Read Job 21

Are You Listening?

For more than four decades, brother V.E. Howard used the power of radio to preach the gospel via the International Gospel Hour. He was well known for directing the listener’s attention to an important point by using this phrase, “Are you listening?”

In the twenty-first chapter of Job, the patriarch begged with his friends to listen to him without jumping to conclusions. They had run ahead of the truth and made assumptions without first examining the facts. Brother Howard wanted his listeners to avoid that habit, as did Job.

Three times before he got into his speech, Job pleaded for his friends’ attention. He said, “Listen carefully to my speech” (Job 21:2). All too often we do not actually listen to what our friends are saying, or why they are saying it. We must give careful attention to words and the motivation for those words.

Job then pleads, “Bear with me that I may speak, and after I have spoken, keep mocking” (Job 21:3). How patient are we with our friends’ struggles? Do we even let them finish telling us what is wrong? Or do we try to get to the end of the story without hearing the details, and mock (whether intentionally or not) their situation or the way they handled it? Let’s practice patience when our friends go through trials and bear with them. Isn’t this how we “fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)?

Finally, Job says, “Look at me and be astonished; put your hand over your mouth” (Job 21:5). If we are not willing to examine the facts of a situation, we should not comment on it. It is an insult to the person going through a trial to hear ignorant and uninformed opinions that are not based on actual facts but assumptions.

Don’t be like Job’s friends. When those close to you are going through difficult situations in this life, listen to them. Bear with them. Look at them. Avoid prejudgment and mockery. Kindly offer support and love.

“Are you listening?”

[Note: If you are not familiar with the International Gospel Hour, it is a highly recommended resource for sound gospel teaching. Brother Jeff Archey is the current host. Learn more at www.internationalgospelhour.com.]

Read Job 19:25

Confidence in the Faithfulness of God

Despite all the tragedy occurring in the life of Job, he confidently declared, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth” (Job 16:25). This was no guesswork or flimsy wish on Job’s part. He took full assurance in the fact of the existence of his Redeemer.

This is not the first time the patriarch foreshadowed the coming Redeemer. Earlier in the inspired record, Job lamented that there was not presently a go-between that could understand both God and man. “For He is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both” (Job 9:32-33). Then, in the sixteenth chapter, Job makes reference to “my witness…in heaven” (Job 16:19) and longs “that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor!” (Job 16:21).

These are but a few prophecies in the book of Job of the Word who became flesh (John 1:14). The specific verse under consideration, Job 19:25, prophetically proclaims the fact of a Redeemer who, in Job’s very day, was alive (though He had not yet taken on human form). Job affirmed that this Redeemer would “stand at last on the earth.” He would not remain in heaven, but would take on “the form of a bondservant” (Philippians 2:7), and would become “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). It was in these actions that Jesus became our Mediator, our Witness, our Advocate, and our Redeemer.

But how could Job have such confidence? The answer is simple: Job was a person of faith. Did he challenge God with questions? Yes. Did he bemoan his situation? Yes. Did he lose his faith in the Almighty? No!

No matter what happens to us in this life, we must never let our faith in God waver. Search for answers from Him, but do not give up on Him. Understand that the answers you want may not come. There are things that we simply do not need to know, no matter how badly we want to know. We can, however, know everything we need, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3).

Have the confidence in God that Job possessed. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth.”

Read Job 16:1-22

The Importance of Good Friends

To whom do we turn for comfort when we are sad, upset, mad, or depressed? Which of our friends knows just the right words to pick our spirits up, or at least to keep us from falling deeper into despondency? Job needed friends like that, but instead he had Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu.

Look at how Job describes his so-called friends: “Miserable comforters are you all!” (Job 16:2). He accuses them, “I also could speak as you do, if your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you” (16:4). He says that he would be better than that, though. “But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief” (16:5).

We must take seriously the words that we use with those who are closest to us, and the words they use as well. The apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).

Do your friends act like Job’s friends? Do they accuse you of wrongdoing when bad things happen without any evidence? Certainly, we can bring hardship upon ourselves through sinful actions, but sometimes adversity comes through no fault of our own. If our friends automatically assume that we are to blame, perhaps some changes need to take place in our relationships.

Put the shoe on the other foot, too, though. Are you more like Job, or more like his friends? Are you the one who looks for fault in the face of a loved one’s disaster? Our goal must be to edify, to “impart grace to the hearers,” not to tear a person down through unfounded accusations and undue criticism.

Consider this warning from the apostle Paul: “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits’” (1 Corinthians 15:33). We must be careful to surround ourselves with people who have our eternal interests at heart, and we must strive to seek the very best for those we call friends as well.

Read: Job 1:1-2:10

“There is None Like Him on the Earth”

If God and Satan were to have a conversation about you, how would it go? Would God say the things about you that he said about this patriarch? Replace Job’s name with yours as you think about this question: “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1:8).

How would Satan respond? Again, substitute your own name for Job’s: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9).

Satan was accusing Job of serving God only because God blessed Job. That, according to Satan, was his whole motivation. Satan did not believe that Job feared God because of God’s power or righteousness. Rather, he only served God—according to Satan—because Job was getting something out of it.

God allowed Satan to test his theory. God allowed calamity upon calamity to come upon Job at the hand of the adversary. His servants were killed by the Sabeans. His sheep and those servants tending to them were destroyed by fire from the sky. The Chaldeans stole his camels and killed the servants riding them. His children were crushed in the collapse of the oldest brother’s house. Horrible tragedies, but Job’s resolve toward God remained the same. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

After all of this, God told Satan, “And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause” (Job 2:3). Satan again challenges God, alleging that Job only continues to serve Him because his health remains. Thus God allowed Satan to inflict bodily harm upon Job: “painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 1:7).

His wife encouraged Job to forsake his faith, but Job responded, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). Many today are quick to turn on God and curse His church. Friends, we must stand firm against the devil’s many attacks and be rooted in the truth of God’s Word. Will life always be easy? No! But even in those difficult times, may we never, in the words of Job’s wife, “Curse God and die!” (Job 1:9).