster? You pretend to tell me what’s wrong with my life, but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air. Are people mere things to you? Are friends just items of profit and loss? Look me in the eyes! Do you think I’d lie to your face? Think it over—no double-talk! Think carefully—my integrity is on the line! Can you detect anything false in what I say? Don’t you trust me to discern good from evil?” (Job 6) The Message
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 13:54:03 +0000
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