"Stupid!" "Idiot!" That is what some of the teen girls were calling the other younger girls at the new equestrian center my daughter, Sarah, tried out last weekend. She loved her time with the horses, but she was quite bothered by the interactions of the teen helpers.
Job’s friends weren’t any nicer! They continued to crush and attack him with words (Job 19:2-3). Job aptly called them “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). He continued to converse back and forth with them, only to anger each other even more. Job ended by stating in chapter 31 that he can’t think of any horrible secret sin that he committed. To that, the three friends stopped talking because “they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him” (Job 32:3b). However, a fourth younger man opened his mouth and gave a LONG discourse admonishing Job and attempting to speak for God (Job chapters 32-37).
Enter God! I can only imagine the fearful
trembling of Job and his friends!!!
Job 38:1-5 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the
storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
Job had pleaded to speak with God and God finally appeared! God’s timing is always perfect for His purposes and doesn’t always fit into our desired timetable. If God had come right away when Job first pleaded, then we would not have his example of continued trust in God, even when everyone and everything around Job was against him.
With what do you and I need to trust God’s
timing?
