Focus Chapters:
- Job 12-14
Standout Verse(s):
Job 12:4-5 NLT
Yet my friends laugh at me,
for I call on God and expect an answer.
I am a just and blameless man,
yet they laugh at me.
People who are at ease mock those in trouble.
They give a push to people who are stumbling.
Observation (s):
- In the midst of his situation, Job was continually judged and ridiculed by his friends, even when he sought God.
Yet my friends laugh at me,
for I call on God and expect an answer.
I am a just and blameless man,
yet they laugh at me. - People who are free from trouble demonstrate a stark lack of empathy for those who are troubled. In fact, they can be the reason why the troubled lose faith and hope in God, and stumble.
People who are at ease mock those in trouble.
They give a push to people who are stumbling.
Application:
I dislike but don’t truly fear lizards. A few hours ago, some friends and I were about to leave a parking lot when one of my friends, who feared lizards, spotted one in the car. She screamed and begun to panic. Without me realizing, she injected some of panic into my psyche and I reacted my screaming and getting quickly out of the car when I too spotted the lizard. It took me a moment to come to my senses and realize the lizard was probably more afraid of us. I calmed down after I made a conscious decision to ignore the negative emotions that were floating in the air.
Afterwards, I recognized a simple pattern that occurs in our subconsciousness: “Fear drives fear. Negativity breeds negativity.” In that moment, I understood what Job meant when he explained that the mocking of those at ease can become stumbling blocks to those in trouble. The negative reactions (yes, mocking is negative in addition to pronouncing doubt and judgement) of friends and family can be detrimental when we are in trouble. It is harder to handle our subliminal responses to negativity when we are in the midst of handling our dark situations. These subliminal messages can cause us to give up on ourselves and God, if we are not careful to consciously acknowledge and handle them.
I feel great sympathy for Job. Can you imagine it? Job was a blameless man undergoing a test yet he was continually judged and laughed at by his friends. As if his troubles weren’t enough, even his entreaties to God were treated with ridicule.
Yet still, he kept seeking God!
That’s a lesson to us all. In the midst of our dark circumstances, despite the harshness of our families and friends, the lack of support and the presence of unreserved judgement, don’t become engulfed by negativity and stumble, seek God.
