I am a "Miserable Comforter"

After 3 years of “read through the Bible in a year” plans, I decided to do the Chronological Plan for 2013.  I was a little surprised when the plan sent me to the book of Job right after Noah left the Ark!  For the past week I have been reading the bad council of Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz to the suffering Job.  “Surely you are being punished for your wickedness!” they continue to declare to him while Job insists on his innocence.

Each day after reading the accusations of Job’s visitors, I am left with a sense of thankfulness.  Above all, I’m thankful that although I am as sinful as they are describing, God does not treat me as my sins deserve due to the finished work of Christ.  But if I am honest with myself, I am thankful that I would never say such things to a suffering person.  As I type this, it smacks with more of a Pharisaical hypocrite than it normally does in my head (Lord, I thank you that I am not like this tax collector…), but God in His mercy has orchestrated all of this to teach me something new.

There are suffering people around me.  It seems like more than normal.  I don’t know if this is because I am paying better attention or if it is really the case.  As I am patting myself on the back that I would not be so insensitive and wrong as Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz, God has shown me that I am just like them.  I just speak a different language of insensitivity.  Rather than accuse the suffering of being wicked, I accuse them in my mind of other REASONS why they find themselves in their current situation.  Your health is poor because you have not lost weight/ exercised/ gone to the doctor.  Your relationships are bad because you are selfish/ demanding/ no fun/ a bad listener.  Your illness is due to cellular malfunction (I could explain it to you)/ bad luck (let me tell you about mutations).  Surely this isn’t as bad as Job’s miserable comforters, right?   Because what I am saying in my head is really true, right?

But why is my mind going there?  I have been convicted today that all of these reasons in my mind are there so I can check off that I am NOT like that.  I am in good health because I have exercised and gone to the doctor.  I am not selfish or demanding.  And because I BELIEVE this about myself, I am saying that I am in control of my health, relationships, and whatever else you would like to include.   I think that is what Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz are trying to convince themselves – “we are seeking to follow the Lord and so we are safe from suffering like yours, Job.”    Put in my current language – “I am doing what modern medicine says in healthy for me, so I am safe from serious disease and early death.”  Or “I am kind and level-headed in my conversations with others, so my relationships should be good.  No one could think poorly of my work, intellect or dealings with others.”

Just like Job’s suffering was not tied to the reasons presented by his miserable comforters (which we see at the beginning and end of the book, but Job never learns), it is very likely that the suffering of those around you and me is about much more than science, medicine or relationship help instructions.  God is up to something in his world and people.  We try to shrink what we observe down to where it is small and easy to understand.  His ways are not our ways.  He is always about moving all of creation toward its final destination where His glory and goodness are fully known.  

So I am thankful – for his free gift of salvation that promises me his goodness and grace.  But also that I am reminded that this world is not just about what the physical world can explain.  That he is weaving together ALL of redemptive history into a beautiful masterpiece that this world and its circumstances cannot even comprehend. 

I am a miserable comforter, but I am loved, I am washed, I am redeemed for His glorious purposes.