job// [part 2]
Friendship hurt is the worst. I feel like there are few things worse than feeling as if you’re not truly seen/understood by friends you’ve held close to your heart.
Job understood this. Not only did Job lose his possessions and his children, he also gradually lost his friends as his story progressed. At the beginning, his friends showed up to grieve with him. The Bible said that they sat with him for 7 days and didn’t speak “for they saw how great his suffering was,” (Job 2:13). But when they did begin to speak, they each had a lot to say about Job, giving their opinions as to how Job must’ve brought this upon himself. & the worst part? They used God as a weapon against him.
Have you ever been there? Felt as if others showed up to comfort, but 100% misunderstood where you were and used the Bible as a weapon against you?
A lot of the things that Job’s friends said ABOUT God were true, but they mostly spoke out of context and in pride. They never communicated God’s heart.
I LOVE the end of this story. Many times, I’ve read this book with this mindset of “Yes! God FINALLY told Job’s friends!”
But that’s not what’s important in this story.
The amazing part of this story was actually God’s heart for restoration.
At the end of the story, God does turn to Job’s friends and rebukes them, telling them, “You have not spoken what is right of me, as my servant Job has.” He then tells them to apologize to Job and asked Job to offer a sacrifice for their sins and to pray for them.
This is the part I love.
Listening to the Bible Recap, for Job’s friends to offer an apology and Job to offer a sacrifice and pray for them would have required true humility. “Forgiveness does not come from a heart of entitlement and bitterness.” Neither the apology, nor the sacrifice, would have come easy if they weren’t truly humbled and truly repentant. God didn’t just show up to prove that Job was right and his friends were wrong. No, God worked to purify and humble all of them, leading to the restoration of all relationships. They were restored to God (seeing Him rightly) and they were restored to one another (seeing each other rightly).
Let me be honest, many times I’ve waited on the day that God would show up to let people know that they were wrong and that I was right. But, that’s not right and that’s not love. Love is not self-seeking or selfish.
I know friendship (or any relational) hurt hurts. But despite all of Job’s friends’ actions, God only briefly rebuked them and told Job to forgive and pray for them.
Sometimes there’s a greater work that God can still do through our hurts...... If we let Him. I’m not saying it’s easy, but even if we’ve been hurt by people the way Job had been, there’s still room for God to move.
