SCRIPTURE: Job 5
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
We have studied life and found all this to be true. Listen to my counsel, and apply it to yourself. [Job 5:27]
As we read through Job, we will hear great truths espoused by Job’s friends, and yet in the end God does not honour their counsel [Job 42:7-8].
There are so many quotable sayings in their speeches, yet God says of Job’s friends that they did n ot speak accurately about God.
This does not mean that everything they said is wrong; rather it was the conclusion they came to from all their theological ideas – “God treats people as they deserve”.
This is the bottom line for Job’s friends: you must have sinned, repent and God will heal you!
The lesson I take from this is that we can have great knowledge and wisdom, yet our counsel can be inaccurate, misleading.

So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. [Matthew 23:3-4]
Jesus faces the same problem with the religious leaders of His day; they were the appointed teachers who explained the Law to the people, yet they were applying it in a harmful way.
In both cases, with Job’s friends and with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, God’s message was presented in a way to crush and burden people.
They misrepresented God as a harsh, angry, unloving Judge, and they themselves followed that pattern by criticizing but not lifting a finger to help.

Is there a lesson for us today in this?
Even though we may have great knowledge of the bible, and great understanding of the “good news”, are we guilty of presenting God as a harsh, angry, unloving Judge ready to punish those who step out of line?
Yes, sin is serious; but God deals with the seriousness of sin by taking the punishment upon Himself, not by exacting it on us.
God is first and foremost a God of love and mercy, not an angry Judge; any presentation of the message of God and Jesus that emphasizes God’s judgment more than His mercy is skewed, inaccurate.
As God said to Job’s friends, “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has… I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.” [Job 42:7-8].
This is the good news, our reason for hope – God does not treat us as our sins deserve [Psalm 103:10].
He warns us in love, and He helps us; He lifts His finger to ease the burden, He does not crush us with impossible religious demands.

What kind of message am I conveying about God – am I making God look angry, am I crushing people with thoughts of judgement failure?
Am I lifting my finger to help, am I doing what I can to help draw people to God, to lead those who are weary and burdened to Jesus where they can find rest?
What kind of church are we?

PRAYER:
Lord, sin is serious, but Your mercy is greater. Help me to be honest and real about the problem of sin, but more than that help me to share and show how much You care, and how far You will go to help.