"If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents." (Job 22:23)
Our text is the words of Eliphaz, the Temanite. Job's friends said some "good" things, but apparently "good things" are not enough. At the conclusion of the Book of Job, God says to Eliphaz, "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me right, as My servant Job." Some people don't understand suffering because they have never suffered. This was exactly the case with Job's "miserable comforters are you all." They were like many religious people today, on the mountain top, bouncy charismatics, flippantly spouting super spiritual cliches, even quoting the Bible, but had never been where Job was. They could only conclude that something was just plain wrong in Job's life.
Job's friends had the same problem which many have today. They had not been "there," so, of course, could only reason "there." If you have "been there," you carry something which those who have not will never be able to understand. The whole Book of Job reveals that the four counselors had never tasted deep suffering, and because of that, they could only "minister" to Job a series of rebukes and condemnations.
I heard Derek Prince once say that a man should not be ordained an elder until he had suffered. I wonder--- should he even open his mouth? The "God-Breathed" Word says of our Forerunner, "But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one."
What have you "tasted for everyone?"
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to pass on what I have "tasted." Amen.
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* I am preaching this weekend in the CCE meetings
* Don't miss insightful articles: www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
* Please pray for the November mission and the DC event.
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
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