The Devotional - 32

The Devotional

Comment:

As an elder in nearly every crowd or congregation the observation of the things going on around you are often discouraging. One might hear the older person say something like this. “I am fearful that this younger generation has a lot to learn” or “young people think they have all the answers, but…”! We need to be careful with our thoughts and words. While it may be true that experience and endurance are not in the favor of the young; it is not in the favor of most elderly either since their ability to perform is limited physically. So what is good counsel for both the young and the elderly? For comfort through all forms of suffering; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; 4:16 -18 and 5:1-10 will work very well.

Challenge: Job 4:1 through 5:27

Eliphaz is assumed to be the eldest of Job’s three friends, he is the first to speak and his conversations or discourses are the longest. Eliphaz like all of Job’s friends give good and bad advice concerning Job’s circumstance. We might understand this better if we take the moment to re-read chapters one and two periodically as we travel through the next fourteen chapters of comment by Job’s friends.

The view of Eliphaz is much the same view we all have when it comes to counseling. We only see suffering from the experience of what is going on around us “under the sun”. That is, we only see primarily from a human perspective. It stands than that secular counsel, even laced with godly admonition is going to be faulty. This is seen clearly with the counsel given by Eliphaz.

One thing of interest is that (this is taken from Dr. Constable’s commentary on Job); “Evidently Eliphaz's "spirit" (Job 4:15) was not the Holy Spirit, and the Hebrew word translated "spirit" never unambiguously describes a disembodied spirit. Perhaps the spirit was an evil angel. What he heard from this spirit contained elements of truth: man cannot make himself pure before God, and man is mortal. Still, Eliphaz was wrong in applying these words to Job as though Job was a willful sinner (Job 1:1, 8 and 2:3)”.

If it falls upon all of us who consider counseling another person, whether the person is saved by the grace of God or not we must understand some very important and immediate factors.

(1) Normally when a person is suffering, you are not speaking to the flesh in front of you, deep and prolonged suffering throw the physical body into an emotional meltdown. Direct your thoughts to the soul of that persona and protect his or her soul as it belongs to God.

(2) If you are not called by God to give council (in your heart you know this) then keep your mouth silent, try the seven day fast; but as we will see even this fasting period failed for Job’s friends. So does this mean that all counseling should be null and void? Not at all, but we should readily admit that what we think to be true can just as easily be false.

(3) Counseling is a serious matter, time heals physical and spiritual wounds; but time does not heal the circumstance of the mentally wounded. Guilt, is a scab over a wounded heart that can be easily knocked off by a WORD of selfishness. Guilt is forgiven by God, but the individual who suffers from guilt will normally carry it for longer periods of time before giving it over to God.