Thoughts on time, on Job's faith

During the past several days, we have covered about one half of Job.

This is less time than Job and his friends; Eliphaz, Bilidad, and Zophar sat on the ground with Job upon their arrival.

When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.  Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.  No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
                                                                    Job 2:12-13 NIV

One can only speculate how many days to weeks these exchanges between these four individuals took.  Certainly it took more than the hour or two it would take us to read the account from start to finish.  All this time, Job is suffering...I am certain that his suffering was not relieved at all by his friends comments especially as the conversation becomes judgemental..

Consider this comment today from Eliphaz the Temanite: Job 22 NIV:

...Is it not for your piety he rebukes you...Is not your wickedness great?  Are not your sins endless?...You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry...(consider again Mat 25:35...Jesus' words... For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink...whatever you do for one of the least of my brothers you do for me)   Somehow Eliphaz' comment, his arrow fired at Job, I suspect; hit a very tender spot of Job.

And yet despite all of this, Job is still not silenced:

God has made my heart faint; The Almighty has terrified me.  Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness the covers my face.  Job 23:16-17 NIV

Job has a faith that we can learn a great deal from.  He listens to his "friends" and he talks about those who rebel against the light...About what happens in darkness.  About what gets concealed in darkness.  Job 24:13-17.  These comments on darkness give us pause to ask the Spirit for guidance and shine the light into our lives and darkness to show us where and what we are hiding in darkness.

Think about the time Job suffered and spent and the calm he had about him as he pondered God:

And these are but the outer fringe of his works;  how faint the whisper we hear of him!  Who then can understand the thunder of his power?  Job 26:14 NIV

Think about time.  It is God's time and a gift to us.

Pray for pastoral staff that they be given wisdom, encouragement, protection, and that the light brightly shines through them.

In Christ,

David P