Les Misery: Sorry Comforters
One Year Bible (Aug. 26)
Job 20:1-22:30
Miserable Comforters
“Sorry Comforters” who aren’t SORRY at all! What an oxymoron!
These “Three Amigos” are pretty much morons (with and without the -oxy)!
Who looks at a man suffering excruciating pain and heaps on more coals?
Job begins his reply in the second onslaught of attacks by saying, “I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are! Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking? I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you. But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief. Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.” (16:1-6)
Why is this happening? Did you catch what Job just said here? He is stuck in a CATCH 22, and he is NOT the only one that is utterly stuck! How and why are they stuck in “Les Misery” besides the obvious suffering?
I would suggest that there is a grander scheme and a grander plan going on behind the scenes. While Satan is working his best to accomplish his plan, he OFTEN uses people that are close to us to attack us while we are down. OFTEN.
Now, I am not saying they are demon-possessed. The enemy doesn’t need to possess someone to use them for his benefit. He just needs them to NOT be focused on God so that he can use their weaknesses, open doors, pride, and sinful attitudes to “WORM HIS WAY IN”!
As we know Job has enough WORM Problems as it is!!
By the way, who is behind this entire PRIDE challenge, to begin with? The three self-righteous friends are just playing into the devil’s playground and plan.
Does this CATCH 22 sound familiar to you from any New Testament stories?
Jesus was never more angry than when he dealt with the Pharisees (because they weren’t FAIR-YOU-SEE!).
Here is what Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves DO NOT ENTER, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Mt 23)
Can you recall the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus when he healed on the Sabbath?
They condemned him even though he was doing the Father’s work. Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath.
They knew the “letter of the law” but nothing about the “Lord of love”.
That, my friends, is the CATCH 22.
Job is a righteous man who lives “under the yoke of the law” which condemns sin but provides NO WAY OUT!
Even the most JUST man that ever lived stands condemned by the sin of humanity. There is no deliverance for sinful man. No human is perfect enough to pay the price of death demanded by the sin that came into the world through Adam and Eve.
This Satan knows quite well. This Satan is counting on!
But God is writing a new narrative and the theme of the long-awaited Messiah is running throughout the Old Testament like a crystal clear brook in a hot barren desert. God is preparing his people. He is also pointing them to this HOPE!
No heartbreak can be healed without God’s intervention. Not even Job in all of his holiness is ENOUGH to take on Satan or all of his accusers.
It is helpful for us to take a look at the book of Job through New Testament eyes.
“For this reason, NO ONE will be declared righteous in his sight by works of the law, for through the law we become aware of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
Even Job, declared JUST by God, couldn’t take on Satan nor his three friends who played on TEAM LAW. We can blame them for their words but did they know grace?
The phrase CATCH 22 is defined as, “A problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule”.
Do you see what I mean? The “Rule” is the “Law” and it only condemned sin and sinners. The people in the Old Testament could only have their sins rolled back… They were waiting for the perfect sacrificial lamb and that could not be an animal.
Like the “Three Amigos” the law is a MISERABLE COMFORTER!
