Job Pt 14 – Recycled Arguments

Tania Not Tanya tip:  Did you know you could recycle these 10 things?  Here are 10+2 things that you can be recycled some of which you may or may not have been aware of:  appliances, athletic shoes, batteries, clothes, compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), computers and electronics, eyeglasses, foam packing: ink/toner cartridges, phones, clothes hangers (your local dry cleaners is generally happy to re-purpose wire hangers and/or safety pins); arguments.  Huh?  Yes, you heard me, arguments.  Ladies, I don't mean any harm but you know we can run out and bring up arguments that we put away in storage from days, weeks, months and years back and run all the way out rehashing and reopening wounds that were in the process of healing. 

Yesterday’s declaration (blog) we heard more of the back and forth bantering between the Amigos and Job but the declaration ended with the fact that every logical thinking human being has a desire for God and they may not even realize it.  They recognize something is missing so they look to fill the void with: money, positions, power, education, manmade religions, people and/or things, but the “relief” is short lived.  Out of frustration they look for more of the same and/or something different which may include controlled/uncontrolled substances only to find that those items are not the answer either.  So like Job, these people are on a quest to find God, but they are all looking in the wrong place.

Chapter 24:  Job’s response to Eliphaz continues as he goes on and on about how tough the poor have it and they do, but it stings when he says: The wretched cry out for help and God does nothing, acts like nothing’s wrong! Job 24:16 (The Message).  His accusation of God is becoming more pronounced and while I want to believe he doesn’t make these comments maliciously, his comments made me pause (with my Believer’s lenses on) to try and refocus my lenses so I could see (understand) his point of view.  However, with my human lenses, I can see the hurt and lonely man who literally has no support system (that he can see, smell, touch or feel).  To humanize him a bit more, I put myself in his shoes during my study time and recalled my most recent God-inflicted suffering when I felt alone, rejected and isolated.  The upside for me is that I could hide in the word of God, draw strength from my faith coaches (e.g. TD Jakes, IV Hilliard, John Smith, Joel Osteen, Charles Stanley, Christopher Smith, etc.) and I had the advantage of reading about Job’s life.  So I can empathize with his agony, however, that does not justify accusation and bitterness toward God from anyone. 

Chapter 25: Bildad attacks Job for a third time, but it’s a repeat of things said before and it’s only six verses long.  It just seems to me that the Amigos are running out of ammunition and that Bro. Job has worn his friends out, “down hem”.

Chapter 26:  Job sarcastically responds to Bildad’s empty very short speech.  But his questions were sincere: 

·       Have you counseled people who are without wisdom?  Job’s statement was broad enough to include himself and anyone else that Bildad and his friends failed to help.

·       Who else have you “counseled”? Job wondered who else had been damaged by the insensitivity and misapplied wisdom of his friends.

·       Where did you get your counsel?  Do you recall Eliphaz’ first speech in Job 4 when he got a “word” from a mysterious spirit?  The message from the shadowy spirit began, Can a mortal be more righteous than his God? (Job 4:17). Bildad then repeated the same idea to Job in Job 25:4.  Clearly his Bildad’s recycled arguments raised a red flag to Job which is why he asked:  Where in the world did you learn all of this?  Job knew those were not Bildad’s words because they were too similar to Eliphaz initial speech to him and just like Eliphaz was off, repeating it a second time didn’t make it any more convincing.

Job finally praises God and his awesome power of creation.  He strings the words together so beautifully that they almost jumped off the page at me.  If I were Bildad, I would have been shame, but the Amigos were on a really big power trip so I don’t know that anything Job said would have embarrassed them.  Listen to some of the analogies he makes:

Job 27-31 are more of the recycled speeches, insults, arguments and rhetoric so I won’t cover them, but I would encourage you to read the chapters on your own.

Job considered all the wisdom from Bildad and his two friends (Eliphaz and Zophar), and wondered where the help or strength was in any of it.  I know I have said it before but it seems befitting to point at again, that at the end of it all, Job's friends got to the point where they were so concerned about being right that they forgot to be concerned about helping Job which was the initial intent.  I don’t ever want friends like that.  Go away; Stay away, leave me alone. 

I’m out of time, we’ll have to pick it up tomorrow.

In His New Excellence,

Tania Not Tanya