Category: commentary

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Are Job’s friends right or wrong?

As we continue to read into Job we have the problem of what to make of the words of Job’s three friends. It seems at times that their words are true and their conclusions right. They talk of the punishment that comes upon the wicked, but they then relate this to Job’s situation, and there it falls apart. The picture we are shown is one in which Job is innocent and that the distress that has come upon him is not a direct punishment for something he has done. So are his friends right or wrong?

It is a little more complex and a word that has helped me in reading it is “appropriate.” Whether one of the friends speaks something that is true, is it also an appropriate statement to make? Is it fitting to the situation and applicable for Job? I felt torn wanting to quote some of these friends when I came across some powerful verses knowing that they’re not quite in the right in their speech. Would I be quoting them out of context?

Again it is good to remember just because someone says something in the Bible doesn’t mean it is “biblical.” Characters from the Bible are not always the examples we remember them to be and the wisdom of Job’s wise friends is not always good. But there are instances where even the naive speak great truth without even knowing it. So ultimately, these three may say some insightful things, but use discernment in judging their words. The only one who is without fault in speech is God, who we’ll get to at the end.

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The Despair of Job is Now a Hope We Have In Jesus

If you follow along with the focus passages that are available each week, then perhaps by now you’ve already looked closely at a passage from Job 9. If not, there is a section in the book of Job where Job complains. In fact–there are many such sections. But in this one part specifically Job cries out about his own inability to come before God and defend himself. He doesn’t believe that he could stand up to the bigness of God and prove himself innocent. Humans are nothing in comparison to the majesty of a God who forms mountains and places the stars into constellations. Recognizing this Job says:

There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

The good news we have in the New Testament is that we know such an arbiter. We know that Jesus Christ is the one who, being both fully God and fully human, is able to perfectly represent us before the Father. He intercedes for us and he is the one who has made us innocent. We can have hope to enter boldly into God’s presence because of the all-sufficient work of Jesus.

Hebrews goes into the priestly work of Jesus and how he has done everything we need, and emphasizes how what he has done is so much greater than anything that has gone before. Jesus is a greater priest than the priests of old. Jesus is greater than angels and greater than Moses. Jesus while still being the priest is also the sacrifice, and again is a greater sacrifice. What Christ has done for us has once and for all paid the price for our sin and has made us right before God.

In Jesus Christ the plea of Job comes to be fulfilled and we can rejoice now knowing such good news. The suffering of Job continues into our day, but we know that our God entered into such suffering, taking on more than we ever could in bearing our sins, and in so doing has secured salvation for us.

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The need for encouragement for Job and for us all

Job chapter 4 begins with Eliphaz speaking to Job about an apparent contradiction. Job has been able to comfort and strengthen others but it seems to me that Eliphaz is saying if your words could uphold others, why are you having such difficulties? If you believe something enough to share it with another, are you believing it for yourself? Don’t you have confidence and hope?

Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Job 4:3-6

It is a difficult thing to be able to pull yourself out of such hardships and misery such as Job is facing. He could with complete sincerity offer words of encouragement to others, but now is a time that he may be reliant on others to take that role for his sake. Job needs his friends to be a source of strength, but instead Eliphaz questions.

I am reminded of a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer about the need for community and the ability of others to speak truth and be a strength for us, especially since we cannot do it alone.

But God has put his Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Even if we are often the “strong” one for someone else, publicly seen as comforters and encouragers, that doesn’t mean that we still do not need the word of Christ from brothers and sisters in the faith. We are all called to proclaim Christ and we are all people who need to hear it not only in our own heart, but in the voice of another. No one is so mature a Christian that they are above being encouraged by the words of the gospel. No one is perfect, no one is strong enough. So be open to those chances in which you can be that bearer of Christ to someone who may really need it, and be open to hearing Christ in others.

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Sitting in Silence, lessons learned from Job’s Friends

7th print from William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job, pub. 1826

How often, when people are going through loss or tragedy, do we lament that we just don’t know what to say? Maybe that even holds us back from approaching others in their time of grief. The friends of Job may have plenty of words to say to him in his time of great suffering, but they don’t make up with quantity what they lack in quality. They come to bring comfort, but instead accuse him. I think we fear having wrong words like those three and that fear holds us back in a state of inaction.

To their credit they begin their time with Job with a great show of solidarity and compassion. The three come to him, tear their clothes, cover themselves in ashes, and sit with him. They sit with him in silence for seven days and seven nights. Here was a man who had lost so much and was enduring great physical pain. Did they have the perfect thing to say that would make everything better? Of course not. What could they say? But Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar come to be by Job’s side.

