Job’s Friends
Scripture reading for August 20: Job 16:1-2 “Then Job answered and said: “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. Shall windy words have and end? Or what provokes you that you answer?” Job 16:20-21 “My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God that He would argue the case of a man with God, as as a son of man does with his neighbor.”
Revelation 12:10-11 “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of the testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”
As we walk with God through times of sickness, often our friends and even our family think that they are encouraging us with their blunt analysis of our condition and the reasons behind it. Job’s friends were no different. They suggested that Job was hiding some unknown sin and God was punishing him. One suggested that he was even getting far less than he deserved. Friends like this became for Job (and us!) miserable comforters. They test our faith and become tools of the accuser, Satan. Job longed for one like a “Son of Man” to intervene for him and plead his case. His longing was answered by God in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ.
John, in Revelation 12, saw that the accuser of the brothers had been cast down to earth. Those trusting in God and His Mediator, Jesus Christ, had an advocate Who would defend them. They overcame the accuser and his accusations by pleading the shed blood of Jesus and testified to their faith in God’s mercy through Him. They stood firm in their faith against all accusations, even becoming martyrs for their stand of faith.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for sending one like a “son of man” in Your Son Jesus to be our advocate for us in heaven. We love You and have committed to a stand of faith, even unto death. Amen!
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