Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There's a passage in Job that is pathetic, but it probes the inmost depths of human anguish.
Job doesn't know the prologue that we know in chapters one and two; all he knows is that God has turned against him suddenly and has apparently become his enemy. All the good things that God gave him He has now taken away (poor people who have never known a moment of prosperity can endure their destitution more easily than rich people who lose it all). Job appears to be a lost man in hell.
Then his three "friends" come and in utmost sincerity try to help him but succeed only in multiplying his pain exponentially. Here's the passage he tells his "friends": "In trouble like this I need loyal friends--whether I've forsaken God or not" (6:14, Good News Bible). In other words, Job says, even if I'm in hell itself with no hope ever, I need someone to have compassion on me!
Suppose you knew that someone was in hell, had committed the unpardonable sin and was indeed lost (which you don't know, and you never will know, of any person and you dare not judge!), but suppose everybody agreed that this person was lost (a multiple murderer for example, an unrepentant child abuser, etc. etc.). Could you say something to comfort and encourage him? Could you manifest some compassion?
Once upon a time there was such a person who had publicly let it be known that He was indeed in hell, utterly forsaken by God. The religious leaders of the one true church on earth condemned him. Yes, the scribes and Pharisees were the leaders of what was still the true church--it remained the true church until the 490 years (the 70 weeks) of Daniel 9 had run their course.
But all those people could do was to continue to curse Jesus and torment Him unmercifully. I'm sorry to say that even the Eleven were mystified so much that not one of them brought Him a drink of water.
Oh Father in heaven! Save us from being Job's three friends; save us from misjudging someone who is so Christlike that he or she is suffering like Jesus did apparently under the curse of heaven.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 7, 2007.
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