"Finding Words" January 4 Readings: Job 1-5

Today's Reading -  Job 1-5

Background

The first two chapters of Job raise so many questions - the kind that will never be answered until we stand face to face with our Savior. Then, frankly, we likely won't care about the answers! If God loved Job, why would he allow him to go through all of this suffering? Does Satan really have that kind of access to heaven? Does he really challenge God to contests with us as the battleground? The list goes on.

The sad part about Job is that many never study the heart of the book - the conversation between Job and his three friends, between Job and Elihu, and the finale, an answer from God. They just read the first two chapters and the last. But there are some important lessons we can learn as we read Job 1 and 2. These chapters are only the appetizer for the main course that is served in chapters 33-41, but the appetizer has some tasty morsels.

First, we learn that no amount of righteous and godly living can shield us from suffering in this world.

Actually, the opposite can be true. Job was a target because of his righteous living. Living for Christ can put us on the front lines of battle, not protect us from hardship. charlatans promise that godliness shields us from pain.

Our comfort and prosperity is not God's primary goal. God's purposes in the world and even in Job's life matter more than Job's prosperity, happiness, and comfort and he was willing to permit Job great pain to lead him to a place of new insight and to use him in his divine plan.

We focus on Job's great suffering but remember this: Job only suffered as God permitted. When God permits suffering in your life, it is for his glory and your spiritual good, to accomplish a greater purpose in your life. God is powerful and he is good! We must hold on to that even when evil seems to be working its work. Know that the evil is ultimately only able to accomplish the purposes of the sovereign God in this world!

Devotional - Finding Words

I stared at him like he was an alien, with horror and embarrassment. We were looking at old pics of our high schools days and I saw one with someone I didn't recognize. "Who is that?" I asked. "That's my brother," he responded. His brother, during his college years, had become despondent and committed suicide. What should I say? How should I respond? I didn't know. I panicked. I said nothing as the awkward moment passed. I'd love to go back to those days, with what I know now, and offer my friend a word of encouragement.

You might have had a moment like that when you did not know what to say to minister to someone in a time of grief and pain. There is a lot to learn from Job's friends, both positive and negative, about situations like that.

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar performed one of the most amazing acts of friendship anyone has ever seen. When they came to comfort their friend Job, after he had lost his wealth, his home and his children in horrible accidents, they sat with him in silence for seven days. They simply sat there and let him know that they cared and that they were there to help him.

They communicated to Job, by their presence and their silence, the two most important messages hurting and grieving people need to hear.

• I care about you. 
• I am here for you. I'm going to be here for you. 

Had Job ended with chapter 2, these men would have gone down as three of the greatest men who ever lived. But everything changed in chapter 3 when Job began to cry out and express his grief, depression, and despair. Look at Job 3:3-5.

May the day I was born perish,
and the night that said,
“A boy is conceived.” If only that day had turned to darkness!
May God above not care about it,
or light shine on it. May darkness and gloom reclaim it,
and a cloud settle over it.
May what darkens the day terrify it.

That's when the trouble started. They lost their chance to go down in history as some of the greatest men who ever lived when they opened their mouths. Instead of supporting their friend, they wheeled out their faulty theology and tried to force Job's situation into its parameters. They tried to explain everything God was doing, fit everything neatly into their cliched spiritual box and by doing so, drove Job to anger and even to sin.

All the troubles that Job went through could not cause him to sin. He faced the loss of his wealth and his family with faith and dependence on God. But when his friends tried to force their false and simplistic theology on them, it did what Satan's machinations could not.

In chapter 4, we are introduced to "Educated Eliphaz" who acted like God's professor, explaining everything God did based on his outlook. Next, we will meet Bildad the Blowhard and Zealous Zophar. Each has a different view but they all say the same thing - it's your fault, Job. Your sin brought this on and you need to repent.

If only they'd kept their mouths shut!

When someone is suffering, you don't need to try to do the Holy Spirit's job. You cannot explain all of the activity of the sovereign God. But you can communicate two messages to them by your words and your deeds.

• God loves you and is not going to abandon you no matter how things look. Trust God even when you don't understand him. 
• I love you and I'm not going anywhere!

Just don't be like Job's friends, who smugly thought they knew everything and that they could explain all of God's workings to a hurting man.

Father, I trust you even when I can't understand you. Help me to be a friend to those in need, not like Job's friends, but a true friend!

Think and Pray

Do you trust God to see you through hard times, or do you live under the worldly deception that walking in Christ protects you from all hurt and pain?
Do you struggle with what to say to hurting people?
Can you remember a time when you didn't know what to say in a crisis moment?
What should you have said?