Party of Five

Job 24 - "But if Judgment Day isn't hidden from the Almighty, why are we kept in the dark? There are people out there getting by with murder—stealing and lying and cheating. They rip off the poor and exploit the unfortunate,Push the helpless into the ditch, bully the weak so that they fear for their lives. The poor, like stray dogs and cats, scavenge for food in back alleys. They sort through the garbage of the rich, eke out survival on handouts.Homeless, they shiver through cold nights on the street; they've no place to lay their heads. Exposed to the weather, wet and frozen, they huddle in makeshift shelters. Nursing mothers have their babies snatched from them; the infants of the poor are kidnapped and sold.They go about patched and threadbare; even the hard workers go hungry. No matter how backbreaking their labor, they can never make ends meet. People are dying right and left, groaning in torment. The wretched cry out for help and God does nothing, acts like nothing...

Continuing on with Job's reply to his friends - Job 16:17-22 - "Even though I've never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere! O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry! There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God. I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor. Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return." Right here before us is an example of Job's faith. He already knows (way before the New Testament lessons) that there is one who will go on his behalf before God almighty!! Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their defects, have a friend to plead for them, and on Him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance with God. ( Hebrews 10:19-23 ) Bob Sorge speaks of J...

There are nine chapters in the book of Job that speak of the advice, "comfort" and judgement that Job's friends came to present to Job in his despair. In answer to them, I counted 19 chapters of Job's various replies to his friends' words. This is what I'm going to try and briefly focus on for the next few entries - Job 6:2,3 - "If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been impetuous." These three friends had come in and tried to wrap up Job's pain in one neat and tidy package. The things is, to be a good counselor requires enormous timing, great wisdom, a long rope, and great understanding. Job is pleading for all of that as he asks his friend to consider what he's been through. "I don't think you'd say these things, Eliphaz, if you sat where I sit." There are times when others' words only make our troubles worse...

For seven days & nights, Job's friends sat with their dear friend - saying nothing, just being there for him. Ahhh...if only they would've stayed like that... Proverbs 25:11 - "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." - This is NOT what Job was going to experience!! Eliphaz was the first to speak up - Job sat before him stripped of everything, his heart torn and exposed, his words desperate, and his friend could only offer him an explanation of basically "you reap what you sow." If Job lost his wealth, possessions, and children (can we relate?), surely it was because of something he had done. But this is NOT what we need to hear when we're needing comfort after losing a child. There is NOTHING that we did to cause us to miscarry. The insensitivity of Job's friend, Eliphaz, is that of someone who has never know the level of brokenness that Job was in. His next friend, Bildad, went so far as to inquire ...

Remember how Job's friends came to him and simply sat with him in silence? It was Job who broke that silence when he "cursed the day of his birth" in Chapter 3 . The fact is, there is a point at which anyone can simply throw in the towel. It's not about abandoning your faith ~ We just get thoroughly sick and tired of trying to put a good face on things, when there is nothing good about what we are facing! This is not sin; it is just plain honesty. The true believer does not always rise from his knees full of encouragement and fresh hope. There are times when one may remain down in the dumps even after crying out to God. What He wants from us is not the observance of religious protocol, but just that we be real with Him. What He wants is our heart. 1 Peter 1:7,8 - These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Th...