February 6 (Gen.39; Mark 9; Job 5; Romans 9)

Job is a man who has suffered much. He lost his kids (all 10 of them in one day). He lost his enormous wealth in the same day. He lost his health (he actually took broken pieces of pots to scratch his oozing sores in order to try and bring some relief to his physical pain.) He lost his wife’s faithful support (she told him just to curse God and die). Job needs someone to put his or her arm around him, give him a Tylenol, and just weep with him. That is what his friends should have done. That is not what they did. Instead of comforting Job they add to their misery by speaking out of place. Job 5 gives us an example of this in the speech of Eliphaz, one of Job’s “friends”. Read the speech. He says some very true things. In fact he says some stuff that is later quoted in other parts of the Bible (Contrast v.13 with 1 Corinthians 3:20). However, he applies these true statements wrongly to Job. In effect what he says is that God punishes those who sin against Him, but Job has not sinned against God. He is innocent, but Eliphaz cannot grasp the possibility of someone who is innocent suffering. Let us be careful not to apply genuine truth in a heartless or cruel way. If we do we might be guilty of saying false things about God, and then we would be the ones who need to repent.