We could all use some encouragement at a time like this. I found some recently in the unlikely place of the pages of Job. I like the book which may sound a bit morbid since its pages are filled with suffering. Yet it’s not the suffering that draws me, it’s the honesty.
The friends who gathered to mourn with Job were anything but honest. Neither did they bring comfort or good counsel. I believe they came with good intentions, or at least I give them the benefit of the doubt. But by the end of the book, I am certainly grateful my friends don’t resemble these men in any regard.
Take for example Elihu, the youngest of the friends. He doesn’t speak until late in the game after he has listened to both the “comfort” and “counsel” offered by the others and after he has heard the broken-hearted prayers and complaints of Job himself. Just as the friends before him, Elihu, instead of offering care and compassion delivered pompous platitudes and pontifications.
There was no humility or compassion for the plight of his friend. Instead, Elihu elaborated on what he believed to be the truth. It appeared he had life figured out. He was confident that a + b = c and that what you see is what you get. For Elihu and friends, Job’s suffering was unacceptable. They liked the successful Job, but not the suffering Job. To them, God equals success and blessing. Job must have therefore been living in sin and reaping the consequences.
Job knew better. When his life fell apart, he worshipped. This was what he always did as he was a worshipper and true believer in God. Still as the pain remained and no answers appeared on the horizon, Job poured out his complaint completely before God. He held nothing back giving full vent to the pain and darkness that enveloped him.
God didn’t have a problem with Job’s questioning or his honesty. And since Job was asking hard questions and being gut-level honest, God deemed it only fair to do the same with Job. After all, this is what friendship is all about.
Throughout his trials, it was clear that Job didn’t understand many things; he didn’t understand the whys nor the losses and he didn’t understand the God he thought he knew. He also didn’t understand the silence. When God finally spoke, he addressed Job as one would a friend, face to face and man to man. Through God’s address, Job was assured there was a God in heaven ruling over the affairs of men, even those in dire circumstances such as his.
God pulled no punches in his honesty. He never does.
God then confronted Job directly:
“Now what do you have to say for yourself?
Are you going to haul me, the Mighty One, into court and press charges?”
Job answered:
“I’m speechless, in awe—words fail me.
I should never have opened my mouth!
I’ve talked too much, way too much.
I’m ready to shut up and listen.
Job 40:1-5, The Message
The realizations of Job in these moments of clarity are most helpful for us, particularly during these unusual and difficult times;
- God is God and he’s ruling over our affairs.
- There is much we don’t understand.
- It would be to our benefit to do less talking and more listening, to do less judging and more worshipping, to do less complaining and more praying.
- And honesty with God is always the best policy.
God had no problem listening to Job’s lament and pain. He listened, took it to heart and in return, was as forthright with Job as Job had been with him. What God didn’t appreciate were the friends who thought they had it all figured out.
After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, “I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me—not the way my friend Job has.
Job 42:7, The Message
David, a man like Job, prayed a prayer that offers the antidote to the “got-it-all-figured-out” mentality of Job’s friends.
I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
comes close to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
account for you.
Psalm 40:1-5, The Message
Let us wait while we worship and while we pray. Let us abandon ourselves to God and enter the mystery. Life is no sure thing, but God is. Let’s be honest.