Good Morning “Not Envious”. Today we are in Job 15.
Are you sick of these guys yet? What is their deal? Eliphaz is bound and determined he is going to out Job. He’s furious that Job maintains his innocence. What a thing to argue about.
No one ever wins an argument. Typically an argument escalates until feelings are hurt and the loser is left broken. The end result is a fractured relationship. I’ve often told our students not to participate in “evangelistic arguments.” Jesus never argued anyone to salvation. How will we disciple, how will we teach them to obey everything He has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20) if the relationship is fractured?
Back to Jobs friends…
We’ve all envied, or coveted a friend’s position, life, talent, success or something else - haven’t we? Consider once again the opening verse of the Book of Job…
“In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”
Job 1:1-3 NIV
The greatest? Wow? Who would not like to be the greatest? Consider Jobs friends looking on at Job, perhaps in the shadow of his greatness. Now add distance from God. Eliphaz’ distance from God was evidenced by the “word” he got from “a spirit” (Job 4:12-15), and his then insistence on bringing this evil word to Job.
Consider the words of James and it seems we have the answer to Jobs friend’s ruthless behavior.
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?” James 4:1-4 NIV
What’s the solution? Continue reading in James 4. He gives us the answer.
Love you all! Dig in!
Are you sick of these guys yet? What is their deal? Eliphaz is bound and determined he is going to out Job. He’s furious that Job maintains his innocence. What a thing to argue about.
No one ever wins an argument. Typically an argument escalates until feelings are hurt and the loser is left broken. The end result is a fractured relationship. I’ve often told our students not to participate in “evangelistic arguments.” Jesus never argued anyone to salvation. How will we disciple, how will we teach them to obey everything He has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20) if the relationship is fractured?
Back to Jobs friends…
We’ve all envied, or coveted a friend’s position, life, talent, success or something else - haven’t we? Consider once again the opening verse of the Book of Job…
“In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”
Job 1:1-3 NIV
The greatest? Wow? Who would not like to be the greatest? Consider Jobs friends looking on at Job, perhaps in the shadow of his greatness. Now add distance from God. Eliphaz’ distance from God was evidenced by the “word” he got from “a spirit” (Job 4:12-15), and his then insistence on bringing this evil word to Job.
Consider the words of James and it seems we have the answer to Jobs friend’s ruthless behavior.
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?” James 4:1-4 NIV
What’s the solution? Continue reading in James 4. He gives us the answer.
Love you all! Dig in!
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