Commentary on the Readings I

One of my friends from Fort Wayne has asked if the reading plan we are following is chronological because we went from the middle of Genesis to Job. The answer to that question is sort of. We will be getting back to Genesis once we finish Job and if you read the Bible chronolically this is where they usually place Job. But I say sort of, because later on the readings do not follow a strict chronological order. Those of you who went with me through the Bible Chronologically a year ago will notice some of the differences. So yes and no. I took this reading plan from another website, www.heartlight.org. I thought it would be good to have both Old and New Testament readings combined throughout the year. Now the New Testament reading are not chronological at all. So it is kind of a mesh mash of things. But we will go through the entire Bible.

Job is a great book about human suffering and how sometimes there is no answer as to why. Job's friends also give us some insight into how not to minister to someone going through hard times. At first they just show up and sit with him for several days and say nothing. If they would have kept doing that and maybe offered to listen to him and help him in whatever way he wanted them to help him, they might have gotten it right. But they have to start talking and trying to find a reason that this is all happening to him. They of course point out to him that it must have been something he did. They don't know what it is, but it must have been something. They even seem like they need it to be something that he did. Because if it just happened for unknown reasons then it might happen to them also and they don't want to deal with that. Job keeps saying hey I didn't do a thing and you can start to see the anger coming out of him first at his friends and then the more he thinks and talks about it, that anger starts getting directed toward God. Then his friends start making the second mistake, they take upon themselves to defend God, which of course makes Job even more anger. Later we see that God is none to pleased about it either. Job is probably thinking first all this stuff happens to me and then my friends show up and make it even worse. As we continue to read you will see Job's anger and frustration increase. He has lost everything his family, his house, his possessions and his friends are no help. Whenever I read this portion of Job or see somebody struggling like this I think of the scene in Forest Gump where his friend Jenny comes home after many years of leading a hard life and they end up walking to her old abandoned house where she had been abused as a child. Jenny sees the old house in the field and all the bad memories come flooding back. She then begins to pick up rocks and starts throwing them at the house. While Forest stands there and watches she throws every rock she can throw at it until she can't find anymore and falls to the ground. Then Forest says to himself, "Sometimes theres just not enough rocks." I think Job felt the same way at this point as he begins in his frustration to throw verbal rocks at his friends and eventually God. Sometimes when we are suffering theres just not enough rocks.

Pastor Fred

There are no real answers given in this book except that God is always there and that he does deliver.