“But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.”
~ Proverbs 16:5
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever had a day when you felt really rotten? Have you ever had a day when your head really ached, your stomach really hurt and your whole body was really sore? Have you ever had a day when you really did not want to get out of bed? Have you ever had a day when you really just did not feel like being around any guy, gal or kid? Have you ever had a day when it seemed like every guy, gal and kid just wanted to criticize you? Have you ever had a day when it seemed like no guy, gal or kid really cared about you? Why do you think that a guy, gal or kid – like you, has days when he or she feels really rotten? Having a rotten day is actually a normal part of living life on planet Earth. Do you know Who your life teacher is? God the Father is your life teacher. Do you know what your life teacher – God the Father, is teaching you? Job honestly could say that he had days when he felt really rotten. Job had all of his kids killed, all of his livestock or animals stolen or destroyed, his entire body covered with sores and he became emaciated. Job had three guys who perceived of themselves as being Job’s friends telling Job that he had to have done something so incredibly terrible for God the Father to be punishing him in such inconceivable ways. The three guys who considered themselves as being Job’s friends – Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, cared only about themselves – not Job. Job knew that these three guys – who falsely assumed that they were his friends, did not have a clue about what was really happening in his life. By the time that Job 16 is written, the three guys who thought of themselves as being Job’s friends were back telling Job what he really needed to do to get back again into God’s graces. Job by this time was really tired of his self-proclaimed friends using long speeches to criticize him. Job by this time was really tired of arguing with his self-righteous, self-appointed friends. Job knew that if his self-styled friends really cared about him that they would use encouraging, affirming words instead of wasting his time by criticizing him with long diatribes or invectives or harangues or disapprovals. Job referred to the three self-centered guys as miserable guys who had no idea of how to comfort or support him. Job knew that if the roles were the other way around that he would not use all of his time discouraging or criticizing any true friend of his. Job in verse 5 tells his self-pronounced friends, “But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.”
Job in this chapter is starting a second round of having so-called friends in his face. Eliphaz has just finished telling Job that he was deceiving himself if he thought that God the Father was not punishing him for something that he had done to really upset Him. Even though Job knew that God the Father had turned him over to three arrogant, uncaring guys, that did not stop Job from totally trusting God the Father to help him through the series of horrifically trying trials that he was experiencing. Why do you think that God the Father sometimes turns a guy, gal or kid Who He has specially elected for Himself before He created planet Earth over to condescending, uncaring guys, gals or even kids? Why do you think that God the Father sometimes allows something really awful to happen to a guy, gal or kid who He has specially elected for Himself before He created planet Earth? When your dad’s Uncle Hank was about ten years old, your dad’s Uncle Craig one day said that he would take his little bro to the house of one of his bro’s friends. Your dad’s Uncle Craig had a motorcycle. While your dad’s Uncle Craig was taking his little bro on the back of his motorcycle down a back country road to the house of a friend of your dad’s Uncle Hank, your dad’s Uncle Craig saw a strand of barbwire that a farmer had stretched across the road. Because hardly anyone ever drove down the back country road that your dad’s Uncle Craig and Uncle Hank were taking, a farmer had stretched a strand of barbwire across this back country road so that he could have his cows eat the grass that was growing alongside the road. The farmer had strung the strand of barbwire across the back country road to keep his cows from wandering further down the back country road and away from his farm. When your dad’s Uncle Craig spotted the strand of barbwire as he was driving his motorcycle down the back country road, your dad’s Uncle Craig ducked just in time to go under the barbwire. Barbwire has short pointed barbs of wire embedded every six inches or so in twisted wire. When your dad’s Uncle Craig ducked to keep from hitting the barbwire with his body, the barbwire struck your dad’s Uncle Hank right across the face – as your dad’s Uncle Hank had not seen the barbwire. Your dad’s Uncle Hank had a couple of the barbwire barbs tear across one side of his face ripping across one of his cheeks. Your dad’s Uncle Hank had another barbwire barb rip across his throat. That barbwire barb just missed tearing open your dad’s Uncle Hank’s juggler vein.
Your dad’s Uncle Craig carried his bro to the house of the farmer who had strung the strand of barbwire across the back country road. Your dad’s Uncle Hank was hurt really bad. If you had been the farmer who had strung the strand of barbwire across the back country road, what would you have said to your dad’s Uncle Craig when you saw your dad’s Uncle Craig at your front door holding his little bro who had blood all over him? If you had been the farmer, would you have told your dad’s Uncle Craig that it was his fault as he should not have been going down that back country road on his motorcycle and/or would you have told your dad’s Uncle Craig that he was probably going too fast on his motorcycle down that back country road? Finding fault for something calamitous that has happened is never an answer to a life lesson that God the Father is teaching. Trusting God the Father’s sovereignty is the answer.
Job 16 (276)