Our Daily Bread

Job 6:1-14 

1 THEN JOB answered,

2 Oh, that my impatience and vexation might be [thoroughly] weighed and all my calamity be laid up over against them in the balances, one against the other [to see if my grief is unmanly]!

3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash and wild,

4 [But it is] because the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison which my spirit drinks up; the terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

5 Does the wild ass bray when it has grass? Or does the ox low over its fodder?

6 Can that which has no taste to it be eaten without salt? Or is there any flavor in the white of an egg?

7 [These afflictions] my soul refuses to touch! Such things are like diseased food to me [sickening and repugnant]!

8 Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

9 I even wish that it would please God to crush me, that He would let loose His hand and cut me off!

10 Then would I still have consolation–yes, I would leap [for joy] amid unsparing pain [though I shrink from it]–that I have not concealed or denied the words of the Holy One!

11 What strength have I left, that I should wait and hope? And what is ahead of me, that I should be patient?

12 Is my strength and endurance that of stones? Or is my flesh made of bronze?

13 Is it not that I have no help in myself, and that wisdom is quite driven from me?

14 To him who is about to faint and despair, kindness is due from his friend, lest he forsake the fear of the Almighty.

 

Devotional

When We Don't Know What To Say

- Anne Cetas
Roy Clark and his father sat in the family car in the funeral home parking lot for several minutes. As a teenager, he wasn’t sure how to respond when his dad put his head in his hands and moaned, “I don’t know what to say!”
A friend from their church had been in a car accident. She had survived, but her three daughters had all died when a truck hit their vehicle. What could they say to their friend at a time like this?
In the Bible we are told that during Job’s time of grieving, his three friends came to mourn with him and to comfort him. For the first 7 days they sat and wept with him because he was in deep sorrow (Job 2:11-13). “No one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great” (v.13). Their presence alone was a comfort to him.
But then they began to lecture. They told Job he must have sinned and that God was punishing him (4:7-9).
When Job was finally able to respond, he told his friends what he needed from them. He asked for reasons to continue hoping (6:11), for kindness (v.14), and for words that did not presume guilt (vv.29-30).
Remembering the story of Job and his friends may help us when we don’t know what to say.
Lord, give me sensitivity
To people in their grief and pain,
To weep with them and show Your love
In ways mere words cannot attain. —Sper
When someone’s grieving—listen, don’t lecture.