The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 7 January 2015 "God to Job’s 'friend:' 'You didn’t speak correctly'"

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 7 January 2015 "God to Job’s 'friend:' 'You didn’t speak correctly'"
Daily Scripture: Job 42: Job Worships God
I Babbled On About Things Far Beyond Me
1-6 Job answered God:
“I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything.
    Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water,
    ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’
I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me,
    made small talk about wonders way over my head.
You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking.
    Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’
I admit I once lived by rumors of you;
    now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise!
    I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”
God Restores Job
I Will Accept His Prayer
7-8 After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, “I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me—not the way my friend Job has. So here’s what you must do. Take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my friend Job. Sacrifice a burnt offering on your own behalf. My friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. He will ask me not to treat you as you deserve for talking nonsense about me, and for not being honest with me, as he has.”
Reflection Questions:

Starting in Job 38, the drama showed God speaking to Job. Pastor Hamilton wrote, "[God's] answer is both beautiful and unsatisfying….God does not explain suffering. Instead, God describes life and reasserts that God is the creator of it all." So we find Job affirming trust in God even when he couldn't fully understand everything. Then God rebuked, not Job, but Eliphaz, the others and their simplistic answers: "You haven't spoken about me correctly."

• Job realized that he needed more than the "why" answers he had demanded from God (and which he never received). God said Job's friends' answers fell short—"you haven't spoken about me correctly" (Job 42:7). Have well-meaning friends ever given glib explanations of your suffering? How can God's caring presence with you help more than any abstract explanation?
   
• Pastor David McKenna summed up the ending of Job this way: "Can he affirm his faith in God knowing that evil is still permitted to work in the world? Can he put his trust in God who will not answer his question why? Even more personally, can he believe in God who will give him no promise of immunity?" Job, the drama said, decided that he could affirm that faith and trust. Can you?

Today's Prayer:

Lord God, so many times I think what I want are answers, not realizing that the answers may be beyond my understanding. Thank you for always giving me your love and grace, which are what I most deeply need. Amen.

Insight from Steven Blair

Rev. Steven Blair is the Congregational Care Pastor of Live Forward and Live Well Emotional Wellness Ministry. www.cor.org/liveforward

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, gave three simple rules.
Do no harm.
Do Good.
Stay in Love with God.

These words encompass our whole lives including the ways we respond to our friends’ pain.

Do. No. Harm.

At seminary, there is a prayer book that includes a set of statements that can be harmful to a person who is suffering. The book instructs pastors “Don’t tell someone whose lifelong spouse dies in a wreck ‘It must have been their time.’” “Do not tell someone whose child passed away that ‘God must have wanted another angel in heaven’ or ‘It’s OK, you can have other children.’” The book exhorts pastors to not blame a person’s grief to the fact that they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Job’s friends could have used that book. The only way they could make sense of Job’s suffering was that he was being punished. Their words did harm. Our words can do harm, too.

We hope that God will never say to us what God said to Job’s friend Eliphaz:

After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” Job 1:7.

Do. No. Harm.

If we can master that rule, we can move to the second rule: “Do Good.” When it comes to the suffering of a friend, often our response of doing good does not even include words. Doing good may come in the form of buying groceries for them. It may look like taking the time to listen. Sometimes a person just needs a friend to sit in the ashes with us.

What did you need the last time you were sitting in the ashes?

Offer that type of friendship to others.

Our words matter. May our words and even our decision to not use words do good instead of harm.

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