Ben looked nervously at his conversation partner sitting opposite. The conversation had taken a not unusual turn and he knew what was coming. Ben steeled himself.
‘So, why aren’t you married?’
This wasn’t the first time that Ben had received this question or a version thereof. He quickly calculated in his mind which of the possible approaches to use this time in his defence. The man sitting opposite him was a relatively young family man from church, so Ben thought he would go with the direct spiritual angle.
‘Well, God hasn’t led me to the right person yet.’
He threw the yet in there to offer a glimmer of hope and emphasis that he was working on it. This didn’t have the desired result though of offsetting further interrogation.
‘Don’t blame God! You need to be out there doing something about it!’
Ben wasn’t sure exactly what he should be out there doing. ‘I’ve asked a few girls, bjt they weren’t that interested.’
‘Yes, but how did you ask them?’
Ben refrained from answering, assuming that the reply ‘with words’ would come across facetious.
‘A girl that’s worth having, doesn’t give herself easily,’ continued the romance lesson.
Ben was aware of that!
‘You’ve got to insist! They’re playing hard to get!’
Some of them were certainly good players, although his recent experience when he approached a girl after church and asked ‘How are you?’ to which she looked the other way and went to talk to some one else, seemed like more than a game. In any case, Ben wasn’t good at insisting. He was English!
‘I have prayed about it and am waiting for God’s plan,’ was all he could think to say, hoping this wouldn’t been seen as clutching at straws.
‘Well, it’s about time you took action. God won’t send her to your front door. You need to go out and get her. It’s like any gift, you need to accept it!’
The straws had evaded Ben’s grasp. Maybe Ben’s adversary was right. Maybe he should be doing more. Maybe he should be more active. He began to contemplate how the search features of facebook worked.
‘I’m waiting for a wedding invite this autumn!’
All of us encounter at times Bildad, Zophar or Eliphaz. These were the friends of Job, a man mentioned in the Bible has being one of the greatest men to live. However, God allows a time of testing to come on him. Satan is able to take away all that he has and furthermore, even inflict him with boils on his skin.
Job is then visited by the aforementioned friends. We might expect that they would offer words of encouragement but actually their interpretation of the situation is that Job has done something wrong and thus everything that has happened to him is a punishment from God. Eliphaz says for example ‘’ Job 22:4,5.
It is also common today that people interpret bad things as being a punishment from God. Thus the cause of suffering is that we haven’t been doing what we should and the solution is to correct our ways. Hence someone who isn’t married hasn’t been trying hard enough, but if they correct this, all will be well. Job however puts a different perspective on things.
He argues that actually he hasn’t done anything wrong that deserves what he is going through (Job 9:21) and that no one can present themselves innocent in comparison to God (Job 9:2) thus suffering can’t be a direct punishment for wrong doing because in that case everyone would be suffering. Indeed, the reader knows the reason why Job is suffering because the heavenly discussions between the Lord and Satan are presented in the first two chapters, where we learn that Job’s suffering is actually a test permitted by the Lord to prove his faith genuine.
In this day and age many people promote the idea that our deeds equate to either the quality of our life in the here and now, and/or our final destination. If we do good now, we will be blessed and if the good outweighs the bad, we will have the hope of heaven. However, this sort of thinking gives rise to wrong theology such as the prosperity gospel.
In this false gospel, we are told that God has earthly blessings for those who have faith in him. He who prays the right way has a nice wife coming his direction, as it were. This is far from the case though.
Job debates for a good number of chapters with his friends, before we eventually arrive towards the end of the book. God reveals himself and clarifies things. In chapter 42 verse 7, we discover that Job’s friends are indeed wrong in what they have been saying. There is no prosperity gospel or right and wrong karma in operation in the universe. Rather we see in the preceding verses the way things are; God is in charge (I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 42:2) and everything that happened was to enable Job to truly come to know God (My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.’ 42:5,6).
Ben lay prostrate in bed. His head hurt, but even more so his heart. He had been rejected once again. Thoughts raced through his mind about what might have been. Maybe he should have asked a different way? Maybe he should ask again? Maybe he should have asked someone else?
As he was tormented by these thoughts, he just about mustered the energy to roll his head to one side and spy his Bible that he usually left beside him when he slept. Knowing that it was the only hope, he raised himself to sit upright and then reached out. Taking the Bible he opened it to Psalm 43. So far there wasn’t to be any invite, but what did it matter? God was his delight. Anyway, things weren’t done and dusted yet.
