Why are you doing this?

 

Job 19:1-6

 

“How long will you torment my soul, And break me in pieces with words?  These ten times you have reproached me; You are not ashamed that you have wronged me.
And if indeed I have erred, My error remains with me.  If indeed exalt yourselves against me, And plead my disgrace against me, Know then that God has wronged me, And has surrounded me with His net.”

 

I cannot conceive a friend attacking me while I’m in both an emotional loss and physical pain that Job finds himself in.  Bildad, the so-called friend has not listened to what Job is saying, like so many of us he only thinks about the reply.  I did not know where Job came up with the ten times, but my Study Bible tells me it is a number for totality.

 

Job’s talking from his heart, your words torment my soul, and do only harm, why are you doing this?  Could it be Job’s friends who have no real understanding of God's love and mercy?  Could their thoughts and opinions about God, not be based on Scripture but on what some person has told them?  

 

Job has yet to say he has no sin, but he cannot think of a time when he has willfully sinned against God.  In fact, he shares that if he has and he is almost sure he has sinned unintentionally, then please share with him how and when. 

 

Job has no doubt in his mind that any unintentional sin does not justify the pain and sorrow he has endured.  He was hoping when his friends came that they would-be comforters, he never thought of them as his accusers.  His friend Bildad had stated that wicked men get caught in their own schemes and Jobs come back was that it was God who set the trap unjustly against him.  Both men are wrong, for God allowed it but it was the devil that set the traps.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice