These friends of Job are really something else. But really we are all guilty of acting toward others as they acted toward Job. We are critical and condemning instead of caring. We try to explain God on our own terms from our own narrow perspective. Our God works with all of us differently. We can't put Him into a box. Eliphaz tells Job to practice what he preaches. He tells him that he was only reaping what he sowed and that if he was innocent he would not be suffering. Get right with God Job, and you will be blessed! HA! Thanks Eliphaz...you are all heart!
Don't base your advice on experience and emotion...they change. Base it on the word of God which never changes. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. See the person that stands in front of you. Don't miss the pain and the suffering. Look with your heart as well as your head.
Chapter 6-7
Job begins chapter 6 by telling us how heavy his grief is. No one...no one will understand your pain. No matter how well you explain it they cannot. They have not walked the same path you have. God, however, does understand. He has carried all your pain, grief and sorrow. His presence is always with you. Pour your heart out to Him.
Job feels targeted by God. His friends instead of being a comfort and providing words of encouragement have accused him of secret sin. Instead of applying soothing ointment to his wounds they were pouring salt into them and telling Job that the situation he found himself in was his fault. Jesus said that in the world we would have tribulation but to be of good cheer He had overcome the world. While we are in the world, we are to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Job desires death and God withholds it from him. This made me glad God does not answer all our prayers with a yes. Our knowledge is so limited! We see through the glass darkly. God sees it all and He knows best.
He goes on in verses 13-17 and tells his friends that they are like deceitful brooks. No comfort when the cold winds blow and provide no refreshment in the heat of the summer. (brook freezes...brook dries up)
The beginning of chapter 7 finds Job talking about the futility of life and in particular his life now. He speaks of his days as being spent without hope and says that his eyes will never see good again. Job doesn't see what all his suffering could accomplish. He wants God to either forgive him or take his life. He wants peace one way or the other. Job does not have God's eyes and does not see the end from the beginning. But we walk by faith not by sight.
Chapter 8 Bildad answers Job. God is just he says...for every cause there is an effect. If you are suffering, you must be in sin. Job agrees with him in chapter 9 that God is just, but still insists that he is blameless. By blameless Job does not mean sinless..he means spiritually mature. Job does not continue in any sin. He walks in the will of God. Job then lists his three complaints.
1. He can't contend with Him. (Now I like that I can't contend with God. If I could contend with Him, He would not be much of a God!)
2. He can't answer Him. Job is speaking of a courtroom. Since God is the Judge and He has all the power, He wins every time. Why bother, Job says. Job goes on to give a beautiful picture of God's sovereignty...well I thought it was beautiful. Verse 12 says this:
If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’
I love that...who can say to Him, "What are You doing?"God is sovereign...He does what He wants. Paul says this about God's sovereignty in Romans 9:
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Now I really do not have any right to question God. Even though I know this, I still do. Job can't present any arguments with God because he has no right to present any arguments to God. We all know this and yet we still do. We contend with Him...we argue with Him. We complain about our circumstances. We whine about what He may or may not be doing in our lives.
In verse 33 Job wants a mediator between God and Himself but finds none. We have a mediator in Jesus who meets our deepest need. Jesus is the mediator between heaven and earth to whom God has committed all judgment.. This was, of course, not yet clear to Job but is crystal clear to us in the Gospel.
Job's Third Complaint begins in chapter 10. He does not understand what God is doing. To Job's human eyes God seems to be destroying His own work. If that is the case why was Job born in the first place. God could have saved himself a lot of trouble.
If I sin, then You mark me, And will not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am wicked, woe to me; Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; See my misery!
It doesn't seem to make any difference from where Job sits whether he is righteous or wicked...He is still in misery. Again the answer is in Job 9:33. We have a mediator in Him.
