September 11 Reading (Job 11-14)
Friend #3 ... Zophar ... he doesn't buy into Job's "holiness" speech. He is convinced beyond reason that God only condemns the sinners and if Job is getting knocked around this bad, he had lot's of sin in his life to deserve it. I'm finding that in a perfect world, I like the advice I'm hearing from Job's friends. "Yet if you devote your heart to him ... you will stand firm and without fear." There is good stuff here ... but this argue is muted when we come back to reality. Good people get cancer for no reason. Good people are in car accidents and suffer great loss. Good people lose the jobs and struggle to find work. Good and God fearing people!! That's what makes their arguements not worth the paper they are written on. We need to be careful not to use such reasoning in the advice we give to be people as well.

"Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him; Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before Him."