Job 11-13 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…
The third of Job’s friends, Zophar, speaks up and Job isn’t very pleased with what he has to say either. It’s kind of the same as what the first two friends said: “You deserve this, you must have done something, in fact, you deserve worst.” Again, there is a sense in which that is true. For all of us, our sins justly deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment. But Job’s friends have forgotten about faith. They have assumed that their wealth and ease are products of their own goodness rather than gifts from a merciful God. And they fail to see that the same is true about Job. His misfortunes are not the punishment for his sins anymore than their riches are the reward for their goodness. Rather, both are gifts of God’s mercy. God is trying Job, testing His faith and showing it to us so that we can see that even if He should slay us, we can trust Him.
Job believes that God is going to kill him. He knows that God has done this or at least has allowed this to happen. He doesn’t know why. He doesn’t understand what is going on. But he knows that God is not against him because of his sin, He knows He has loved him, forgiven him, and is with him. Job believes in God. Job’s friends do not, they believe in themselves: in their riches and in their works.
Don’t let good times deceive you into thinking that all is well with God. And don’t let hard times trick you into thinking that God hates you. There is only one way to be right with God – faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Then, we know that material blessings and suffering are both gifts from the hand of a loving God and though He may slay us, yet we can trust Him!
In Christ
Pastor Ude