Friends and Enemies

Job 5:7 (NIV) Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
I wonder if the question, "With friends like this, who needs enemies?" didn't have its origin in the

book of Job. Job had three close friends who left everything to be with him when his world began to crumble. They sat with him for 7 days, in companionable silence, but I'll bet their minds were going a mile a minute.

When one did speak, the words began as comfort, emphasizing Job's good qualities. They soon turned the discussion to the probability that Job's misfortunes (putting it mildly) were a result of God's chastening of Job. Those must have been hurtful words. His friends were questioning what he had done to deserve all that was reigning down on him.

It is human nature to try and place blame for unexplainable pain and heart ache. His disciples asked him,“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2 NIV) Jesus' disciples asked Him much the same question. How many times have we wondered what we had done to deserve such treatment? Or, what someone else had done.

Job 5:8 (NIV) "But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
What would I be thinking if all that fell upon Job, fell upon me? Would I be questioning my actions, pleading with God to show me the way out? Would I be on my knees begging for relief and mercy; for Him to make it all go away? The answer is probably 'yes' to all of it. Putting myself in Job's place gives me a new respect for the man. He didn't give up on God, he didn't desert or turn his back on God.

Job 5:9 (NIV) "He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted."

Job 5:1-9