The Perils of a Closed Mind

Have you ever felt like Job, where the Devil seems to be challenging your righteousness and everything you hold dear is being stripped away from you?

Job was a righteous man, someone who lived his life with integrity and loved God with all his heart. But one day, the Devil challenged Job’s righteousness, and God allowed everything Job held dear to be destroyed — his family, his wealth, and even his health.

Three friends came to sit with Job in his despair. They were heartbroken when they first saw him and didn’t say a word for a whole week.

But when the first friend, Eliphaz the Termanite, finally spoke, it wasn’t words of comfort and support. Instead, he accused Job of being a fraud, claiming that Job’s godliness was mostly a sham.

Eliphaz went on to say that the turmoil Job was going through was a judgment of God because of Job’s sin. He told Job that he must have done something wrong, that a righteous man never suffers like this.

“Remember now, who?ever?perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow wrongdoing and those who sow trouble harvest it,” (Job 4:7–8).

This is wrong thinking about God in Job’s situation. Job was a righteous man, yet he was going through unimaginable pain and suffering. And yet, his friends accused him of wrongdoing, of not being righteous as he maintained.

The truth is, we can never claim to understand the entirety of God’s ways and how they play out in all times and places. As the Book of Job implores us, we must empathize with Job’s companions and recognize ourselves in their shoes. We all like to think we’re experts in distinguishing between right and wrong, but we can’t claim to grasp the entirety of God’s plan.

So, let me ask you— have you ever been guilty of making hasty judgments against your colleagues and friends without understanding the situation? Have you ever questioned the goodness of God in the midst of your own pain and suffering?

It’s a question worth pondering. Remember, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it,” (Psalm 139:6). Let’s approach life with humility and grace, and trust that God’s ways are always good, even when we don’t understand them.