Great and Available God [Job 12]

1Then Job responded,
    2"Truly then you are the people,
         And with you wisdom will die!
    3"But I have intelligence as well as you;
         I am not inferior to you.
         And who does not know such things as these?
    4"I am a joke to my friends,
         The one who called on God and He answered him;
         The just and blameless man is a joke.

13"With Him are wisdom and might;
         To Him belong counsel and understanding.
    14"Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
         He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
    15"Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;
         And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth.
    16"With Him are strength and sound wisdom,
         The misled and the misleader belong to Him.

When Job spoke again he defended himself in response to the latest accusations Zophar made against him. His focus was on himself and the situation and not on God. Job and friends acted as if they were enemies as they took turns defending their positions.
What Job said in the first half of the chapter was probably from his anger and frustration with his friends and not from a God focused place. However, his friends missed the opportunity to act like true friends and to encourage him to get his mind off of himself and connect with God. Instead, they compounded his pain by their continued accusations. I am learning that the person that I have conflict with is not the enemy even though it feels like they are. The enemy is never flesh and blood, but wrong thinking that is not God centered. The answer is working the conflict through with God first.*

In the second half of the chapter, Job got his mind back on God through praise. We have seen this same behavior in previous chapters. This tells me that Job is accustomed to pondering the God of the universe and praising Him and that is a familiar and safe place for him to be in a crisis. God is our safe place in times of trouble and I am encouraged to see how quickly Job got his focus off of his friends and back on God. But he is still missing the intimacy of talking to God about his pain and the further comfort he could have experienced.

*The 9 Steps in Dealing With Conflict  (on the www.egpministries.com website under the resources menu, click on tools for life) is a downloadable resource to help you to go through your conflict keeping God at the center.

 We praise You, God, that You are the answer to all of our struggles, conflicts and pain. Cause us to keep our focus on You day by day and to grow in intimacy with You.
Beth Warlick, 1/21/2011