They show compassion, a word whose root means to suffer with. They sit and suffer with Job, and that at least can be something we learn from them.

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The Radiance of God

The Adoration of the Shepherds, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things,through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Hebrews 1:1-4

This is an opening unlike what we’ve seen in Paul’s letters. You may be forgiven for jumping over the first verse or two in his introductions, but here you’d be missing so much. You can’t read these lines slow enough to capture all the majesty of Christ we read in them. We see how he is the perfect revelation of God. Through Christ this world was made and by his word the universe is upheld. Christ is utterly supreme. He is not only savior, who has made us pure, but he is our sovereign Lord.

These are themes the author goes on to emphasize throughout this whole letter, so don’t overlook the introduction.

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Coming back to something familiar

Back in the winter our church began a church-wide small group which had as one of its theme verses Colossians 3:16. If you were a part of that study, did you notice it when you came back around to it? It’s only taken us a little over 6 months to stumble upon it again.

The segment that we memorized (can you still recall it?) was: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The entire verse is: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Here is a snippet on this verse taken from a sermon that kicked off Year in the Bible back in March, focusing on what it means for God’s word to dwell richly:

If you dwell richly in your home, how is that different from dwelling poorly? To dwell richly would mean having the best. You wouldn’t live in a closet, but in the finest room. To dwell richly wouldn’t mean to spend an afternoon there. To dwell richly would mean to abide, to live into the space, to make it your own permanently.

The word of Christ dwelling richly in us is not too different. It is too be firmly established in us, given the best of our time. Christ’s words are to be a favored guest in us, not an unwelcome visitor. Christ’s words are to be a centerpiece of our lives, like the big fish hanging over your fireplace. Christ’s words are to be given your favorite chair, the place of honor at your dinner table. To let the word dwell is not so different from truly delighting in it, like in Psalm 1. We are pleased to spend time with God in his Word. We enjoy him in it, we seek him there. We ask him to dwell with us and we never show him the door.

I hope having spent these times with God in the Bible, you are learning more and more what these passage means. I hope your experience of dwelling in God’s word continues to bear fruit, and may it lead to our being clothed in the character of Christ, which we read in the verses just before 3:16.

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The people’s failure to listen to Jeremiah

Zedekiah brought before the one who conquered Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar

You’d think after foreign powers have taken over Jerusalem, taking with them a great number of your own, you might then start to listen to Jeremiah. Jeremiah had been telling about the coming destruction and how it is the judgment of God. But no one listened. But Jeremiah was right.

I figured in reading through this that having shown his prophetic merit, the people would listen when in chapter 42 Jeremiah warns the remnant to remain in the land and not flee to Egypt. He says:

If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

But after all they’ve experienced, do they listen? No. Time and time again the people do not listen to God through his prophet, and ignoring God’s word is never a wise decision.

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More on Colossians 1

I put up the picture inspired by Colossians 1 on Monday, but I did so without explanation. So I thought today I’d talk more about what I see going on in the opening of the chapter. Paul writes beginning in verse three:

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

You may have noticed by now that Paul likes to use long sentences. This is one good reason to slow down and make sure you’re understanding what he writes. The picture from Monday centers in on ‘hope’ and I did this because although it comes later in the passage, we hear that it is a cause for the faith and love about which Paul has heard. Their hope–their goal, their promise–spurs them on to have greater faith in Christ and to spread his love to others. Christians who journey toward the goal, who are bound to the hope we have in Christ, should exhibit in that journey the characteristics that arise from that hope: love and faith.

Later in verse five Paul tells of where this hope is found, that is in the word of truth, the gospel. These words have power as they have not only taken hold in these Colossian believers, but in the whole world. Where the gospel is sown it bears fruit and this fruit is faith, hope, and love.

The Colossians know what their end will be, they have their hope, and they are exhibiting the marks of followers of Christ, faith and love. But Paul then goes on to pray for them so that they may know best how to live. They are already trusting Christ and loving the saints, but he wants them to excel in it. Paul wants them to know what faith and love will continue to look like, so he writes:

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Christians surely know we should have faith, hope, and love. What can be difficult is having the wisdom to know not only the what but the how. This is Paul’s prayer. He wants them to know God’s will for them and to have the wisdom to discern how to follow his will. This is not an endeavor to begin alone so we need the strength of God’s power to endure this life, and to do so with patience and joy.

Even though Paul gives thanks to God when he thinks of his fellow Christians, for their love and faith, he reminds his reader that this is not something we’ve achieved on our own, rather it is the Father who has qualified us to receive all we have.

Keep reading Colossians and you’ll see a beautiful picture of Christ and what he has done for us, and how what he has done is sufficient for all we’ll ever need.