I was doing some reading the other day and came across a story that really caught my attention. It’s a story about a horrible turn of events in the life of a rancher. According to the story this guy was a successful man - in fact he was considered one of the wealthiest men in his area. The story actually listed some of the livestock that he owned 7000 sheep, 3000 ostriches, about a 1000 head of cattle and 500 or so chickens. He seemed to me to be a well diversified.
Now this man had a really large family, seven grown sons and three daughters. The sons, all married with families, lived right on the property and when they weren’t working the ranch together they were throwing parties; taking turns having their family members over and just spending time together. Now by this point I’m thinking this must be one extremely well adjusted family, made me stop and wonder if my family could be that close and still get along...
Another point in the story that really jumped out at me was how the author began the story by talking about what a good man this rancher was, living a life of integrity, always trying to do right and in spite of all his success he appeared to be a really good man. He had never been involved in any type of scandal, was honest and made it a practice to help his neighbors where ever or whenever he saw that there was a need.
Then one day while he and his wife were away, I don’t remember exactly why – maybe a vacation, a devastating tornado hit his ranch resulting in total destruction. He lost his home, he lost his family, he lost his wealth; you see all he had, all he owned was tied up into that ranch. When it was over he and his wife were left with only the land now swept bare by the storm, the only homes the graves of their entire family and ranch hands. Can you imagine, in one afternoon losing everything? Your children, your grand kids, friends, and people you loved and felt responsible to keep safe?
Even with all this destruction, and in the midst of his mourning this man somehow found it within his spirit to praise God to continue to give God the glory! It was amazing the faith he had.
Now you’d think that this man had suffered enough and I don’t know if he caught this disease or if it just happened because of the horrible stress that he’d been under but within what seems like days he broke out with a skin disease, a rash that covered every inch of his body. According to the story there wasn’t even one spot on him that wasn’t covered with the rash, it itched so much that when medicine couldn’t give him any relief he actually scraped the skin right off his body.
And still in the midst of this, he praised God. His wife couldn’t understand it! She even asked him, “Why are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Go ahead curse God so you can die!”
About this time three of his friends show up, now I don’t know why they weren’t there before when he had buried his family, but suddenly here they come to comfort and console him. You cannot imagine how shocked they were! When they saw him, he looked so bad that they didn’t know it was him, couldn’t recognize him. When they saw how he was suffering it was too great for words; so they just sat there beside him. For seven days and seven nights, they sat right next to him and didn’t say anything. For one entire week these men sat together and not a one of them uttered one word.
Just think about that, friends just setting with you, setting beside you, holding you up, just being there for you in your pain for an entire week and not saying one word. What do you think about that? It’s hard for me to even imagine.
After seven days of being held close, being consoled in silence, this rancher finally can speak, so still deep in his grief he begins expressing his hurt and frustration. While he still won’t curse God, he does curse the day he was born, curses the very night he was conceived and wishes that that night be blotted off the calendar - that that night be totally childless. Think about that, he is in so much pain that his cry is that no child would have been conceived on that night - but since that can’t happen his one wish is that he die; he is so deep in his despair that the only thing that he can think of to make the pain stop is that he dies. Mourning so deeply he cannot eat, groans are pouring out of his mouth like water, what he most dreaded all his life has come true, he has no peace, no quietness, all he has - all he can see is his troubles.
Then after being so supportive, after setting there for a week offering silent support his friends start speaking. The first friend quickly tells him that he needs to be patient and accept the punishment for whatever he has obviously done wrong, basically that he has brought these catastrophes onto himself because of his wrong doing. He even goes so far as to tell the rancher that God gave him a vision telling him that there is no way that the rancher is innocent, no way he can be pure and that he needs to take the punishment, listen to his (the friend’s, not God’s) counsel and apply it to himself.
In other words his friend is saying, I don’t care how good you looked you’ve had to have brought these things on yourself through some bad behavior. I always knew you were no better than me and now I can see you’ve must be worse! I’ve never had any of this happen. God is obviously with me. Now suck it up, stop complaining and take your punishment after all God is just and He wouldn’t have let this happen to you otherwise!
When this doesn’t really go over too well with the rancher, his second friend speaks and informs him that if it wasn’t you who did wrong, then obviously it had to be your children so their (the children’s) punishment was well deserved. They wouldn’t have been destroyed if they hadn’t been wicked.
At this point, I’m completely surprised that he hasn’t sent his friends packing. Maybe he would have if he’d had any strength left. I wonder how many times I’ve done what was right, shown the proper support and love to my friends to only wipe it out my opening my big mouth and making mean and hurtful statements disguised as truth.
Well as you can imagine the rancher has plenty to say, which leads his third friend to step into the conversation. I mean these three guys leave their homes, their jobs and their families and haven’t done anything for an entire week other than set with this rancher, which should have earned them the privilege to speak their minds, right? I mean after that, shouldn’t have the rancher been happy to hear their views on the matter? So by now these friends seem to be pretty ticked off too, so in anger the third friend now speaks up and basically blasts the rancher that anyone can say they’re done nothing wrong – that his words don’t prove him innocent! The destruction proves to the contrary, that someone either him or his children or both are to blame. This is all about karma, that rancher just couldn’t have been living the right kind life!
Well as expected the Rancher is done with talking with his friends. He is miserable and feels as though they’ve set him up – given him false hope that he could grieve, could speak his mind and be open and emotionally vulnerable with them. But their words have wiped out all the good they accomplished in those first seven days.
What do you think about this story so far? Have you ever heard it? Who do you think the rancher is?
Yes Job! I remember reading the book of Job and really being confused by it. I’ve got to tell you, for years I totally missed the seven days of silence and really sort of thought that the friends, while not wise in their timing and presentation were speaking some truths to Job. Now be honest, who is with me in that?
But what if this story really isn’t about earthly catastrophe at all? Or how our friends do or do not respond to us. What if it’s about something totally different?
Let’s look at just a few of the verses in the first portion of Job:
Job 1:5b
He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.”
Job 1:21 and I Tim 6:7
I came naked from my mother’s womb and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!
Job 4:9 and 2 Thes 2:8
A breath of God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of His anger.
Job 16: 7&8
Oh God, you have ground me down and devastated my family. As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
Are you maybe seeing a pattern? What are your thoughts on this? What I hear is the basic theme that they are overwhelmed with their fear of God.
Now the way I see it, it’s this fear of God that is the strongest motivator for both Job and his friends. Job has lived his life up to this point based on his fear of God and it’s one of the things that kept his friends trying to get him to reconcile that he is to blame, that he needed to stop complaining and just take his punishment. Just stop whining or God just might blast them all away with the breath of His anger!
But Job wants more, he wants to be able to speak with God – to cry his heart out to the God of universe both in pain and rejoicing and he wants to know that not only will God hear him, but that God will actually answer him – face to face! At this point he actually wants to take God to trial. He wants someone to be his mediator, his advocate.
Job 9:32 and Rom 9:20
God is not mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.
Job 10:1, 2
I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain. I will say to God, “Don’t simply condemn me – tell me the charge you are bringing against me.
Job 16:19
Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high.
Job 16:21
I need someone to mediate between God and me.
And finally God does speak, He answers Job. Actually does a pretty good job of putting Job in his place. When I read God’s response, I don’t know if it’s my personality coming through, but I hear some sarcasm.
But Job finally receives the true desire of his heart. It wasn’t that, Job wanted everything to be answered in his favor – he just wanted answers from God.
Here’s Job’s comment and oh, how I love this one!
Job 42:6
I had only heard about You before, now I have seen you with my own eyes!
Now, I have seen you with my own eyes! This really brings my heart joy. The way I understand this, once for Job, there was just the fear of God. He did what he did, out of fear – in the hopes of a good response. When he was grieving, Job looked for a friend to pour his heart out too, his wife wasn’t much help and his three friends while starting out well finished poorly and actually brought more hurt and pain to Job than he had already experienced. But Job wouldn’t stop. Even in his pain, with his laments, he still sought God. He asked for a mediator, a true friend, someone to stand between him and his fear of God.
For everything that the story of Job is and that the story of Job tells us, I am convinced that it is the very heart of all of our stories. The story of all mankind, how our wrongness, our sins separate us from God. How it is impossible for us to really comfort and console one another. How it is really impossible for us to bridge the gap from fear to friend. From trying to figure out the reasons bad things happen to being able to talk to God face to face about everything that happens.
Because you see when God answered Job, He answered that desire (filled the empty God hole) for all of us. All that we have to do is to seek it – even when or especially when we are in the very depths of our trouble.
2 Cor. 7:10
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
You see God gave us a mediator, a perfect mediator! A mediator that wants to come along side of us, to comfort and console us – a mediator that took our guilty verdict upon Himself so that the charges wouldn’t be placed on us. (I’m convinced the evidence has been wiped clean, washed away.) I am reminded of the woman caught in adultery that was brought before Jesus by the Pharisees. They wanted Jesus to condemn her and have her stoned to death because of her sins. After writing on the ground for while, he simply states, “Those without sin, throw the first stone.” Doesn’t take long for her accusers to scatter, then He looks right in her eyes and says, “Woman where are your accusers?” When she states they are gone, He says, “Neither do I accuse you, go and sin no more.” (John 8)
First Timothy 2:5 states:
For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.
When we see Jesus, we see our Mediator, we’ve seen God with our own eyes!
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