“How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose
foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth?”
Job 4:19 (NKJV)

READ: Job 4:12–21

This piece is the continuation of the line of thought we started sharing from verse 18. You cannot use lies and deception to corroborate or buttress a wrong view or assertion about God. To
Eliphaz and his other friends, they thought they were defending God by trying to say good things concerning Him. But the truth is, you cannot use lies or deception or what is not true to defend God; He would not accept that (Job 13:7–10).

If you were saying wrong things about God’s attributes and integrity, thinking you are defending Him, He would not be happy with you (Job 13:8,10). Now, if you are saying such a thing ignorantly—that is, you do not know better—God may overlook it. But if you are saying it deliberately in the name of defending or justifying God, He would not want it. He also would not take it lightly with you (Job 13:8,10; 42:7,8).

God’s reaction in chapter 42, verses 7 and 8, shows that He does not want anyone to use wrong assertion to defend Him—because He is a just God. A God of integrity!

If you see someone in a problem, especially a believer, grappling with
what cannot be explained, and you know the person is a believer; you should not just jump to the conclusion that the person must have committed a sin. The three friends of Job were not strangers to him; they knew what Job could do and what he could not. How would they all of a sudden conclude that Job and his children must have committed terrible sins, and that is why he was being dealt with by God (Job 4:7–11; 8:3)?

It is not every time that a believer is passing through suffering that he has committed a terrible sin. The person might simply not have received the direction which God is pointing him to. The man who was born blind—whom the disciples of Jesus were asking about, enquiring why he was born blind; was it his own sin or that of his parents? (John 9:1,2). Jesus said neither of them. In other words, it was neither his parents’ sin nor his own sin that made him to be born blind. Jesus said it happened that God’s glory might be made manifest (John 9:3).

Stop judging others who are in one predicament or another. If you do not know what to say to comfort whoever is in the predicament, keep silent; do not try to add to their sorrows or burdens by saying things that could make them more discouraged.

Reflect:
• Have you ever wrongly attributed someone’s suffering to personal sin when you had no way of knowing that? What does Job teach you about that?
• What does God’s rebuke of Job’s friends tell you?

Peace.

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