JOB PART 2, JOB's FRIENDS

 

JOB PART 2, JOB's FRIENDS Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all the adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him. Job 2:11 Job had three friends who came to comfort him in his distress. But they weren't much help! They were religious busybodies who were determined to convince Job that all his calamities had come about because of secret sin. So they urged Job to confess. And in another low blow, they declared that Job's children died because of their sins also. Those men used lofty religious language as they dug the knife in, again and again. Then Job answered: “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? Job 16:1-3 Job refused to be bullied by his friends and stood firm in his belief that he hadn't done anything worthy of such severe calamity. WHAT WE LEARN FROM JOB'S FRIENDS Do not judge, or you will be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1 Sometimes bad things happen and it's nobody's fault. Don't be quick to judge. I have seen it happen in churches when vicious religious busybodies approached people and sliced them to ribbons with their hard-hearted legalism. And social media makes it even easier to hurt people! In this modern age we have a bad habit of assigning blame the minute anything happens. After the recent Texas floods, a million social media couch potatoes analyzed how this happened and who was at fault. HOWEVER; the Texas flood waters were several feet ABOVE the level that engineers had determined was the "100 year flood level." In other words, the flash flood was beyond what anyone had imagined would be worst-case scenario. So how can anyone be blamed? Even people who had made every precaution against flash floods were swept away. It was a terrible, awful flood event. There's no reason to point fingers - and it's not helpful. The Bible gives us very simple instructions on how to share in the joys and sorrows of our friends, family and community: Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15 JOB PART 3 continued TOMORROW.