Neither Alone Nor Forsaken

Job 2:11-12

It had been some time since they had seen him and that was before all “this evil” had “come upon him.” Undoubtedly these men had enjoyed face-to-face fellowship over the years and they knew each other well enough to be truly invested in each another. But now things were very different for one of them. Job’s fortune was gone and all ten of his beloved children died in a single, tragic day. And now his health was perfectly demolished. The sight of their friend was something they could not have anticipated.

“Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place…they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him” (2:11).

Traveling together for at least the last part of their journey so they could arrive together, the three men may have rehearsed some words of comfort that might console and encourage the heart of their friend. They all had known other men who had lost fortunes who recovered from their losses. They had known families that had lost children to tragedy, as well. But nothing could have prepared them to see their friend. “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven” (2:12).

The sight of their friend, even at a distance, took their breath. Almost before they could speak, a chorus of grief poured out. They wept in utter disbelief. They threw dirt into the air and grieved, as if to vigorously say, “No, no, no!” Their first weeping soon gave way to quieter tears of sympathy for their beloved friend. Formerly bronzed by the sun, robust and dignified in every way, Job was now hardly more than a despised bag of stinking, broken bones.

He was unrecognizable. Sickness and suffering had taken such a toll. He didn’t appear to be the same person. What he had been through is truly beyond comprehension. Every description fails. Only the God-Man who took unto Himself true humanity and suffered more than any man, only He could ever fully enter into Job’s sufferings of body and soul. Sufferings had come, seemingly, from every possible direction in rapid-fire succession, all at once.

Ghastly sores erupted and oozed over his body. His intestines boiled. There was no way he could keep food down, so he soon became skin and bones; appetite was gone and pain beyond bone-deep and unrelenting. He winced all the time; he ached and hurt. His weeping stopped only because there was no more strength to cry. I imagine two lonely tears lingering in the corners of his sunken eyes.

He will say, “The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest” (30:17). “My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat” (30:30). Gaunt, ashen, black; gnawing, burning pain. Then there was the greater pain—none of his most earnest prayers brought the slightest relief. The great Friend of his soul seemed to have no interest in anything pertaining to His servant, Job. Every moment the burning question in that poor man’s soul must have been, “Why?”

Only the God-Man who would endure the cross could fully understand. It was He who would cry out in His most wrenching hour, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Psalms 22:1)? Job was neither alone nor forsaken, but he felt that he was both, if ever any man was. –TSA

Have You Three Friends?

“Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; … to mourn with him and to comfort him.” (Job 2:11-13)

Are you quite sure that you have three friends? Three friends who would come to you in your grief (or who would if only they could)? Three friends who would weep over you before the Lord until their eyes were red and their faces swollen because of their fellow-feeling? Have you three friends?

Now most of us have people who are somehow dear to us and we regard them as friends; but, while we believe we are their friend, are we quite sure that they are possessed of the same feeling toward us? No friendship is perfectly mutual, possessing an equal degree of give and take, or an identical height of affection. I often consider the friendship of David and Jonathan; it seems that David was almost always on the receiving end and Jonathan on the giving, but their friendship was unlike anything else either man would know in life.

My dad was often heard to say that if a person had one true friend in his whole life he was a lucky fellow. His definition of a true friend was somewhat, if not terribly, idealistic for sure. But we would think his definition idealistic only because we all pretty much know that to expect too much from our regular friends is to be unrealistic. He’s just a friend, someone might say. I’m sure just a friend or a regular friend and a true friend have to be entirely different.

When we call someone brother we acknowledge some sort of kinship. Most of us would suppose that some kind of friendship would suit such a relationship. Yet we all know of brothers who can’t stand each other. Just today I met a lady whose brother estranged himself from her for years and truly broke her heart. After a number of years of pain and hurt, they are trying to mend the relationship, but she knows that she will always be somewhat distrusting of him from now on. Sometimes a brother may make himself your enemy; being a brother means he’s already close enough to inflict harm. One reason it hurts like it does when such a relationship goes bad is that we initially place so many good expectations on a relationship with a brother (or sister).

