26 PRAY FOR YOUR FRIENDS

 

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PRAY FOR YOUR FRIENDS

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Today’s chapter is Job 42

AND THE LORD ENDED JOB’S TRIBULATION WHEN HE PRAYED FOR HIS FRIENDS. Job 42:10

Some mistakenly point to Job as proof that sickness is God’s will for many people. This is not true, but it is true that God allowed Job’s sickness to show Satan that Job would NOT turn away from his Lord when he faced opposition.

But it is important to understand that sickness can have many causes, but it does not originate with God. That would contradict the practice of Jesus and the words of Isaiah 53:4-6 and many other places in the Bible.

WE THINK HE SUFFERED FROM GOD’S PUNISHMENT FOR HIS OWN SINS. BUT IT WAS OUR SICKNESSES HE TOOK UPON HIMSELF, OUR SORROWS AND SUFFERINGS. HE BORN. HE WAS PIERCED FOR OUR SINS, AND Mutilated for OUR TRANSGRESSIONS. THE PUNISHMENT HAPPENED ON HIM THAT WE MIGHT HAVE PEACE. HE WAS WOUNDED THAT WE MIGHT BE HEALED.

When God later heals Job and gives him back what he has lost, the Hebrew text refers to his restoration as a literal return from captivity. This is evidence that his healing was a consequence of the driving back of evil, a restoration of something that had been taken from him.

THE LORD HEARD JOB’S PRAYER AND WHILE JOB PRAYED FOR HIS FRIENDS, THE LORD TURNED HIS DESTINY, SO JOB GOT DOUBLE AS MUCH AS HE HAD BEFORE
THEN HIS BROTHERS AND SISTER AND HIS OLD FRIENDS CAME BACK TO HIM AND HAD A FEAST IN HIS HOUSE, TO COMFORT AND ENCOURAGE HIM AFTER THE TRIALS HE HAD EXPERIENCED… Job 42:10-11

Job’s recovery coincides with his repentance. Chapter 29 seems to show that Job was very self-centered and that he later repented.

I KNEW YOU BY THE EYE, BUT NOW MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOU. I AM ASHAMED OF WHAT I HAVE SAID, I TAKE IT ALL AGAIN. I WILL SIT IN DUST AND ASHES TO SHOW MY PENANCE
Job 42:5-6

Job’s changed attitude and God’s restoration are linked. And Job’s attitude and forgiveness toward his friends became crucial to his own well-being and theirs. Job 42:7-9

SO RICH WAS THE LORD’S BLESSING ON THE LATER HALF OF JOB’S LIFE THAT IT FAR EXCEEDED WHAT HE HAD EXPERIENCED IN THE BEGINNING, FOR NOW HE OWNED 14,000 SHEEP, 6,000 CAMELS, 1,000 COUPLES OF OXEN AND 1,000 FEMALE DONKEYS…Job 42:12-16.

As we seek God for healing, let us also PRAY FOR FRIENDS, so that our friends may experience God’s intervention, but also to pave the way for healing for ourselves. Let us also be open to whether God is speaking to us about something we should repent of and forgive.

Today's chapter Job 42.
v1  No, that expectation would be a deception;
at the mere sight of it one would fall.
v2  No one is so foolish as to dare to tease it,
and who is he who can stand against it? v3    Who has joined battle with it and escaped?
No one under the whole heaven!

v4  I will not keep silent about its limbs
and about the strength and grace of its structure.
v5   Who has stripped off its outer garment?
Who has penetrated its double breastplate?
v6   Who has opened the doors of its face?
Its rows of teeth are terrifying.
v7  His back is a row of shields,
closed with flint seals,
v8  so close together,
that no air can come between them.
v9  They are closely knit together,
they are joined together, and cannot be separated.
v10  His sneeze brings forth light,
his eyes are like the eyelashes of the dawn.
v11  Flames come out of his mouth,
sparks fly from him.
v12  Smoke comes out of his nostrils
like a hot pot over the fire.
v13  His breath kindles embers,
flames come out of his mouth.
v14  Strength is in his neck.
Fear leaps before him.
v15  His fleshy belly is tight,
it sits as if cast and does not give way.
v16  His heart is firm as a stone,
firm as the lowest millstone.

v17  When he rises up, even the gods are seized with fear,
they are beside themselves with terror.
v18  The sword of the attacker bounces
as well as the spear, the slingshot, and the arrowheads.
v19  He counts iron as straw
and bronze as threshed wood;
v20  the arrows he does not flee,
the slingstone becomes stubble to him.
v21  The club is counted as straw,
he laughs at the swinging sword.

v22  Under its belly it has sharp thorns,
like a threshing sledge it draws tracks in the mire.
v23  It boils the depths like a pot,
it makes the sea a cauldron.
v24  Behind it is a shining path,
the depths are like gray hair.
v25  It has no equal on earth,
created as it is without fear.
v26  It dares to look at everything lofty,
it is king over all the proud beasts.