Category: Job–BibleTrekToday
What are friends for?
Scripture reading for May 20th: Job 4-7
Friends are a precious gift to any person! It seems that as we go through life, close friends who we can share our hearts with are few and far between. I am blessed with a close friend in my wife. She is God’s precious gift to me in the area of friendship. I also have several men who are friends I can count on. But outside of your mate, friends who will stick with you and speak honestly to you through thick or thin are not that easy to find. I think this is partly because of our own selfishness and ingrained patterns of sin. We have trouble trusting others ourselves and as we live life, we come to see that each person has his own load of faults and own walls of self-defense. So the gift of friendship is something special that must be cultivated over time by building trust and through shared experiences that help you bond.
Job was in the thick of his personal crisis. He had lost his material possessions and his children, and now had lost his health as well. His body was covered with sores and he itched and ached. Worms infested the sores and he could find no rest day or night. His skin was disfigured and he was sickly and emaciated. He was just a shadow of his former self and at this point had no answers as to why this was happening to him. His own wife had advised him to curse God and die. Three friends were there with him. The passage we are reading today is the advice of Eliphaz, the Temanite, as he speaks to try to help his friend.
Eliphaz was giving advice from the world-view of his day (and ours sometimes). That world-view stated that God punished the wicked and He rewarded the righteous. Any suffering was the result of some sin and God was correcting your wickedness. If you would confess and be honest about your sin, God would restore and heal you. Eliphaz got this revelation from a personal experience with a “spirit” and by learning from personal observation. (Job 4:12-21) This worldly understanding was not the truth in Job’s case. God had allowed Job’s suffering for His own reasons and had Himself declared Job righteous before the suffering began! (Job 1:8)
Job knew his own heart and his integrity would not let him confess to something he did not know about. He would not try to manipulate God just to get everything back. Rather than being comforted by Eliphaz’s words, he was made even more miserable! (Job 6:21) Job went to God in prayer for the help he needed and the answers his friend could not give! (Job 7:17-21)
As I read this discourse, I am reminded of my need for compassion for those who suffer! It is so easy to judge them from my own worldly wisdom! God’s ways are above our understanding and we cannot always know the whole story through our own revelation or personal experience. Listening closer is wise! Waiting on the Lord and encouragement is a wiser course of action. My prayer: “Help me O Lord, to be a better friend to those who suffer!”
Satan the accuser!
Scripture reading for May 18th: Job 1-3
The Bible teaches us that the unseen world is eternal and the world that is visible is only temporary. (2nd Corinthians 4:18) God dwells in the realm of the eternal and made this visible creation, including us. Satan and Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death into the world and corrupted both creation and man. We are born the first time into the visible realm and face life in a fallen creation with our mortal bodies which have been corrupted by sin. Satan, the accuser, has been given permission to tempt, test, and try us. He seeks to steal from us, kill our bodies, and destroy our souls in Hell. Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels. (John 10:10, Revelation 20:10)
God in His love, seeks to redeem us from the world of sin and death. He has chosen by grace to do this by through faith. He reveals Himself to us through the creation and by revelation in our inner man. He gives each person a conscience with a basic knowledge of right and wrong. We have a free will to choose to seek out God and respond to Him by believing what He reveals to us. The Bible is the story of God’s gracious plan of redemption being implemented throughout history in the lives of people who by faith knew God. As we come to this book of Job, possibly the oldest book in the Bible, we have revelation of God at work behind the scenes in the invisible world and Satan, the accuser, doing his best to steal Job’s faith in the invisible God.
In the invisible world, Satan has access to God. His primary work is accusation against those who have faith. Satan first accuses Job of serving God by faith because of selfish motives. (Job 1:9-11) Satan accuses God of showing favoritism to Job and protecting and blessing him. He implies that if God removes his hedge and the blessings he is now enjoying, Job will curse God to His face! God places boundaries on what Satan can do to Job personally and releases Satan to his temptations. Job then suddenly and catastrophically looses everything he owns as well as his ten children in a violent storm. (Job 1:19) His response is to humble himself and to worship the God he knows by faith. (Job 1:20-21)
The next scene in the invisible world is Satan and God conversing about God’s servant, Job. God commends Job for keeping his integrity during the temptation. Satan responds with another accusation and lie. He contends that if God will allow him to take Job’s health, Job will then curse God. (Job 2:4-6) God again sets a limit and releases Satan to inflict Job physically and emotionally. During this trial, Job’s own wife suggests that he curse God and die. Job rebukes his wife and sits in silent suffering. He finally curses the day of his birth but does not curse God. (Job 3:1-4)
In these chapters of Job, we learn about the battle going on for our faith. God allows testing and trials. Satan accuses us before God. God is on our side and supports us by revelation of His creation, love and grace! We win in the end!