Week 23: Just Listen
Weekly Reading:
Job 13 - 42
Opening Prayer
Father God,
Sometimes Your voice is like a whisper and I just need to listen. Sometimes, I block out Your comfort, Your peace. Father, allow me to be open to Your love and accept Your kindness. Open my heart to You, Father.
Amen
Study
Job is a difficult book to get through. In fact, I find myself feeling frustrated with Job, his friends, and their conversations.
We know that bad things happen to good people, and I am not sure if that is one of the themes of the book. But we see Job in a bad state, I cannot imagine losing everything including my children, and remain gracious. But then when also hit with health issues I can imagine the depression Job must be feeling along with some “why me?” statements.
Job’s friends come to visit him in his distress. They come in with good intentions, but what do you say to a friend who just lost everything?
Job, in our last week’s reading, begins to lament and wish he was never born so that he did not go through this loss.
His friends want to support him. They provide answers and they try to “fix” the situation and each time job answers back. We see friends who were once supportive turn to accusatory saying you must’ve done something wrong to deserve all this. In Job 20:29 they even say that bad things are the reward God gives to the wicked.
Job continues to plead his case to his friends but does not feel supported because friends who were once well-meaning begin to look at Job as a person who lacks integrity and who takes advantage of servants, the poor, and overall a man of ill choices.
Job gives up trying to prove his innocence with his friends and wants to plead his case with God. Job became so fed up with the platitudes of his friends he was done.
I know this was not the goal of Job’s friends, that is not what they traveled so far to do. They truly want to come and visit and comfort their friend.
Have you been there: wanting to comfort someone and then no matter what you said you felt you made it worse? We offer statements we think are the right thing to say but then we see the hurt settle deep on our friend’s face. We go in intending to help and instead we cause further hurt.
What if Job’s friends just sat and listened, let Job vent, let Job lament? Even once in a while nod and say “I am sorry you are going through this “, provide space, say “I love you “, provide space, say “I am here for whatever you need “ and then provide all the space that is needed. Pray to God for our friends and thank God for being there and providing blessings in the struggle. Sometimes we are praying with our friends and sometimes we give them their space and praying for them in our own space.
At the end of the chapter, we see God telling Job and his friends that he is Lord and demonstrates his rule over all of creation. God is sovereign.
My sister checks my theology and bless her for it she also checks my grammar. She made some excellent points, this is her voice as God laid it on her heart.
The book of Job shows us the human struggle and pain and what our response should be: trust and have faith in God. Do we love trust and serve God because of the earthly blessings He gives us? Or because our life is happy without struggles? No, we serve God because of our love for Him and because He saved us.
Job shows us:
1. There are things going on in heaven that we know nothing about: Job and his friends did not know about God’s conversation with Satan.
2. We cant always explain the reasons for pain, sorrow, and loss in our lives and even our best efforts can be useless
3. A person cant be judged by the presence or absence of pain and loss: bad things happen all the time and sometimes to good people too. We are not being punished for sin if something bad happens.
4. God is always here—even if He may feel far away, God is good always and we can put our faith and trust in Him, good times or bad but especially bad times.
5. In suffering the believer should draw nearer to God and out of the fellowship with Him we receive comfort.
6. Suffering will end for the believer and ultimately God will bless us abundantly.
Closing Prayer
Father God,
Thank you for listening to us when we need solace and comfort. Father, You provide us with calm in the storm. You wrap Your arms around us and protect us from our fears. Father, You are our strength and we praise You for keeping us in Your love.
Amen
Homework
Who can you pray for this week?
Who is hurting?
Who needs healing?
Pray for these people daily, and let God hear your voice.
