JULY 7, 2015
The Slow Walk
I
will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide
with you forever.— John 14:16
Read:
Job
16:1-5
Caleb
was sick. Really sick! Diagnosed with a nervous system disease, the 5-year-old
suffered from temporary paralysis. His anxious parents prayed. And waited.
Slowly, Caleb began to recover. Months later, when doctors cleared him to
attend school, all Caleb could manage was a slow, unsteady walk.
One day his dad visited him at school. He watched his son
haltingly descend the steps to the playground. And then he saw Caleb’s young
friend Tyler come alongside him. For the entire recess, as the other kids raced
and romped and played, Tyler slowly walked the playground with his frail
friend.
Job must have ached for a friend like Tyler. Instead, he had
three friends who were certain he was guilty. “Who ever perished, being
innocent?” asked Eliphaz (Job 4:7). Such accusations prompted Job to bitterly
declare, “Miserable comforters are you all!” (16:2).
How unlike Jesus. On the eve of His crucifixion He took time to
comfort His disciples. He promised them the Holy Spirit, who would be with them
forever (John 14:16), and assured them, “I will not leave you orphans; I will
come to you” (v. 18). Then, just before He returned to His Father, He said, “I
am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
The One who died for us also walks with us, step by painstaking
step.
Father, we tend to say too much
to our hurting friends. Help us choose our words wisely. Teach us to walk
slowly with those in pain, as You walk patiently with us.
Sometimes the best way to be like
Jesus is to sit quietly with a hurting friend.
INSIGHT:
The story of how Job wrestled with tragedy
and how he struggled to understand God’s role in the apparent injustices of
life is well known. Job and his three friends (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the
Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite) engage in a series of debates to try to
come to terms with life’s great heartaches. In Job 16, Job responds to more
charges from Eliphaz who says Job’s suffering is punishment for wickedness (see
15:17-35). The issues of suffering and injustice do not always find resolution
in this life, regardless of our attempts to explain them away. In the end, the
wise response is to say that “the secret things belong to the Lord our God”
(Deut. 29:29), for some things are just not revealed to us.
Source: Our Daily Bread 2015