Home > Discovery > Job

Job

5

Click here to listen

A great personal tragedy has struck the family of Job, like a tsunami.  His three friends, instead of being comforters, have become debaters attempting to gain an intellectual victory over him.  They didn't speak of a God of mercy and grace, but only of a God of law.  They brought in experience and tradition and legalism, but not the truth.  It's the truth that sets men free.  Job feels he's just rotting away (chapter 13 verse 28).  This talking shop is only making him feel worse because he can't see any point to his suffering at all.  You can imagine them glaring at one another during their intellectual Olympics.  Job's wounds bleed, his sores still run, but none of his friends bring him any oil or balm.

In chapter 15 Eliphaz, the voice of experience, declares, "'All his days the wicked man suffers torment' (verse 20).  He states 'Distress and anguish fill him with terror; they overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack, because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty defiantly charging against Him with a thick strong shield'" (verses 24-26).  He insinuates that because Job is in torment, distress and anguish, and overwhelmed, he therefore must be wicked.

This provokes an immediate response from Job, tired of listening to long-winded speeches.  He says, "I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.  But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief." Remember that Job never mentions Satan.  He doesn't know what's at stake in this fiery trial and assumes that God Himself is delivering all these blows for no reason.  Little wonder then that Job reacts as he does in chapter 16.

"Surely, 0 God, You have worn me out; You have devastated my entire household" (verse 7).  He says that God assails him and tears him in His anger; he says, "All was well with me but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me" (verse 12).  He feels as if he's been made God's target and relentlessly he's being fired at.  Listen to Job's description of himself in verses 16 and 17.  "My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes; yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure."

Again, out of the depths of Job's pain and grief, there arises another heart cry for an advocate.  Here is another flash of insight as he calls for a mediator.  He says, "Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.  My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend" (verses 19-21).  Is this an Old Testament cry for Messiah, our Advocate and intercessor?

It's a blue day when Job declares, "My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me" (chapter 17 verse 1).  He's gaunt, mocked and misunderstood.  People spit in his face, his eyes have grown dim with grief and his whole frame is but a shadow (verse 7).  He feels absolutely shattered and in desperation cries, "Who can see any hope for me?" (verse 15).

Job wants to know of his so-called friends.  "How long will you torment me and crush me with words" (chapter 19 verse 1).  He feels flattened by their heartless comments.  For instance, Bildad in chapter 18 has just urged him to be sensible and not tear himself to pieces in his anger.  But they are all pointing the finger of accusation at Job and urging him to come clean.  Their belief is that bad things don't happen to good people, so Job, own up.  What have you been up to, unknown to all but God?

There are vital lessons to learn here.  Remember it was Job's righteousness that got him into trouble, not his unrighteousness.  His comforters preach condemnation to him.  They lecture him according to their religious formulas, but they are built on wrong premises.  They major in half-truths, which have no application to Job's personal situation.  His friends - rigid Eliphaz, unfeeling Bildad and merciless Zophar - could not conceive it possible that God had entangled Job in His net and left His action unexplained.  Their efforts to account for 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' that fell upon Job only made matters worse.

In one sense Job didn't want explanations as much as he needed acceptance, empathy and some tender loving care.  The last thing he needed, battered and bruised as he was by life turned sour, was supposed friends verbally assaulting him.  Their abuse was appalling.  It's challenging to see how Job's friends spoke so knowingly about God when, in the end, God revealed that they really didn't know what they were talking about.

Emotionally his three friends were like the priest and the Levite 'passing by on the other side.' They failed spectacularly to identify with Job's situation, feel his agony, or understand his perplexity.  His 'comforters' were not overwhelmed by the heaviness of his suffering.  It didn't move them, after the shock of the first week.  They didn't feel the bitterness of it.  People going through stuff need words of encouragement to feed their spirit and give them strength and hope.  Job was hungry for love and compassion.  Prolonged and intense suffering can make a person feel powerless to handle life.  One can feel overtaken by hopelessness and uselessness, and not want to go on living.

However, there is another lesson to draw from the Book of Job.  God prefers honest disagreement, to dishonest submission.  Loud complainers, like Job, are not ignored.  When confronted with inexplicable injustice, it is better to be irate then resigned.  God is not scared of His children's outbursts.

Click here for part 6