<\/p>\n
Job 8-11:20<\/strong><\/span> Okay, so I am sure that most of us have heard the old adage \u201cpatience of Job.\u201d (As in, \u201cshe has the patience of Job.\u201d etc.) Well, today\u2019s chapters 9 & 10 are probably not where this adage came from!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Job is not showing a lot of patience in these chapters.\u00a0 Can you blame him?\u00a0 Would you speak differently if you were in Job\u2019s situation?\u00a0 Or perhaps would your language be worse?\u00a0 It is important to note that Job does not curse God directly, as Satan said Job would do in the beginning of the book.\u00a0 Job is certainly complaining about his situation \u2013 and, well, not to spoil the book of Job here for you\u2026 but Job will repent of what he says to God later in the book.\u00a0 In Job chapter 10 today we read Job\u2019s plea to God, including this in verses 18 through 22: \u201c`Why, then, did you bring me out of my mother\u2019s womb? Why didn\u2019t you let me die at birth? Then I would have been spared this miserable existence. I would have gone directly from the womb to the grave. I have only a little time left, so leave me alone\u2013that I may have a little moment of comfort before I leave for the land of darkness and utter gloom, never to return. It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of utter gloom where confusion reigns and the light is as dark as midnight.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The other adage, in addition to \u201cpatience of Job\u201d, that I was thinking about in today\u2019s readings is \u201cwith friends like these, who needs enemies??\u201d\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 \u00a0Zophar in chapter 11 seems to really have compassion-deficiency!\u00a0 I do think that Zophar and Bildad in chapter 8 were trying to say the things they thought Job needed to hear.\u00a0 But they overstated the case I think in a few places.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree w\/ Zophar saying in chapter 11 verse 3 that Job mocked God: \u201cWhen you mock God, shouldn\u2019t someone make you ashamed?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Here\u2019s my question for us today.\u00a0 Are we sometimes like Zophar and Bildad?\u00a0 Do we jump to conclusions about maybe why bad things are happening to our friends?\u00a0 \u00a0Do we offer up our big advice and big words and big bluster before really listening to our friends and understanding their situation fully?\u00a0 I am afraid that sometimes we jump to conclusions far too quickly.\u00a0 I always try to remember the old Stephen Covey adage (wow, 3 adages here in 1 post! \ud83d\ude42 from the \u201c7 Habits of Highly Effective People\u201d:\u00a0 \u201cSeek first to understand, and then to be understood.\u201d\u00a0 Let us seek first to really understand our friends or family members issues before we start offering our prescriptions for them.\u00a0 Let us first try walking a mile in their shoes!<\/span><\/p>\n Worship God:<\/strong> Today\u2019s readings in Job 11:7 reminded me of Chris Tomlin\u2019s song \u201cIndescribable:\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n
~ Click here to read today\u2019s Scripture on Bible Gateway ~<\/span><\/em>
~ Listen to today\u2019s Scripture with <\/em>The ESV Bible<\/em><\/span> ~<\/p>\n