Four Friends and Forty Two Chapters

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Four Friends and Forty Two Chapters

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There are some truths so plain and so easy to see yet we fail to acknowledge them. I was thinking about this while taking a brief review of the Book of Job. Poor Job, confronted by his friends and could not see himself while everyone around him clearly saw his problem.

Job lost everything he had and sat in mourning and despair. To his front porch came four close friends. Each diagnosed Job's condition and gave their advice. The account shows that Job did not listen to any of them. He stood his ground and justified himself.

The last of his friends, Elihu, came closest to describing the problem and accurately painted a vision of God's greatness and goodness. But Job continued to maintain his own position of righteousness. Friends can see us better than any one else can. But if we have not moved beyond ourselves we will not see the truth they tell us.

God finally got Job's attention and brought him around to see the pride and arrogance of his self-inflicted position. In three well phrased chapters, a masterful dressing down, God brought Job around to see that he was nothing. In the end he came to say to God, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself , and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5).

Four friends and forty two chapters to get to this moment of understanding. A lot of people read this book of the Old Testament and wonder what it is all about. I usually answer with this question. How many friends and how many "chapters" of experience must we go through to get to the same conclusion?

The answer we come to is the difference between wisdom and foolishness. If the truth is right in front of our eyes, pray to God for the wisdom to understand.