Counsel with Love and Grace - Job 18-19

 Job 19:5-6 (ESV)

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

know then that God has put me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

In the previous chapter, 18, one of Job’s friends, has once again condemned job.  Note Bildad’s words to suffering Job:

Job 18:4-6 (ESV)

You who tear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or the rock be removed out of its place?

“Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

The light is dark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

Bildad goes on and on in chapter 18 about the plight of the wicked and their utter destruction.   He is not showing any mercy, empathy or regard for Job’s plight.  He is simply say, “Job, you sinned and now you pay.”    

In the above passage from chapter 19, Job begins his response.   He has to respond.   He believes that he has been wronged by God.  He believes his life was on the right path and he has done nothing to deserve all this sorrow in his life.  Of course, Job is wrong.  There is no injustice with God:

Romans 9:14-15 (ESV)

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

No, the issue here with Job is that his comforters have become tormentors because they have moved from being those who were sent to console and encourage to someone who would correct and condemn.   Perhaps the hardest issue in coming along someone is remaining in the former and avoiding the latter.   To stay as the one who brings relief vs rebuke is one of the hardest balances of those who counsel.  There is, of course, a time for judgment and condemnation of actions.  But, Job’s situation was not the time.  We know, based upon the first two chapters, that Job did not do wrong.  A narrative Job’s three friends had not heard.  But, Job was trying to tell them about his situation and they made the immediate pivot from the one who consoles to the one who condemns.  They had no mercy for Job.  They were not using Job’s situation to introduce God’s mercy and grace into Job’s life.  They were using the situations to point out Job’s failures.   Job’s argument is as equally wrong.  God was NOT unjust.   But, Job has been driven to defend because his therapist has refused to consider that Job’s original argument was legit.   Job keeps telling them that he is innocent (Job 1-2).  They keep telling him he is guilty.   This drives Job to defend and, eventually, develop bad doctrine to believe.   Allowing the sins and faults and failures of others to bring us into a bad place is a danger for anyone who sees his brother fail and attempts to help them out of their plight:

Galatians 6:1-2 (ESV)

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

The “law of Christ” is to love unconditionally.