For now you are nothing, You see terror and are afraid. Did I ever say, ‘Bring something to me’? Or, ‘Offer a bribe for me from your wealth’? Or, ‘Deliver me from the enemy’s hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of oppressors’? “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove? Job 6-21-25
The longer I walk with Jesus Christ, the more I recognize that some of our vilest foes can often be other Christians. For instance, I recently had an alleged Christian tell me that I was a lukewarm believer. Why? Because I openly confessed that my burning passion for Christ was not a bonfire one hundred percent of the time. Citing Revelation 3:16 he decreed that I was in danger of being spewed-out of my Saviors mouth.
Really?
This person (we’ll call him Tim because that was his name), had never spoken to me before and the comment I made was the first he had ever heard me say, but yet this Christian felt he knew God and me well enough to make such a pronouncement. I ended the discussion politely.
That incident caused me to ask of myself, “Why do other Christians say [and do] such mean, horrible things.” Well before I even prayed for an answer, the Holy Spirit convicted me, “Dave, you’ve done the same thing a million times before.”
Ouch
God was right, I am guilty of doing the same thing. So I rephrased my question, “Why do WE do these things to other Christians.”
The Lord provided a partial answer in today’s text. Job, in responding to Eliphaz’s dreadful chiding says to him, “For now you are nothing, You see terror and are afraid,” and thus gives Eliphaz a clue for the reason why he was so cruel—FEAR.
Job is essentially saying, that if what he said in his defense was true, ‘that his sin had not brought about these awful things,’ and that there was no reasonable explanation for them, then Eliphaz was fearful because his rationalization (that Job sinned and brought about God’s curse) was without merit, and therefore he was susceptible to them as well. In other words, Eliphaz was standing on his un-contextual doctrine because in it he felt safe and secure.
It’s the same thing as telling someone, “God didn’t cure you of cancer because you don’t have enough faith.” By definition, that is a fear-driven statement.
How do we change our behavior?
There are two ways to change and God is in both of them. The first way is the easiest way: read God’s word and learn from the mistakes others have made—this is one of the reasons all these blunders are included in the Bible! Like I said that’s the easy way, but sadly, most, including myself, rarely take the easy way.
The other method is to hold our doctrinal ground and allow the Lord to knock us off our high horses. What might that look like? Suddenly that so-called, faith-filled person gets cancer. On these occasions we (hopefully) realize that our ideologies are not applicable in every situation, especially when we don’t know anything about the other person(s) we supposedly ministering to.
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9
So how do we know when to speak?
Certainly there are times the Holy Spirit moves us to be the voice of Christian reason. The question is how do we know when it’s God’s time for us to speak? The simple answer is God will tell us. How well we hear God is directly proportionate to how consistently we are in His Word and in prayer. Even then we should compare what we’re about to say (and how we intend to say it) against James 3:12-18. If our reproof does not line-up perfectly with this passage, then we need to retreat, revise, and maybe reject what we were going to say.
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:12-18
These ramblings are typically (but not always) a byproduct inspired by God through my personal Bible study at SearchLight with Pastor Jon Courson and with my pastor at Calvary Chapel Coastlands.
He Dwells -- The B'log in My Eye 