Comfort Not Consternation; Job 22-23

May the mumbling commence!

After hearing words of Job’s perceived alienation, Eliphaz tries to comfort Job.  If no one else, Eliphaz stands by Job’s side and tries to show Job the path to continuing on with life in the Lord.  Read from Job chapter 22:

            Submit to God and be at peace with him;

                        in this way prosperity will come to you.

            Accept instruction from his mouth

                        and lay his words in your heart.

            If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:

                        if you remove wickedness far from your tent

                and assign your nuggets to the dust,

                        your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,

            then the Almighty will be your gold,

                        the choicest silver for you.

            Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty

                        and will lift up your face to God.

            You will pray to him, and he will hear you,

                        and you will fulfill your vows. (Verses 21-27)

Submit to God, accept his instruction, lay his words on your heart.  Do these things and you will be restored – prosperity will return.  Doing these things will mean returning to the Lord by removing wickedness and sin from your life.  It will mean not clinging to earthly wealth so that you might accept God as your gold and silver.  That is what Eliphaz is telling Job.

Sound familiar to you?  Have you ever heard anyone say to someone suffering that if they would only pray right they would be relieved from their suffering?  Maybe you have heard people suggest to someone suffering that if they would only get their lives back into loving the Lord by obeying His commands then their prayers would be answered.  If you have, I hope you never follow their example.  Saying these kinds of things is not helpful to those suffering and struggling to find God in their lives.  Look at a part of Job’s response to Eliphaz in chapter 23:

            But if I go to the east, [God] is not there;

                        if I go to the west, I do not find him.

            When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;

                        when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

            But he knows the way that I take;

                        when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

            My feet have closely followed his steps;

                        I have kept to his way without turning aside.

            I have not departed from his commands of his lips;

                        I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. (Verses 8-12)  

Job, like many suffers that followed him, shouts out: “Where are you God?!?”  Job claims to have followed God carefully and closely.  He loves the word of God more than his daily bread.  Maybe he skipped some meals so that he could meditate on the Scriptures…  When was the last time that you or I skipped a meal to study God’s word?  Then, how can we tell another Christian who is suffering how to live their faith life?  Should we do so..?

No.  When we seek to comfort the suffering, we should NOT be a backseat faith driver.  Even worse, we should NOT be a Monday morning armchair Christian.  Our job is to be sensitive to the presence of God in the moment – whether it happens in the nursing home or the hospital or hospice or in the comforts of home. 

Our job is to name that presence – through the singing of familiar hymns or the reading of familiar Scripture.  Our job is to be a quiet and calming presence – letting the person suffering know that we care.  Sometimes, we are messengers of God’s love and care to the suffering person.  You know, God with his skin on so to speak.  Yes, sometimes, we can be God’s angels on earth.  Angel basically means messenger.  We can guide the suffering person to glimpse the Almighty at work in their lives in that moment of suffering…

Enough mumbling for now…  

Peace Out