March 18, 2020
Job 20:1-11
“Then Zophar the Naamathite replied: “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed. I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply. “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth, that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night. The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more. His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth. The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.”
These three friends, it is a shame there is not a school one could attend on what a friend is and how to pick a friend. As I read this over and over, I see three men who believe they are more knowledgeable and wiser than Job. I also see them listening to each other and saying Job is not taking my counsel, it is your turn to try straightening that boy out.
Zophar has unsettling thoughts, so do I about men and women that act like a two-year-old in our Congress of the United States of America, but that’s another subject for another time, shall we stay on the subject matter. Zophar is upset with Job, he believes Job has not shown him and his three friends the respect they deserve.
You and I have witnessed both the wicked, those who believe they are self-made people who have beaten the system and have no need of God or man, they are gone and take not one thing to the grave. We also watch as did Job’s friends the person who looked to God for directions and worshiped God and loved the things God loves, also go to the grave with nothing
It seems to me Job’s three friends were a member of the church of, if you’re sick or bad things have happened to you, you're wicked. It is this attitude; we three are so tight with God and maybe we can get you out of this mess you are in if you will give up on being so honorable and put your trust in what we have to tell you! Be very careful of that so, called church, it is from the pit of hell.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice