January 20 - Job 5:1-7:21

Good morning everyone,

As we take a look at today’s verses I want you, for a moment, to stop and really consider the state of mind Job was in. This man had been a wealthy man in material objects, family, and health. He also had a close relationship with God, could feel His presence, we are told he was a righteous man and now in a very short span of time all of that is taken away. Everything Job knew and was familiar with in the way he lived his life, had changed. He is now in a broken physical and mental state trying to figure out what to do next, not to mention he is dealing with the grief of loosing his children. Let’s not underestimate any of that, put yourself there, visualize this. What would you do? What would your response to this be? In 1929 on Black Tuesday with the crash of Wall Street people were throwing themselves out of windows, putting guns to their heads, killing themselves because they’d lost all their money they felt they’d lost it all. Yesterday we read that Job wanted God to take his life away, he even cursed the day he was born, but not once did he contemplate suicide or curse God.

We read that three of Job’s friends traveled a great distance to be with him in his time of grief which was so touching. You want to know who your friends are? They are the ones who are with you through thick and thin, so here these Job’s friends are and for seven days they did THE best thing I believe that they could have done, they sat silently. While in a time of loss, being reminded of God’s promises in scripture, and being assured God loves you and that there is a reason for everything is all really thoughtful and nice, sometimes that person who is grieving just needs someone to be there quietly, so they don’t feel so alone and yet can have their own thoughts with the freedom to speak or not speak when they are ready. Ancient Jewish tradition calls for the mourners to remain quiet until the person in mourning speaks, so when Job cried out to God that gave the friends a green light to express their thoughts, and sadly that’s what they did. Eliphaz was the first to speak up and while his view of Job’s situation represented well known ways to deal with suffering, Job was not comforted but rather felt condemned.

There are a couple of things I think what we need to take from this; one, is that when we do try to comfort someone we should consider empathy before explanations. We can not just assume, unless we have traveled that road ourselves, that we know how they feel; we could be adding insult to injury. Another is, we do not always have the answer to “why” only God always does and that will be revealed in His time.

In reading today’s scripture, over and over I kept thinking of how alone Job must have felt while his seemingly being abandoned by God. How seemingly abandoned Jesus cried out from the cross when God had to turn His back on Him when Jesus wore all our sins. How seemingly abandoned I am, we are, when we can not feel God’s presence in the times when we are called to walk by faith, but God is always right there. David in the 23rd Psalm said “ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” 

If you know nothing else in this crazy world we live in, you must know that as a Christian you are never abandoned by God, you must know that God is always there with you, He loves you! God loves you!! Oh how He loves you!

Have a super good day.

God bless you all …