Some friends are closer than natural relatives ever could be. We know this is true. None of us is surprised to find the Book of Proverbs telling us, “…there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (18:24). It would seem that “Job’s three friends” were such friends to him. He had known them for a long time, no doubt; they had all developed great interest in each other over time. It would seem that, even though they were often terribly wrong in what they would say about God and His ways, they struggled hard to make sense of all that had happened and they truly wanted Job’s trials to end and to see their friend entirely well again. They wanted to see their friend whole once more.

Have you three friends? Three. By some people’s thinking three is not nearly enough. I am thinking three friends is a really good start.

If you happen to be well and prospering and have an abundance of friends, remember Job. If ever you should wear his sandals, you may be surprised at how few friends you actually have. If you are not now in Job’s sandals, think about wearing the sandals of “Job’s three friends.” It is almost certain that, today, someone needs you to be the friend they think you are. –TSA

Jesus Himself…in the Midst

“And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (Luke 24:36)

As the locked door was opened to admit them, Cleopas and the other disciple who had walked the near seven mile trip in darkness to share with the other believers their own personal encounter with the risen Christ were greeted with the news, “The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared unto Simon.”

The first, excited report of the women who visited the empty tomb during the early hours of the first day of the week had been treated like a fabricated tale. The empty tomb itself had only generated questions for Simon Peter. But then, at some point later during that day, the Lord Jesus appeared to Peter. His report of Jesus’ resurrection was adequate to assure and thrill the others. “The Lord is risen indeed…”

Late that evening Cleopas and the other disciple brought to the gathered assembly additional eye-witness testimony to confirm that the Lord Jesus was indeed raised from the dead, telling how He had spent considerable time with them that afternoon, walking and talking and even reclining at table with them—then it was that they finally recognized Him. Prior to that moment their eyes had somehow been prevented from knowing Him, providentially they are sure—for they truly needed to hear every precious word He had said to them. And O how their hearts had thrilled as the crucified, risen Messiah opened to them the meaning of the ancient Scriptures concerning Himself—Scriptures they were certain that they already understood, but didn’t. Now they understand and they are absolutely convinced that all Jesus suffered, even unto death, was the centerpiece of the forever-plan of God to redeem His people from their sins.

While the gathered disciples were speaking to one another of these thrilling realities in what had to be a wonderfully frenzied session, suddenly “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them.” How startling and pleasant and terrifying in the same awesome instant! The risen Lord calms their startled minds, raising recently nail-scarred hands as He bids them “peace.”

It was Jesus Himself. Here was no imagined Savior, nor phantom, nor spirit, nor apparition. It was the Galilean of Nazareth, “the Lamb of God,” who had been put to death “by wicked hands,” now risen from the dead. His resurrected body was the same body in which Jesus had suffered and died. It seems that His resurrected body possessed different qualities than the body of His humiliation, like possibly entering a room without using a door and certainly not a window. But this was the very same body with other, less-restricting properties. We would do well to remember that Jesus in His resurrected state retained His humanity and physicality, along with glorious and infinite and spiritual Person-hood.

As John will later say, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2 ESV). This would lead us to think that even as Jesus retained His humanity when He was raised from the dead so will we in “the regeneration” when all things are made new. As to many of the details, “it has not yet appeared.” But we do know this much about our glorious future in the presence of God, when Jesus appears in His Second Coming, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

Further, it is the resurrection of Jesus that serves as God’s guarantee to all men that the Lord’s work of redemption at the cross was entirely pleasing to Him. His resurrection from the dead was the Father’s mighty and powerful way of proving that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the His one-of-a-kind, only-begotten, eternal Son. “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead…” (Romans 1:3-4).

It will be “this same Jesus” who returns in sovereign power and unimaginable glory. Once again “Jesus Himself” will make a startling appearance. Count on it. –TSA