We have been talking about the book of JOB, which some scholars believe to be the oldest book of the bible, and written by Moses as he wandered the deserts. So far, in chapters 1 and 2, we see where Satan got permission from God to attack Job. The only stipulation was that Satan would not cause Job to lose his life.
I think it is extremely important to see that before Satan could proceed, he had to get God’s permission. That shows that God is the supreme power and that even Satan bows down to the wishes and desires of God.
Satan’s desire by attacking Job was to make Job finally curse God and reject Him. Satan just knew, in his heart of hearts, that Job would do so, but what he found was the more he attacked Job, the more Job fell back into his faith and praised God that much more! That would be something we need to do today, is to have so much faith in God that when tragedy strikes, we never ask God why it happened to us or get angry at God – but to just know God knows what He is doing and we trust Him to do it.
Today, we are going to talk about how three friends of Job’s came to sympathize and support him as he suffered. Now keep in mind that they never had cell phones or computers in those days, so for messages to be delivered, they had to be delivered by a human messenger. And since there were no highways back then, delivery service was very slow.
The friends all lived a good distance from Job and from each other. Once they each received the news about what happened to Job, they corresponded with each other and came up with a plan for them to meet and then, together, they would go see Job. Considering the distance involved, and the slowness of any communications, some scholars believe that he time between Job’s attacks and the time of his friends getting to him, could have been months, or even a year in time.
During this time, Job had also been inflicted with a terrible skin disease, and since those were very contagious, it was the practice back then to cast any person with such a disease out of the city. Job was cast out and ended up at the city dump, well outside the city walls. And there he stayed, alone, suffering and wishing he were dead or had never been born. And since there was nobody really he could talk to, he had kept that grief inside, with no way to vent it.
And then, the three friends show up. Job must have looked so terrible it caused his friends to be so shocked and stunned, they broke down in tears the moment they even saw him. Scripture says that they shared in his grief and sympathized with him. All four of them sat in complete silence for seven days!
I want you to think for a moment and go back in your memories. Think about the worst day you ever had. At the moment, did it seem to you that your life had virtually come to an end? Did you wonder why you were still alive, and maybe going through something you knew you could not handle or deal with? Now, multiply that by a large number and that is what Job was probably going through at this point in his life.
What did you do, or how did you finally handle your situation? Did you not finally begin venting your hurt to others around you? Leaning on others in this way always seems to help us as we go through terrible events. And right now, we should all thank God for giving us faithful friends who are there to listen to us as we do vent!
And in chapter 3, we see where Job finally began to vent too. He voiced a rather lengthy and poetic lament about what he was feeling and going through. In chapter 3, verses 1-6, we see that when he did began speaking, the first thing he talked about was cursing the day he was even born! He wanted that day to simply disappear as if it had never happened.
When I was a young boy, there was a comic book I liked to read. It was first published during World War II, as a way to bring humor into the lives of our service men who were on the front lines fighting the war. It was about a comically pathetic soldier named “Sad Sack.” No matter what he did, it went wrong. And, no matter where he went, there was a black cloud that was over him. Doom and gloom was the message. It is like the old song on the TV show “Hee-Haw” that said, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” That song and that comic described Sad Sack and Job at this point in his life.
During the time he was suffering, and before his friends got there, Job’s wife even told him to curse God and die! We must keep in mind that she was also hurting, maybe as badly as Job was, because she had lost all of her kids, too! And we know that when people are hurting very much they do not always say the wisest things.
She knew her husband was suffering unimaginably, so maybe she thought if he died, he would at least stop hurting so much. I would rather believe she meant that rather than how hateful it sounds when just read. But we do see where Job never once cursed God, and of course he didn’t die either.
And so, as he sat silently in the city dump, grieving beyond his ability to cope with, the grief down inside him did nothing but fester and get much worse. I would think that he was ready to explode by the time his friends got to him. And he began to let it out after a seven-day period of absolute silence between them.
In verses 7 through 10, he continues cursing the day of his birth. And his hurt kept on coming. Today, we have something Job did not have; and that is most churches today have some kind of grief ministry for people who are going through very rough times in their lives. And for those who do not have such ministries, they usually have phone numbers handy of places that do offer these needed services.
Absolute grief generally has five distinct stages, and they almost always fall in this order: Number 1 is denial. Number 2 is anger. Number 3 is wanting to bargaining, so the pain will not be so bad. Number 4 is mental and emotional depression. And then finally, the fifth stage is a resigned acceptance of the reality of the event.
