Miserable Comforters

 “All of my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.” This is what happens when you disgust your friends, as good ole Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar did with their “one time best friend”, Job. Job gives us a perfect example on how severe affliction feels, how it distorts our perceptions and how our anguish screams out our deepest human pains. They are raw, they are real and they are disturbing. Job was in such anguish that his own wife who had experienced loss herself and pain from her own experience of her husband’s testing, had despaired to the point that she could no longer bear his sufferings, and ill-advised him to just curse God and die. Instead of encouraging him to stay steadfast until his troubles had passed, she no longer could endure it herself. She never blamed her husband for their loss and suffering, but held to and acknowledge his integrity. But from a human’s point of view, she felt that dying at that point would bring him resolve and peace. Yet Job responded to her by telling her that she was talking like a foolish woman. “Should we accept only good from God and not bad?”, Job ask.

The words that Job spoke in Job 3 expressed his devastation. He said things like, “Let the day perish on which I was born…”, “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?” He felt that it would have been better that he not even be born. Job had no idea what was going on in the heavenlies. No idea that satan was seeking permission to unleash his evil wrath on Job. Did his words accurately represent Job’s deepest beliefs? No, they did not. Like David in Psalm 22:1 and Heman the Ezrahite in Psalm 88:14, Job’s words were cries of pain. Like the puss of infection oozing from the sores on Job’s body, so the words of demoralization and desolation oozing from the sores on his tormented soul. You and I may never know the extent of Job’s anguish, but from our own experience, I believe that we can draw our own conclusions.

The one thing that we seek when we are wounded is a sympathetic companion to help bear our circumstance. When troubles hit us full force and we have prayed and sought God in them and yet have no answers, we can be assured that there is always more to the picture than we may be able to see, and that we may not be at fault when they do hit us. However, in Job’s case his friends had an overly simplistic explanation for evil and that was, “God rewards righteousness with prosperity and iniquity with destruction”.  You can hear it in every word that they say to Job. This resulted in their misunderstanding and wrongfully diagnosing Job’s spiritual state. They just wanted Job to confess some secret sin that he was hiding. Job’s evaluation of what they were saying to him was perfect, “miserable comforters are you all” he said to them.

They had badly misapplied truth and reproved Job at the worst time that they could ever have chosen to reprove a friend. Some of the things that they said were truth, as when Eliphaz said, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.” This is a true statement! But the statement being true did not make it right. In its context of what was said, it’s clear Eliphaz assumed Job’s afflictions were God’s reproof for a hidden sin for which he should repent, Job 4:7–8. But Eliphaz’s assumption was wrong. It’s true, God’s corrective discipline is redemptive. But Job’s suffering was not God’s corrective discipline, and that was the difference. Eliphaz misapplied this truth and therefore damaged Job. We must take great care when we presume. Presumption, can spring from the skewed wisdom of our own experience, as well as from the ignorance of our inexperience, which can result in misdiagnosing a problem and misapplying biblical truth. And this only adds insult to injury. It’s easy to critique Job’s comforters because, unlike them, we have the advantage of seeing the big picture. But in our real-life situations, how often have we made the same mistake and given ill-timed reproofs?

I know that I have been guilty of this myself. There were times that I have reproved someone in angry, defensive, with accusing words, assuming they were rebellious from a soul-core, only to discover later that they oozed from a soul-sore. I wrongly reproved when I should have carefully probed and applied the balm of patient, gracious, kind, forbearing, servant-hearted, quick-to-listen, slow-to-speak love. I may not be there friend, but I am headed in that direction! Discerning the difference between soul-core words and soul-sore words is no easy thing. They take time to ponder and time in prayer before giving an answer according to Proverbs 15:28 “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer,”. In the words of John Piper, “Restoring the soul, not reproving the sore, is the aim of our love.”

Hold Fast,

-Bren

WE ARE CALLED TO A HIGHER CALL

Has God ever given you something that you protested you just had to have, only to find out that in the end your request was birthed in your flesh and ended up costing you more than you ever believed that it would? Well, in the Bible God gives us a very important lesson on being careful, to always ask for things from God that are according to His will, not simply because we want it. It was never God’s intention that that the Jews have a king. His plan was, that they would follow Him under the direction of His prophets and according to His very words and that by doing so, He would provide for them and care for them. In I Samuel beginning in chapter 8 it is very clear how God intended Israel to govern themselves, but His people clamored and demanded that they be allowed to have a king like the surrounding nations. So they took to the streets and protested, murmured and grumbled to the point that God finally relented and gave them what they wanted. Not only did He give them a king, He gave them the coolest, strongest and most handsome man in all Israel. When the people saw their new king, they fell down in adoration for this awesome specimen of what they perceived to be a great leader and king. They just knew that anyone so mighty and good looking had to be the most favored and likable king in all the earth.

