Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today is Poetry Thursday, and we’ll read chapters 3 and 4.. As always after the reading , I’ll have some comments for you. I’m calling the show “Don’t Be Like That”. 

Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Comments on Job 3

One of the best indicators of one's strength of character, and relationship with God is how we deal with hardship. Do we collapse like a house of cards or do we rise up, steel ourselves, ask the Lord for wisdom and strength, and keep on keepin' on? How we react to circumstances is a choice. We decide.

As chapter three opens, Job has just lost nearly everything; most of his wealth, his children and his health. And his wife has told him to curse God and die. He doesn't have much more to lose.

Remember, satan wins if Job does curse God. That was his challenge.

And so with the opening of chapter three, we have the opening salvo in the battle for Job's mind and soul. Will he curse God? Will he fold? How will he decide to deal with his great loss? The physical and emotional pain he's in? How will he think about what others think about him? What will he think about God in light of his circumstances?

Most of the remainder of this book that bears his name will reveal the answers to these questions. We'll see Job's character and his relationship with God. And maybe we can learn from Job, so that when we face loss and pain (as everyone does) we'll be better prepared to make choices for our reactions that will glorify God. 

As the chapter opens, Job curses the day he was born, and the night that he was conceived. Given his present suffering, he would rather have never existed. That makes me think of the Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie "It's A Wonderful Life". You know the story. Stewart's character George Bailey, a good man who is loved by his wife, his kids and most of the little town he lives in, comes into some tough times through no fault of his own. And in the depths of feeling sorry for himself he says, "I wish I had never been born." And so an angel arranges for his wish to come true, and then proceeds to show George how the world would have been much worse off without him. It's a good movie that the Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I watch nearly every year.

So Job is admittedly much worse off than George Bailey, and he has quite a lot to say in the midst of his misery. It's really pretty pathetic, but you have to have some empathy for him if you've ever been in a hard place. I'm not making light at all of his circumstances. He really let it out. 

But he did not curse God. 

Can you imagine the enemy's frustration? Hah!

So after Job speaks for awhile, one of the three friends who have come to sit with him decides that he can’t take it anymore. He’s got to say something. 

Don’t you just love it when someone starts a conversation with you by saying, “Can I say something to you without you getting mad?” You know it’s going to be one of *those* conversations. That’s how Eliphaz began his talk. That’s just how I would want a friend to start things off when I’m in agony. Uh-huh.

Then he goes on to say that people reap what they sow, the implication being that Job must have done something to deserve what he’s going through.

Now remember, the only thing Job has done to deserve what’s happening to him is to have lived a blameless life. Imagine what he must be thinking right about now as his well-meaning friend is speaking. Job was a better man than I, so maybe I can’t really put myself in his place. But my guess is that he wasn’t smiling in agreement with Eliphaz.

Several years ago my son, Steven was very, very sick. He was quite literally at death’s door. His mom and I didn’t know if he would live or die. And the people we appreciated the most were those who demonstrated love to us and him with their time and with meals and even financial assistance. They knew that all our time and emotional energy was invested in caring for our ...