When Job’s friends arrived on the scene and saw Job’s suffering. They sat on the ground and were silent for seven days and nights. The moment they started opening their mouths Jobs suffering got a lot worse. Job hadn’t yet asked why he was suffering but in case he did his friends wanted him to know why. The reason was in their way of thinking simple. Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. The universe is morally ordered by a God who punishes evil and rewards good. Bad things happened to Job, exceedingly bad things. They thought Job must have done some exceedingly bad things. But Job’s friends were wrong. Job knew they were and God eventually said they were. Job 42:7
Job’s friends errors can be put this way: They were superficially right but fundamentally wrong. God does punish evil and rewards good – the Bible says so. But when it comes to the timing in this world, there are exceptions and mysteries. Job’s friends were following the letter of the law; they looked at Job’s symptoms, checked their listing in the index, read the appropriate pages, and drew their conclusions. The problem is that God’s Word isn’t an owner’s manual because God isn’t a mechanism. Job isn’t either. Both are persons. The moment we forget that obvious truth, we make ourselves the god of God. We elevate our theology to what we think about God, and to the level of God.
It would have been so much better if Job’s friends would have been slow to speak and quick to listen. (James 1:19) It would have been so much better if when they spoke it was to ask questions and listen to Job and then pray with him. Especially pray with him. A ministry of silence and prayer would have been healing to Job and honoring to God. The Spirit who moves us to pray is the Paraclete, the Spirit of encouragement, who comes from the God of all comfort. (John 14:16, Romans 8:15-16, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4). We need to consider how quiet his ministry is and do likewise.
My Prayer: Holy Spirit of God, great comforter and friend! Teach me to listen and pray with those who suffer. In Jesus’ name I pray this day, Amen.
“Satan cannot deny but that great wonders have been wrought by prayer. As the spirit of prayer goes up, so his kingdom goes down. Satan’s strategies against prayer are three: First, if he can he will keep thee from prayer. If that be not feasible, secondly, he will strive to interrupt thee in prayer. And, thirdly, if that plot takes not, he will labor to hinder success of they prayer.” – William Gurnall
“The prayer that prevails is not the work of the lips and fingertips. It is the cry of a broken heart and the travail of a stricken soul.” Samuel Chadwick
“We are all work, finite, simple human beings, standing in the need of prayer. None need it so much as those who think they are strong, those who know it not, but are deluded by self-sufficiency.” Harold C. Phillips
Job 33:26 “He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state.”
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