Unfortunately, it did not turn out the way the people had envisioned. No matter how good Saul looked on the outside, it did nothing to change the reality of who he was on the inside. Despite his good and favorable beginning and being the epitome of a “man’s man”, Saul was inwardly a weak coward who was incapable of doing the will of God and caved in to the demands of those around him at the expense of being faithful to God’s calling. Saul, when confronted by the prophet Samuel, simply did not and would not accept responsibility for disobeying the Word of the Lord that Samuel had given him. In 1 Samuel 15 it is painfully obvious that Saul had only “Saul’s interests” in mind and those interest were birthed in his flesh and cost him his kingdom, his family, his personal relationship with others and ultimately his life. His life is truly a lesson that is worth learning from.

Recently the people in this country spoke their minds about what they wanted, they were sick and tired of having to care for themselves and demanded a government who would provide for them financially, physically and even spiritually. The will of the people manifested in these past elections resulted clearly, one of more government control and less of one’s personal liberty and freedoms. The relentless and crushing blows on morality and rights of liberty which the American people have undergone over these past years, have brought down many a strong folks. The results and general feeling of despair has been glooming over us all. It now appears to many people that this country has what many of them have wanted. In time, like the children of Israel had learned, I believe that these same Americans will be stunned to see that there is no savior, no man apart from Jesus, that can save them from their mistakes, their personal needs and despairs.

Whatever transpires in this country, it must be clearly understood that the voting populist or broken system as it currently is, have gotten what they wanted, and maybe even more. Just as in due time God’s people recognized Saul to be the fraud that he turned out to be, so in due time Americans will wake up to see that for the believer, there is only one hope and that hope is in Jesus Christ. For no King, President, Senator, State or local Representative can spare one man’s pain without hurting another and by the time that people see the error or their ways, it will be too late and the changes demanded previously, will have been permanently enacted and set as law. And, when this happens, the people will want another leader or “savior” to save them from the one that they previously had elected and put their trust in. For the child of God is called to a higher call and that is simply to carry out the dictates of the scriptures. Ours role as Christians is to change our government by our prayers, our voice and good citizenship, and by spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is able to change the hearts of those that will believe in Him. Let the people of God pray for the patience and endurance that we must have as God’s elect. Look to God to bring change in your life friends, not the government.

 

Hold Fast,

-Bren

FINDING YOUR PLACE TO ENCOUNTER GOD

Have you ever found yourself in a warm conversation with someone that you knew really cared about you and the circumstances in your life? This question evokes the relationship that God longs to have with His children. In Exodus 33:9-11 Moses erected a tent so that he could have personal communion with God. Moses had been in God’s presence and understood the need for and importance of communing with Him. What time he had spent hearing from God in the past only caused him to hunger for more in his relationship with God. While we only see a glimpse of God here on earth in His creation, a glimpse of him is indisputably better, than any other sight that we could ever see. A glimpse of God is more powerful than a rushing wind, more real than your own skin, vaster than the oceans put together, and more satisfying than time spent with your closest friend. Whatever longing that feels unsatisfied can be quenched with a glimpse of the Living God.

Moses, like you and I had a sinful nature that had to be brought under control and guided by the law that God gave him. Moses sinned in many of the same ways that you and I may sin today. Yet, Moses was able to see the living God “face to face” and speak with him “as a man speaks to his friend”, according to Exodus. 33:11. Picture that tent in your mind’s eye. Picture the cloud of God’s presence descending down upon that little tent from heaven in a way that everyone was able to see. Place yourself in that tent, hearing Moses talk with God, seeing the glory of God face to face with a broken, sinful man. What a picture of God’s heart for us! If Moses could enter into the presence of God, by entering in God’s way, surely all of His children today can as well. If Moses could speak with God face-to-face, surely we who have been bought with the blood of Christ can. If God would encounter Moses, speak to him, and guide him, he will surely do the same for each of us if we cry out to Him in brokenness and repentance.

God longs to encounter us just as deeply as he longed to encounter Moses. God loves each of us to the absolute fullest extent possible. We are all created for intimacy with our heavenly Father. There is no other path to the abundant life and destiny He has called each of us to, than life lived in His presence. And there is no other way to live in step with His Spirit than spending time consistently encountering His presence. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Just think about that for a moment and let it sink in. God is a rewarder of those that seek Him. God’s greatest satisfaction is spending time with His children. His greatest joy is meeting with you face to face as He did with Moses. So great was His desire to encounter you that He offered up His only Son as payment for your relationship with Him to be restored. Believe in His desire to encounter you today sweet friend. Believe that He will reward you when you seek Him, and believe that you will discover a deeper reality of God’s presence than you have ever encountered. Run to His presence when you have need, or when you feel attacked, hurt or unfulfilled. Run to your tent of meeting to worship and be restored, when you need refreshment or guidance, or just to talk with God. He adores you and longs for you to come spend time getting to know Him. May you today be drawn into deeper encounters with the Lord of Host as you find for yourself a tent or place to meet with Him, remembering that Jesus is the doorway according to John 10:7 and you must enter in through Him to get in to the presence of God.

Hold Fast,

-Bren