Job was commended by God himself as a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. (Job 1:8 and 2:3) This didn’t make Job perfect or sinless, but it reflects a deep faith and trust in God. It shows that he truly believed in the justice, holiness, sovereignty and faithfulness of God. This solid faith and hope in God, and trust in who he is, are what enabled Job to endure not only the suffering of loss and physical affliction, but also the constant onslaught of accusation he received from his ‘comforters’. It also compounded the burden of the suffering he experienced. He knew he was not guilty of what his friends were telling him he was guilty of. He knew that he had been obedient and faithful to God. He knew that this suffering was allowed by God. And since he knew God to be just, and he felt his suffering was unjust – it causes a tension between what he was experiencing vs. what he knew to be true.
In today’s chapters we hear from Bildad and Zophar again. There is an increasing frustration coming out in their dialogues. Job refuses to take their ‘wise counsel’ to confess his guilt and repent so that God will restore him. All too often this actually happens when we are trying to comfort or counsel someone who is in the midst of a struggle. Rather than reminding of or pointing them to the eternal goodness and faithfulness of God through biblical wisdom, we give our own thoughts and opinions and label them as godly wisdom. Then we get frustrated when that person doesn’t follow our wise and godly advice. I’ve been guilty of doing this, and I have been on the receiving end of it as well. But in these chapters, Job’s buddies step it up a notch by talking about how the wicked will be punished and suffer. In reality they are to the point of accusing Job of being like him who knows not God. (Job 18:21) In effect they are sitting in judgment over him. Job warns them against presuming that they have the understanding to sit in judgment over him (Job 19:28-29) – because judgment belongs to God alone. We see something similar to this in Matthew 7:1-5 where Jesus teaches, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Let this be a warning to all of us as we counsel others in their time of suffering. Once again, just as Job and his friends were not aware of the conversations that took place between God and Satan in the first two chapters, neither do we or those who we desire to comfort, know the whole picture of what God is doing in any given situation. May we humble ourselves before God, pray for wisdom and discernment as we offer counsel. May our goal always be to exalt the glory and goodness of God, not to put ourselves in a place of superiority and greater wisdom. May we be quick to hear and slow to speak. (James 1:19) May we be people who are able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:4)
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