BE CAREFUL HOW YOU SPEAK FOR GOD

Scripture:  Job 42:7-9 – And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept [a]him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had [b]accepted Job.

Many of us are familiar with the great trial of suffering that Job went through.  It is one of the clearest Old Testament teachings on the sovereignty of God in the trials that He allows to come into the lives of His people.  It also opens our understanding to His authority over Satan, though He may allow him a season to be the instrument of testing His children. Most often we find ourselves in these tests not only as the victim, but as a friend, bystander, counselor or potential comforter to someone who is in the distress of suffering.  We lose sight of the fact that while we are watching someone in a trial of suffering, we are also in a possible test situation of how we respond and what we say to the sufferer. They came into Job’s pain to mourn to and to comfort him (3:11-13).  This is the picture of what God expects of us when we hear about the pain of those associated with our lives (I Corinthians 12:26).  
       
It was not their presence that became the problem, but the words they spoke as they sought to intervene to speak about God’s possible reasons for allowing Job to be in such a terrible state of suffering.  From Chapter 4 thru Chapter 27, they failed God’s compassion test and sinned not only against God, but in their words they sinned against Job.  Though they spoke many things that were true about God’s character, they created greater pain for Job with their unsubstantiated judgmental instigations about his situation.   Their counsel in a nutshell was that Job’s suffering was due to his personal sin against God.  Eliphaz (4:7,8; 5:17-20); Bildad (8:1-6) and Zophar (11:13-15) in a nutshell concluded three major errors that misrepresented God and added to Job’s pain causing   Job struggled even more with his faith in God’s sovereignty and compassion.  They erroneously concluded first, that God only uses suffering as a means of punishment.  This of course is not true because it limits God’s sovereignty and puts a direct correlation between sin and suffering in all cases. Secondly, they erroneously concluded that God always rewards repentance with material blessing.  This error eliminates the fact that repentance is first a spiritual matter, and the greater reward is that it adds and reveals the reward of spiritual growth to those that repent. The third error of their counsel was that God cannot be in fellowship with a person because they are suffering.  Do you see how a statement like that not only misrepresents God, but it potentially misdirects Job from having hope and seeking comfort in the midst of his suffering.
       
Job’s growth and healing was not just his repentance toward God for his prideful attitude, but his obedience to forgive his self-righteous, judgmental friends and offer up prayers for their forgiveness from God.   Job’s suffering was not for his sin, but his wrong response to his testing produced a sinful response and deeply rooted pride in his heart.

Prayer:  Father in heaven, we don’t always understand the reason You allow various things to happen in our lives.  We bow before You wanting to be stronger in faith and wiser in how we respond in the midst of our trials and testing.  No matter what, we want our hearts to be steadfast in You and make us compassionate helpers of those sufferers around us in Jesus name, amen.  
       
(by Pastor Wayne Cockrell)