Job 8

Read Job 8

Passage chosen for devotion - Job 8:3-6

3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 4 If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. 5 If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

Reflection

Job’s friends who are supposed to come and comfort him have actually added to his misery (adding salt to the wound). To be fair they all have no privy insights to what was happening in the conversation between God and Satan, and how blameless Job is to God. Perhaps all the lamentations and defences made by Job have in a way agitated his friends or breached the limit of their patience. After all they have wept and stayed with him seven days and seven night.

Bildad was blunt to a grieving Job with his words and his own view. He seemed to imply that Job’s circumstances was caused by his sins (as God does not pervert justice), and his children’s death was caused by their transgressions (something Job had been worried about all this time). Bildad made a lot of assumptions in what could have caused Job’s ordeal - something he did not do right leading to his predicament. To Bildad, there is a reason (sin and transgression) behind every suffering that Job is going through.

To a certain degree some of Bildad’s statement may be true (sin does lead to punishment, for example where King David lost his child as consequence of his sin to covet and murder - 2 Samuel 12:13-14). Nonetheless his blanket assumption about Job’s predicament to be totally related to his and his children’s sin can be questionable (of course we have the benefit of hindsight here by reading the entire book of Job). And it is also over simplistic for Bildad to interpret the plan of the almighty God by explaining everything that has happened according to human wisdom and understanding (remember that God’s ways are higher than ours - Isaiah 55:8-9). And who is he (Bildad) to judge Job’s situation?

Relate

It can be a daunting task to offer comfort to someone who has just gone through an awful tragedy. Sometimes we are not in the position to understand their plight and instead of helping we may say things that can add nothing but more sorrow to the person we are supposed to comfort. I have heard of people offering condolences by saying it is God’s will. But I could hardly comprehend how such words could soothe the grieving hearts of the broken ones. But what we know is that kind words can heal one’s soul. Proverbs 16:23-24 - “23 The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious    and adds persuasiveness to his lips. 24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb,sweetness to the soul and health to the body”

And we are in no position to judge any situation as God’s plan is beyond our understanding. Very often we do not have the complete story to a situation, let alone having that foresight to foretell the future of God’s plan. But if we were to trust by faith and not by sight that God works all things for good - Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”.

Job’s predicament can be unbearable for many of us, even by just reading the book itself. But this is a perfect example of an unpredictable event that could happen under perfectly innocent circumstances. A righteous and God fearing man like Job, who is not spared from the test of faith and suffering . So I can only conclude by referring to a quote by Charles Spurgeon - “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”

Rest 

Extracted Lyrics from “Trust His Heart”

“All things work for our good

Though sometimes we don't see

How they could

Struggles that break our hearts in two

Sometimes blind us to the truth

Our Father knows what's best for us

His ways are not our own

So when your pathway grows dim

And you just don't see Him,

Remember you're never alone

God is too wise to be mistaken

God is too good to be unkind

So when you don't understand

When don't see His plan

When you can't trace His hand

Trust His Heart”

Alan Wong