You don’t know

I have been reflecting on the plight of Job recently and it’s one of those stories which; regardless of how many times I read, the way it unfolds still puzzles me🤯.

As a back story, Job’s life is turned upside down and suffers great loss all because God and satan had a conversation about him. God spoke of Job’s righteousness to satan which he in turn responds that the only way Job was who he was is because of God’s hand of protection. To prove the certainty of His word, God allows satan to do what he needed to do on the condition that nothing would happen to Job directly.

Where I want to pick up today is after Job has found out all his children are dead and his friends have come to comfort him. If you have friends who are not only there when things are good but also show up when times are tough; those are the real deal and must be cherished. Having said that, sometimes they don’t always get it right in terms of the advise they give.

Job’s friend Eliphaz was 💯 convinced that Job had done something for all of this to happen. “But consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin”.Job 5:17 NLT It was a simple case of cause and effect and as such needed to repent of any sin he had committed 🤷🏽‍♀️.

Job in his response explains to his friend that he is undeserving of what has happened to him and asks him to reconsider : Look at me! Would I lie to your face? Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong. Do you think I am lying? Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong? Job 6:28‭-‬30 NLT

I wonder what Job must have felt in that moment. Here he is trying to process grief, great loss, having terrible boils from head to toe and questioning why the God whom he has served so loyaly to would allow this to happen. On top of that, his friend is sure beyond doubt that he brought it upon himself.

Now if this was me, I probably wouldn’t even consider entertaining that conversation. The last thing I would want is wasting my energy (when probably hanging by a thread anyway) trying to defend myself worst of all to a person I would have thought knows me better than that . If anthing, that would further add to the misery!😒 This just proves what type of person Job was!

In our finite reasoning, we will try to reason out certain things so that it makes sense to us but if we can be honest with ourselves; we really JUST DON’T KNOW THE REASON WHY and that should be ok for us because we know a God who knows everything.

Let’s just show up for people as we are led by the Holy Spirit without waiting for things to make sense for us to act.

God loves you!💕