Saturday, May 21: Job 8- So many assumptions.

I don’t mean to psychologize but the first thought I had, as I began to read, was Job’s friends blew it when they opened their mouths. They have a friend in intense real and emotional pain and they try to help him and to correct his pain-wracked thinking by argument? I think not.  They should have returned to commiserating with him, validating him and sitting in silence. Of course if they did that, there wouldn’t be many words in this book. J

Ok, now to the reading itself…

Bildad and the others are working from a bad starting place. Their basic understanding of the world is if you are prosperous, then you must be good and God puts His favor on you. If you do something bad, God will punish you. So they assume that Job’s children did something bad and God judged them when He killed them (4). The implication of all of this is that Job was or must have done something bad so God judged him, too.

Back to psychologizing… times of deep pain are not generally great times to confront someone even if the confrontation is true and honest.

As I mull over this bad situation… one friend accusing another based on assumption… God reminds me how dangerous assumptions can be. In the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) the older brother makes huge assumptions on what he thinks his younger brother did while squandering his wealth…

Assumptions get us into all kinds of trouble.  No wonder one of the wise proverbs of Solomon goes like this: The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him (Proverbs 18:17).

God’s message to me is simple: don’t jump to conclusions through assuming… get things straight lest you judge someone incorrectly…

O, God, too often I am guilty of this… I judge others based on faulty assumptions or faulty thinking. Forgive me… I need it big-time in this arena! In Jesus’ name. Amen

 

P.S. a poor Bible joke. Who is the smallest man in the Bible? Bildad the ‘Shoe-height!’

 

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