Subject: Counseling - Job 22

Job 22:6-11 (ESV Strong's)

For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and stripped the naked of their clothing.

You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

The man with power possessed the land,
and the favored man lived in it.

You have sent widows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

Therefore snares are all around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,

or darkness, so that you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.

Subject:  Counseling (Judgmental Spirit)

The three friends of Job are tying to provide counsel to Job.   They only see what they can see physically, playing out in Job's life.  They see his children gone; they see his property gone; they see his health gone; they see what they see.   Eliphaz is now speaking and, like most of us today, when we see others in this type of a state, he starts making a judgement.   Eliphaz has come to the conclusion that this disaster on Job can only be because of sin in his life.   So, Job's friend, starts to outline for Job, in the time of his greatest needs, a laundry list of his sins ... Or, at least what he believes must be Job's sins.   Yet, from the first chapter in the book we hear God say to Satan, boasting about Job:

Job 1:8 (ESV Strong's)

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

One of the temptations we have, when we see others in difficulty, is to make a judgement about why they are in difficulty.   That might be our fist great misstep in trying to provide God's grace in their lives.   Paul had a "thorn in his side" - should we conclude it was sin, or was it God's way of simply keeping him humble?   We ought to be careful not to be like Eliphaz.   He made a judgement about Job that was certainly not in God's plan.   Counseling ought to be about finding how God can enter the situation, not about how we can make judgements about the situation.