11/9/2011 10:04:00 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: A plea for sympathy
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 16:1-14
Message of the verses: We are not going to move into the second main point in Dr. Wiersbe’s outline, which he entitles “Job: Three Requests.” Under this second main point we will see three requests that Job will make of his friends. The first one is “A plea for sympathy,” and next is “A plea for justice,” and the third is “A plea for death.” I will see how far I get in today’s SD.
“1 ¶ Then Job answered, 2 "I have heard many such things; Sorry comforters are you all. 3 "Is there no limit to windy words? Or what plagues you that you answer? 4 "I too could speak like you, If I were in your place. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you. 5 "I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.
6 ¶ "If I speak, my pain is not lessened, And if I hold back, what has left me? 7 "But now He has exhausted me; You have laid waste all my company. 8 "You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face. 9 "His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary glares at me. 10 "They have gaped at me with their mouth, They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt; They have massed themselves against me. 11 "God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked. 12 "I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target. 13 "His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground. 14 "He breaks through me with breach after breach; He runs at me like a warrior.”
I want to begin this section with a quote from John Henry Jowett “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.” This is exactly what Job is learning with the unsympathetic friends that he is with. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Sometimes we have to experience misunderstanding from unsympathetic friends in order to learn how to minister to others. This was a new experience for Job, and he was trying to make the most of it.”
I think that we should look at a section of Scripture from 2Corinthians to see what the Apostle Paul has to say about this. “3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2Cor. 1:3-4)
Job calls his friends “sorry comforters” in verse two. He had called them earlier in 6:15 “Deceitful brooks and in 13:4 he called them “worthless physicians.”
Job tells his friends what he was receiving from God in verses seven through fourteen, and although this was in part true, that is not the point of Job’s story. However even if this is not true in Job’s eyes, this was not the time for his friends to jump all over him, for this could have been straightened out at a later date when Job was feeling better. At this point all his friends had to do was to listen to Job, listen with their hearts and not with their ears so much.
“A Plea for Justice:” (Job 16:15-22) “15 "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin And thrust my horn in the dust. 16 "My face is flushed from weeping, And deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 ¶ Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure. 18 "O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no resting place for my cry. 19 "Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high. 20 "My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God. 21 "O that a man might plead with God As a man with his neighbor! 22 "For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.”
We have seen in the past that Job’s desire is to have a trial before God, and in this section he again mentions his need for an advocate. He friends surely were not an advocate for him for they all believed that he sinned and that is what caused all the troubles that he is having.
We can surely see some of the pain that Job is going through from reading this section, for he speaks of sackcloth and he speaks of how much he has cried. No matter where he was talking or listening he was in great pain. Even though his desire was to die, he did not want to die before he was vindicated before the Lord, and his friends. In verse eighteen he speaks of not having the earth cover his blood. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The ancients believed that the blood of innocent victims cried out to God for justice (Gen. 4:8-15) and the spirits of the dead were restless until the corpses were properly buried (Isa. 26:21).
I have mentioned before that we as believers today have an Advocate, The Lord Jesus Christ “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25) “1 ¶ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1John 2:1-2) Don’t be afraid of the word propitiation, for this goes back to the cross of Christ, and it means that God was satisfied with His sacrifice. In the Greek world the word means “scarification of an angry god.” God who surely is angry with sin was satisfied with Christ’s payment for our sins.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I will have to admit that being a comforter I have a lot to learn, and I am learning how not to be a comforter by reading what Job’s friends are saying to him. I am learning a bit about being a comforter by reading the commentary from Dr. Wiersbe, and also from the Apostle Paul. My prayer is that I will listen with my heart, and not listen with my ears so much.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Be a better comforter.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
11/9/2011 10:46:38 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment