365 Reflections

As Job continues his speech in Job 13 he calls on his friends to be silent and stop speaking for God so that he can have a direct word with Him alone. This is the true means of getting through suffering. Take your case not to men but to God! Job 13:13–14 (ESV) “Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. 14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand? What Job does is what we should do when life is spinning out of control. Talk to the Lord. Complain if necessary. He will not be surprised by your words or feelings for He already knows them. But when you complain, remember to complain in hope! Job 13:15 (ESV) Though He slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face. What a marvelous phrase. Job will trust in the Lord even if the Lord should destroy him. However, we should note the Hebrew is ambiguous and could render two very different statements. The alternative is: "if He slay me, I have no hope.” The point Job mak

Job 12:2–4 (ESV) “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. 3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? 4 I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called to God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock. Joe's response at the end of the first cycle of conversation with his less-than-desirable friends is to call them out for their lack of understanding. I appreciate this about Job. He doesn't simply just listen to his friends or those who claim to be wise. And I would suggest to every Christian - do likewise! The New Testament tells us to live with discernment over what we hear: 1 John 4:1 (ESV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. John makes clear, there is no shortage of bad/false spiritual messages in the world. So it is our job to test them against Scripture, t

Of the three friends and "comforters" in Job's life, Zophar is the worst. He does nothing but scolds Job as he talks. There is no compassion in his voice. There is no allowance at all for Job to be right. And his speech is poisonous to the soul of one who is suffering.  Zophar represents many in the Christian world and we must be mindful that they do not all come out straightforwardly mean as Zophar does. Sometimes they come in the veiled animosity of "faith" positive people.    Let me explain.  Zophar is utterly convinced Job is getting what he deserves and that all his trouble is overdue medicine for his crimes. He insults and accuses Job throughout his speech. Job 11:2–4 (ESV) “Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be judged right? 3 Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you? 4 For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God’s eyes.’ As I said, many in the Christian world are like him but n

Job waffles throughout the book in his response to the suffering. In Job 9 he was eager for someone to mediate his issues with God. Now in chapter 10 he's ready to die again as he was in Job 3. This is the trouble with suffering, it births emotional swings of massive proportions.  Take note of his recounting of the goodness of God in his life: Job 10:8–12 (ESV) Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. 9 Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? 10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? 11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. 12 You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. Job recalls that all he is and all he has is from God. Yet, inwardly, his heart is sure that God did all this to set him up for ultimate suffering in taking it all away.  Job 10:13 (ESV) Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that th

One of the greatest lines in Job comes from his mouth in Job 9.  Job 9:32–35 (ESV) For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. 33 Would that there were an arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. 34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. 35 Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. Job longs for someone to stand in the gap between himself and the God who allowed all the evil he has endured. The chapter begins with Job's understanding that no man can be righteous before the Lord. Job 9:2–3 (ESV) “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? 3 If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. The ancient text of Job is well ahead of its time. Here Job utters a profound truth that is first hard to understand, and second, commonly rejected. What truth is that?  Before God, we cannot stand. Even when J

Job 8:3–7 (ESV) Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 4 If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. 5 If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. 7 And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. It's amazing how fast these consoling friends turn into the worst people in Job's life. Now Bildad's first speech comes to us with an accusation that Job's children sinned and God judged them. Then he seems completely out of touch when he considers Job's beginning "small" (See verse 7). A quick glance back to the first chapter and description of Job reminds us that he was great in the land and that he regularly offered sacrifices for the sins his children "may" have committed. But Bildad encapsulates the truth that real

Job 7:7–11 (ESV) “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. 8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. 9 As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; 10 he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. 11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. One thing Job does immediately after hearing from his first friend is simply this - he brings his complaint to God. Notice the reasoning in verse 7. He tells God to remember his life is short and he believes he won't see good again. And so he has nothing to lose. He then proceeds to voice his complaint to the Lord.  I think if we learned to do this, the world would be a far better place. Instead of broadcasting our hurts on social media, instead of talking about this with 5 or 6 friends, instead of desperately trying to

It's one thing to suffer traumatic experiences, it's another to have your friends bloviate about why it's your fault. Job has had to see his possessions destroyed, his children killed, his health deteriorate, his wife despise him and now he sits in ashes, covered with soars. When the first friend proposed uttering a word to Job, he went off for 2 chapters. We will learn from these men far more about how to NOT be someone's friend.  And Job picks up this idea quickly. Job 6:14–17 (ESV) “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away, 16 which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. 17 When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place. I love the NIV's phrasing for verse 15: Job 6:15 (NIV) But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow What is an intermittent stream? look at

The problem with some advice is that it sounds good at the time, maybe even true at that time but it's far to simple and off base in the end. This is the frustration we have exploring the advice Job's friends give him. And we are only into the first speech given by Eliphaz in Job 5. Now he says some true things here: Job 5:17–18 (ESV) “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. 18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal. All true and several other scriptures back this up. Now Eliphaz assumes that the bad in Job's life is from the Almighty (a key name for God in the book of Job). But there's something we've already seen that the characters have not. Job's suffering is not from God but from the devil. And one of life's worst mistakes is to attribute to God what the devil does and even worse - attribute to the devil what God does.  It's the mistake of absolutism when it comes