July 3, 2025, Job 16:1-22
July 3, 2025, Job 16:1-22
Job
Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You
16 Then Job
answered and said:
2 “I have
heard many such things;
miserable
comforters are you all.
3 Shall windy words have an end?
Or what
provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
if you
were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake
my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the
solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 “If I
speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I
forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out;
he
has made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
which
is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it
testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he
has gnashed his teeth at me;
my
adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they
have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass
themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly
and
casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he
seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
13 his archers surround
me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours
out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs
upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have
laid my strength in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
and on
my eyelids is deep darkness,
17 although there is no violence in my hands,
and my
prayer is pure.
18 “O
earth, cover not my blood,
and let
my cry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he
who testifies for me is on high.
20 My friends scorn me;
my eye
pours out tears to God,
21 that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a
son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come
I shall
go the way from which I shall not return.
These verses remind us that we all experience times of
suffering and trouble. Yet, it encourages us to maintain our hope
because with Jesus Christ, a new day is coming beyond our suffering on earth.
How are you handling suffering in your life? Jesus promises
us this world will hold trouble and immediately reminds us to take heart
because he has overcome the world. Are you finding his grace, mercy
and love sufficient in the midst of the storm? I pray your anchor is
rooted in him.
Robin Adams
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