sacred strokes

I just finished reading through Job.  Job is one of those books that prompt a lot of thought for me as I reflect on what I’m reading and especially on what God has to say about it all toward the ending chapters.

I’m writing today as I think about Job’s friends.  He’s got a group of three friends who heard about his troubles and “set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.”  They intentionally travel to be with Job when everyone else in his life has either died or left him.  (Even Job’s wife found him detestable, advising that he simply curse God and die at this point.)  But these friends show up, and even from a distance could tell that Job was unrecognizable, and they wept and tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.  Then these friends sat on the ground with him and stayed with him.  For seven days.  In complete silence.  Then they remain with him longer as their dialogue with him commences and ensues. 

Now, firstly – some of us consider ourselves fortunate if a friend even texts or calls when they know we are going through a hard time.  Maybe someone who really cares will pay you a visit when they know your heart is hurting, or you are physically suffering and/or you’re just plain lonely.  But to stay with you for seven days?!  And in silence?!  These friends were the real deal.

All Job had was stripped from him, including his health and physical appearance and cleanliness, and as his friends saw firsthand the depth of his loss and pain, they knew to simply be present with him, for a full week even, before finally speaking into his situation.

Now, sometimes these fellows are deemed bad friends by Bible readers or preachers.  I think they are actually quite amazing friends.  But misguided, for sure.  Their reasoning fell to the cultural norms of the day which would have stated that hardship resulted from sinfulness.  Likewise, blessings were viewed as the result of your own doing or earning or efforts.  Certainly, these friends reasoned, if such devastation befell Job, it was because of some serious sin in his life.  And, out of concern for their friend, they planned to set him straight, urge him to repent and get back on track in order to go on living into God’s goodness and blessings in life.

Now, these guys had a long while to really consider what they were about to say to Job during this time.  While on their way traveling to him and certainly during the week which they allowed to pass before Job spoke and then they each boldly shared what was on their minds.  And here’s the thing that gets me every time I read through this book of the Bible…. So much of what they had to say is true and beautifully shared.  But not all of it.  And certainly not the accusatory statements toward Job.

God cares deeply about their intention, as well.  These friends were sharing some true statements, yes, but it was all a build up to try to show Job the error of his ways and condemn him the way others had already done.  It even seems to me when I read their conversation that it became sort of a competition about who would be the one to get him to see the light, so to speak.  (That last friend just irks me by how he goes about saying what he feels he needs to say before God stops him flat haha.)

Truth in one breath and in the next a falsehood (unintended as it may have been) seems to be the theme with all of Job’s visiting friends.  Not one of them listened and considered the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, Job was telling them the truth.

I enjoy the dialogue when I read through Job because I try to parcel out the statements his friends made about God which are true, from those which are not.  There are many true lines the friends share.  But God doesn’t mince words or take the time to differentiate when He speaks into the matter.  In chapter 42, verse 7, He just simply says to one of Job’s friends, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.”

Oof, right?

Yet I don’t think the friends, these friends who spent a week just BEing with their suffering friend, meant to speak falsehoods.  I think they genuinely wanted to help, to try to get Job to understand and see what they thought was the holdup for his continued hardship and sorrow.  But the whole problem here is that the whole lot of them were wrong.  Job would have had to lie if he stated there was some kind of sin that caused all this loss and hardship in his life.

And I think that’s a relevant word for us today.  While we should not be resistant to feedback from others, especially those who truly know and love us well, we also have to be sure we are ALWAYS first and foremost looking to God for the real Truth.  Job knew, and God knew, that his hardship was not due to some sinful way of living.  God was not smiting him for wrongdoing.  But his friends did not see that, and couldn’t even wrap their minds around it when Job tried his best to respond while clinging to his integrity.

It can be especially tricky in such situations, when you may be hearing a lot of truth from someone in your life, but then there’s just one little piece that isn’t quite right or that you know is based on worldly “wisdom” rather than true, eternal, godly wisdom that transcends what we think we know in this present fallen world.  And that one piece, as well intended as it may have been, has you swirling into thoughts that begin to feel a lot less like God and a whole lot more like the flesh.

Or, even more common, your own mind may pull together several true statements – purely objective facts, no two ways about it – but then toss in one subjective statement or lie that globs onto those truths and colors them all into a story that isn’t even true.  A story that tears you down, makes you feel unloved or unlovable, one that makes you feel like God or others don’t care for you at all.  It can even cause you to see others in an uglier way, too.  Including God.

What do we do when the truth feels so hard to grasp, or when certain ideas seem to be shifting our thoughts toward lies which we know are not God’s Truth?  We hold onto the Rock by immersing ourselves in His Word.  And we line those ideas and thoughts up toe-to-toe with Scripture, the real Truth, and see whether or not they hold up.

I heard the Bible referred to the other day as a “Book of rules.”  I don’t disagree that it indeed helps guide us as far as how we should strive to live – but it is so much more than a book of rules.  It is history and Truth and the greatest love story we could ever know – a love for US, no less!  It will remind us, time and again, in any circumstance we could ever face – of the truth.  No, we are not worthy of God’s love for us, and we could never earn it.  And yet.  He loves us far more than we can even try to emulate ourselves.  We try – oh, how we try – to love like Jesus.  But we so often fail, don’t we?  He never does.  And He will love you until you are in heaven with Him some day, and into eternity after that.

Our Heavenly Father designed you with purpose.  He has given you gifts to use for the betterment and encouragement of others.  You are part of a much larger picture and much larger story, and your part in all of it?  It matters.  You matter.

Whenever lies are given a foothold in your thoughts, combat them with the Word of God.  With what He has to say on the matter.  And ask Him to remind you of His heart, and to lead you to the Truth.  Psalm 9:10, which I happened to read today, states “Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.”

Remember that Job took place early on in human history.  If you read through the Bible using a chronological reading guide, you’ll be told to pause and read Job after barely making a dent in Genesis.  I’ve read that best scholarly estimates, based on contextual clues, have Job alive at or around the same time as Abraham.  So back in Job’s day, none of the Bible had yet been written – not even the Pentateuch by Moses.  There was no Book of Truth yet to pick up and read through to help set things straight.  We are so blessed to be alive in a time where the Word is so readily available to us, in our language, and even with commentaries and notes and references that help us to better understand.  We are also blessed to be alive after Jesus so generously imparted the Holy Spirit upon His followers.  We have this amazing Spirit to help us as we seek God and aim to understand and implement what He asks of us in our specific lives.

The truth can seem like a tricky thing sometimes, can’t it?  In a world of “my truth” and “your truth,” no less.  Perhaps “perspective” or “narrative” ought to be the word used in such contexts.  But the Word of God is indeed THE Truth.  The enemy is so good at deception, manipulation and spinning the truth into something so far from it, or using it for his own purposes rather than those of the Lord.  The human mind is his battleground; and our defense, just as it was for Jesus when Satan tried to tempt Him, is the Word of God.  Sharper than a sword, it will cut through the falsehood like nothing else as we allow the Holy Spirit to speak through the Word and right into our particular situation.

I feel so especially grateful for God’s Word after reflecting on all this.  May you likewise be consistently blessed by your time in Scripture.

Hebrews 4:12,

HLC