Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

5 January 2024

Reading From Job 6-9

“Teach me, and I will be quiet;
    show me where I have been wrong.

How painful are honest words!
    But what do your arguments prove?
Do you mean to correct what I say,
    and treat my desperate words as wind?
You would even cast lots for the fatherless
    and barter away your friend.”

Job 6:24-27

     The response of Job’s friends was initially very healthy and sensitive.  They made a plan to comfort him together, grieved with him, and sat with him in silence; just being with him for seven days and seven nights.[1]  What came next was not so helpful to Job.  Their loving patience, silent commiseration and sensitivity vanished when they opened their mouths.[2]  Rather than pray and ask God to give them tender words to soothe their friend with, they instead began to point out that he must have done something wrong for all these punishments to be brought down upon him.  Job acknowledges that it is true that God blesses those who do right in His sight and punishes those who follow their own sinful ways.  However, Job had done nothing wrong and his friends lacked the perspective to realize that it was Satan who was using the worst possible scenarios in our fallen world to torment this faithful servant of God into betraying His Maker.[3]  Job’s own wife turns on him and tells him to curse God and die, but he resists the temptation and just sits in the dirt grieving while his wounds literally fester, and his friends tell him that all of this is somehow must be his fault. 

     Not every line of the Bible gives us shining examples of triumph.  There are many stories that show us what not to do.  In fact, every single champion of faith found in the Scriptures was a flawed human being following a perfect God.[4]  Not wanting anything to go to waste, He can teach us from both the good things and the bad things that happen.[5]  Every phrase that Job and his friends exchange is not to be taken out of context to construct a theology.[6]  Much of what Job’s friends said was true, but not all of it and they did not speak it with compassion.[7]  They seem like self-righteous know-it-alls.  At times the truth hurts, but it should not be my aim to hurt someone.  God’s Word is truth, and it describes itself as a sword.  I can either misuse it to wound or I can use it as a surgeon carefully uses a scalpel to cut out tissue that is cancerous. 

     This is a recorded conversation between imperfect friends.  While this is part of the inspired Word of God, these are not red letters of Christ.  They are profitable for gaining wisdom, but we must take great care not to turn this back and forth between buddies into proverbs.  I believe that the friends of Job should have consulted with God before giving advice to their friend.[8]  Perhaps then the kindness with which they first treated him would have continued in their conversation and would have brought light to his soul.[9]  Proverbs 16:24 says, “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”  Part of functioning in a healthy manner in the family of God is to build each other up, not tear each other down.[10]  If we encourage one another to grow, we will all be stronger together.[11] God wants His children to form loving communities as part of His greater, eternal family.

     “Lord, please remind me to consult You before I counsel anyone.  Help me to pause, pray, ponder, and choose my words carefully before I open my mouth.  I pray that I will consider the frailty of my fellow human beings and keep Your love at the forefront of every conversation.  Give me the words to say to speak Your truth in love, with humility and grace seasoned with salt.  Amen.”

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians 4:11-16

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[1] Job 2:11-13

[2] Job 4:8

[3] Job 1:9-12

[4] Romans 3:23

[5] Genesis 50:20

[6] II Timothy 2:15

[7] Ephesians 4:15

[8] Exodus 4:15, Ephesians 6:18-19, Philippians 1:20

[9] Colossians 4:6

[10] I Thessalonians 5:11

[11] Ephesians 4:29