For Those Who Have their Act All Together

Scripture: In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
it is ready for those whose feet slip. Job 12:5

Observation: Job’s 3 friends have been trying to help him by giving him pat answers to his suffering. They say that Job is suffering because of his own sin. Job’s response is to say that sometimes, pain is not anyone’s fault, but just the way life is under God’s sovereignty. Here in verse 5, Job says that the reason his friends can be so theologically flippant sis because their life is at ease.

People whose life is free from pain often look down on and blame people who suffer.

Application: Why is this? I think we like steps and sequences in our worldview. If we do “X” then we expect “Y.” But if we get “Z,” then the blame must be on us for not doing “X” well enough. So it is easy to see someone in suffering—poverty, divorce, misfortune—and say, “You are suffering because you did not do X.” This gives us a sense of security. We think we can avoid pain if we just do X. But the reality of Job is that even people who do X, and do it well, can find their world ripped apart. Living right is no guarantee of smooth sailing.

Prayer: God, help me give grace to people. I am passionate about giving biblical steps to help people. But let me also recognize that You do not always follow my steps. You are wild, untamed by my attempts to domesticate You. I need to find my security not in my consistency, but Your character. Let me not be like Job’s friends and rely on pat answers to the deep things of God. Amen.

Wishing You Had Never Been Born

Scripture: Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me Job 10:18

Observation: Job has resigned himself to the fact that God is in control. But if all God’s ways are just and good, and Job feels he has gotten a raw deal, what can he do about it? His answer is: nothing. Job feels royally messed over, and with nowhere to turn, he wishes he was dead. He wishes he had died in the womb rather than live a life of suffering.

Application: Many people feel this way. Few verbalize it as desperately and honestly as Job. God is using this verse to remind me that while I may have never wished I died in the womb—many people do. There is a lot of suffering and pain out there that is real and sore. In these moments of pain, God desires to speak.

Prayer: God, help me be sensitive to pain in others. I cannot always “fix” it or explain it (see the failure of Job’s friends). I may not even be able to assuage it one bit. But I can seek You for them and for Your purposes in their pain.