{"id":7183,"date":"2020-01-13T00:26:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T07:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=7183"},"modified":"2020-01-13T00:27:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T07:27:11","slug":"job8_1-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/job8_1-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Check Your Assumptions Before Giving Your Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Job 8:1-22 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Job 8:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Job 8:1-4 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-4:\u00a0\u00a0Wow.\u00a0\u00a0The first words that come out of Bildad\u2019s mouth to a grieving, distraught Job are these.\u00a0\u00a0It helps to understand where Bildad is coming from.\u00a0\u00a0Believing that Job is questioning God\u2019s justice, Bildad feels the need to come to God\u2019s defense.\u00a0\u00a0But in trying to speak in defense of God, Bildad goes way overboard and says things that are highly offensive to a grieving person.\u00a0\u00a0Bildad denounces Job\u2019s words as nonsense \u2013 \u201cYour words are a blustering wind.\u201d (v2)\u00a0\u00a0He also states that what happened to Job\u2019s children was God punishing them for their sin (v4).\u00a0\u00a0Like Eliphaz, Bildad has incorrectly assumed that all suffering is God\u2019s punishment for sin.<\/p>\n

Job 8:5-7 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty,
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-7:\u00a0\u00a0Here is the good part that we can pick out of all the bad that Bildad speaks.\u00a0\u00a0The good thing Bildad does is encourage Job to look to God and believe that God will restore him and cause him to prosper in the long run.\u00a0\u00a0Whether with Job\u2019s friends or our own friends,\u00a0sometimes we need to separate the wheat from the chaff of their words.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Job 8:8-20 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned,
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Surely God does not reject a blameless man or strengthen the hands of evildoers.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 8-22:\u00a0\u00a0Bildad is trying to communicate to Job the age old truth that those who do not trust God may prosper for a while but will ultimately be uprooted and destroyed.\u00a0\u00a0Just as a papyrus tree cannot grow without a marsh, just as reeds cannot thrive without water (v11), so we cannot truly thrive long term without trusting in the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, like Eliphaz before him, Bildad gives all this advice under the assumption that Job\u2019s sin is the reason for Job\u2019s suffering.\u00a0\u00a0All the rhetorical questions Bildad asks \u2013 in the NIV translation there are seven of them \u2013 are based on that wrong assumption.\u00a0\u00a0Bildad should have questioned his assumptions before trying to give Job all this advice.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from all this?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The helpfulness of the advice we give others depends greatly on the correctness of the assumptions we make about them.\u00a0\u00a0If I make wrong assumptions about someone, I can hardly give them helpful advice.\u00a0\u00a0Before you give a person advice, check your assumptions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, I pray that I would not make the same mistake Bildad made.\u00a0\u00a0Before I try to give others advice, help me to check the correctness of my assumptions about them.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Job 8:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJob 8:1-4 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:\u00a0
\n2\u00a0\u00a0“How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.\u00a0
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?\u00a0
\n4\u00a0\u00a0When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-4:\u00a0\u00a0Wow.\u00a0\u00a0The first words that come out of Bildad\u2019s mouth to a grieving, distraught Job are these.\u00a0\u00a0It helps to understand where Bildad is coming from.\u00a0\u00a0Believing that Job is questioning God\u2019s justice, Bildad feels the need to come to God\u2019s defense.\u00a0\u00a0But in trying to speak in defense of God, Bildad goes way overboard and says things that are highly offensive to a grieving person.\u00a0\u00a0Bildad denounces Job\u2019s words as nonsense \u2013 \u201cYour words are a blustering wind.\u201d (v2)\u00a0\u00a0He also states that what happened to Job\u2019s children was God punishing them for their sin (v4).\u00a0\u00a0Like Eliphaz, Bildad has incorrectly assumed that all suffering is God\u2019s punishment for sin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7186,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7183\/revisions\/7186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}