TEXT FOR REFLECTION
Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me. JOB 16: 7-10
REFLECT
Job's troubles were more than those that had been inflicted on him - the loss of his property, the death of his children, and his ill-health. These were tragic enough. But other troubles piled up on to these tragedies. In verse 7, Job laments that his friends had left him - "he has made desolate all my company". In verse 8, Job states that his "leanness has risen up against me, it testifies to my face." In other words, the fact that Job had lost much weight was 'evidence' that something was wrong with him morally. Because of what he was going through, people assumed that God hated him, and that gave them license to be contemptuous of him and to even ill-treat him violently.
The Job who was the richest man in the known world, who was blessed with many children, and who enjoyed great health, was no different from the Job who had lost everything including his children, and whose body was covered with boils and weeping sores. He was morally no worse than before his troubles began. Yet the treatment he received from others was a world apart.
Because of Job's hardships, friends deserted him and others assumed that he was a bad person and therefore one whom they could despise and ill-treat.
RELATE
We have a natural tendency to associate a well-heeled person to be good and safe, and a poor person to be less safe or even dangerous. We often assume that a well-off person is respectable, while poorer people are not. As a child, I was warned that kids living in the kampong behind my private house were dangerous and a bad influence, and that they were drug-abusers. I discovered that they were nothing but gentle, generous, and loyal. And none of them took drugs. When our daughter was studying overseas, she made many friends of homeless persons. Of course I was scared for her. But throughout the three years she spent there, I only heard of how deep, kind, and interesting these homeless friends of hers were.
We tend to gush over the rich and famous. We are in awe of them. Even if they did nothing for us and did not benefit us one bit, we drop their names as if knowing such persons made us more important. I can relate to that as I am often guilty of that as well. But what troubles me is when we eye a poor person with suspicion or disdain. Or worse, when we refuse to engage with them, fearful that they have sinister motives. The Apostle James was familiar with this attitude in his congregation. He chided his congregation for showing awe and respect for the rich and contempt for the poor (James 2:1-7). He continued by admonishing his congregation to judge wisely: "God has chosen the poor in the world to become rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who keep on loving him, has he not? But you have humiliated the man who is poor." (v 5, 6)
Despite his sufferings, Job was a man greatly respected by God. God regarded him as a servant more godly than others. Job's story has become God's gold standard of what it means to love the Lord our God. Let us bear in mind the admonition of the writer of the Book of Hebrews: Stop neglecting to show hospitality to strangers, for by showing hospitality some have had angels as their guests without being aware of it. Hebrews 13:2
REST
Father, most of the time we fail to see who the angels you send to us are. And so we end up rejecting the very people you send us to help us with our lives and our faith. Make us wise and discerning, that we may welcome those whom you send to us. We pray this is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who being Your Son, came as a servant who was well acquainted with grief and suffering.
Chiu Ming Li
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