It appears that when his friends arrived, Job was in stage four, or deep and utter depression. This is the stage where most suicides occur, because it is this stage that keeps us from seeing the situation in its true light. In this stage, we cannot see or feel God in our lives and we are swept away into the darkest thoughts of our own hurt. There is no joy; no hope; and no peace. There is only total despair.
These feelings are some of the most important cards Satan plays when dealing with humans. He knows we are especially vulnerable to an emotional roller coaster when the lives of our loved ones are devastated.
When we, as friends and as Christians, see someone around us going through these things today, what do we do? We want desperately to reach out to them and help them, but not knowing what to say, we feel so uncomfortable that we try to avoid them, don’t we? We don’t remember that sometimes the best help we could ever give is to not say anything, but to just be there for them until they began to talk to us. This is exactly what Job’ three friends did.
Job continues his lament in verses 11 through 16. Now, whereas before he focused on how he should have never been born, he now focuses on his dying! He is figuring that if he were to die and be in his grave, he would not feel anything, and thereby be at peace. What he is going through goes way beyond having a pity party. What he is going through now is taking him mentally and emotionally to the pits of Hell.
As he sat grieving in the city dump, he seems to have forgotten all about what he once had, and is now only focusing on what he is presently going through. Someone once remarked that the more a person hurts, the more they start focusing only on themselves. I think that might be right.
Satan works his strongest evil deeds on us and we forget about falling back on God in full trust, and began thinking about what we are going through and how much we are hurting. This is also what Job was experiencing. He had forgotten about his children, or his many livestock that he lost. I wonder how many of us, going through a situation as bad as Job’s, would be thinking about anything other than how bad we were hurting. I bet very few of us would.
Maybe the best way to describe Job’s depression is to remember the words of a poem written by Samah Khan; “Death is such sweet sorrow.” Death can seem to be a good way to escape problems, but I reality, most of our problems that we spend so much worrying about never come about, do they? Look at how much time and energy we throw away by worrying so much.
He had forgotten that God is the fixer of all things, and all He wants us to do is to trust in Him to fix all things in our lives. To obey Him; to love Him; to worship Him. These are the things God wants us to do – for Him.
In our power, we cannot fix anything because we have no power within ourselves. All the power we have is from Jesus Christ when He is our Savior.
PHILIPPIANS 4:13 affirms this:
“I can do all things through Christ Jesus, who gives me (His) power.” (* Parenthesis insert is mine.)
As Job continue to vent is grief, we see something very important in verse 23: “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” He acknowledges that God puts a hedge of protection around His children. In his present state, though, Job is wondering why God is keeping him safe and prolonging his life, because all that is doing is prolonging his suffering.
Satan’s desire is to use anything he can get his hands on to steal our confidence in God, to kill our faith in Him, and to destroy any dependency we have on God. And, like I have said before, Satan hates God and everything God made, including humans. And because of his insane hatred towards us, Satan does not want us to spend eternity with him, but he hates God so much, he would rather us spend it with him than be able to spend our eternities with God.
What is the number one thing we fear the most in our lives? Each person might have something different than his neighbors, but we all have something, don’t we? What is the best way to guard ourselves from that fear? Being ready. That is the best way to overcome them. Do you remember the old Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared”?
Just as it is always best to fill your car up with gas before you set out on a trip, it is always best to make sure your faith in Christ is up and ready, too. But how does one strengthen their faith? I only know of a few ways. First, pray to God that you will be guided by Him as you build your faith up. Secondly, read God’s Word; regularly, and not just a couple of verses at a time. Rather, read as much as you can whenever you are able. Pray for understanding as you read and pray for remembrance after you have read it.
And when you pray, make it as personal as you can possible make it! Talk to God as if He really is your best and closest friend. Talk to Him with a need in your heart to be close to Him. Make each prayer you utter a very personal prayer – that truly needs God!
And always, in every single situation, praise God! It may not seem like something you should do when you are having the troubles of your life, but do it anyway. You would be shocked to learn how much God loves you and wants to hear your heartfelt praise of Him.
In ACTS 16:25 it tells how the Apostle Paul and Silas were in prison, in chains – yet they were singing praises to our Lord.
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
Let us all strive to be so focused on our LORD that we, also, can freely sing praises of love to Him, even during our darkest times.
Let us pray.
