January 23 - Job15:1-18:2

Good morning everyone,

Today our reading begins with round two of the talks between Job and his three friends. They will speak in the same order, Eliphaz leading off and while saying nothing new, this time he is a little more intense, more threatening. He began by saying Job’s words  are empty, useless and reiterates that Job must be a great sinner. Eliphaz is a pretty arrogant guy, he assumed his words were as true as God’s own. Do you think that perhaps there was a bit of fear behind Eliphaz’s words? I mean to say that, here we have Job who by all accounts is a righteous man, who promises his friends that he does not sin, however he is clearly going through a great deal of suffering which according to Eliphaz is a direct result of Job sinning. Now Eliphaz is an elderly fellow who also is a man of God and we can take from his conversation that considers himself sinless. So I am sure Eliphaz doesn’t want to believe that such sufferings can happen to a man who “plays by the rules” because if that is the case then this same thing could happen to him too, and quite frankly seeing Job, smelling Job, just plain witnessing the state Job was in would most likely scare the daylights out of any one of us, right?! So it causes Eliphaz to instead of “doing the right thing” to “want to be right”, huge difference.

When next Job speaks he will tell his friends what miserable source of contentment they are. He tells them that in a similar situation he would strengthen and comfort them. He also speaks to God. Though he feels God has abandoned him Job pours out his heart out to God about his sufferings, being adamant that his sufferings are not payment for sin saying “I have done no wrong, my prayer is pure”. In 16:19 Job says “ Even now my witness is in heaven, my advocate is there on high”. He has no hope of anyone on earth ever believing him innocent, he is placing all his hope for a fair defense on God in heaven. Do you ever feel that way? I do sometimes when I will do or say something, anything, it could be as simple as just voicing my opinion or walking into a room. I will see someone roll their eyes, or laugh out loud and 99.9% of the time it has nothing to do with me BUT immediately the enemy starts working on my mind filling it with doubt and fear causing me to want to shrink away. Well, it is at those times I look straight to God to to be my judge, search my heart O Lord, and if He comes back and says “you’re all good” then I just go on putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that at the end of the day it is God and God alone that I am here to please. He is also quick to let me know if I am in need of apologizing to someone, and I will do that too.

In 16:21 Job says “ I need someone to meditate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.” As a Christian we have have that person in Jesus Christ. It is such a gift to us to have Jesus as our mediator, our friend. That verse immediately took me to a song that first I heard a long, long  time ago sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford, called ‘What A Friend We Have in Jesus’, I know you all know it, and that’s what I’ll leave you with today,

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; Take it to the Lord in prayer.

I pray you have a very good day.

God bless you all …