Do we join the mockers who slander and blame the suffering, or do we seek to comfort the afflicted? Let’s begin in Job 30.
Do the most base and untrustworthy of society now mock Job? Do we mock others?
But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them? Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night. In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom bush. They were banished from human society, shouted at as if they were thieves. They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground. They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth. A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land. (Job 30:1-8 NIV)
Is Job a mocking song, spat upon, avoided by even the lowest? Who do we mock?
And now I am their taunting song; Yes, I am their byword. They abhor me, they keep far from me; They do not hesitate to spit in my face. Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me, They have cast off restraint before me. At my right hand the rabble arises; They push away my feet, And they raise against me their ways of destruction. They break up my path, They promote my calamity; They have no helper. They come as broad breakers; Under the ruinous storm they roll along. Terrors are turned upon me; They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed like a cloud. (Job 30:9-15 NKJV)
Does Job claim that even God throws him in the mud, ignores him, and is cruel to him? Can we be completely honest in prayer as Job was?
And now my life seeps away. Depression haunts my days. At night my bones are filled with pain, which gnaws at me relentlessly. With a strong hand, God grabs my shirt. He grips me by the collar of my coat. He has thrown me into the mud. I’m nothing more than dust and ashes. I cry to you, O God, but you don’t answer. I stand before you, but you don’t even look. You have become cruel toward me. You use your power to persecute me. You throw me into the whirlwind and destroy me in the storm. And I know you are sending me to my death—the destination of all who live. (Job 30:16-23 NLT)
Though he screeched like a jackal or chirped like an ostrich, why did God not stretch out His hand to answer Job’s cry for help? Why did God not help him as Job had helped others?
However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy? When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came. My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me. I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat. Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep. (Job 30:24-31 WEB)
Should we join Job’s friends and other slanderers or comfort those in trouble? Is our church a torture chamber of gossip or a true healing place?
May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort. He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God. (2 Cor 1:3-4 CEB)
Do we join the mockers who slander and blame the suffering, or do we seek to comfort the afflicted? You decide!
