What can we learn about trust from Job's experience in Job 6:17? Setting the scene Job’s pain is raw. His livestock are gone, his children have died, his body is covered with sores, and his three friends—who started out silent and compassionate—have begun blaming him. In Job 6:15-17 he answers them with a word-picture. He compares them to wadis, the desert ravines that briefly gush with snowmelt and then dry up exactly when a thirsty traveler needs water most. Verse 17 captures the punch line: “but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat they disappear from their channels.” (Job 6:17) Job’s disappointment with his friends becomes a lesson on trust. The image of the disappearing stream • Wad i streams look reliable when the snows are melting. • Travelers arrange their route around them, confident they’ll find water. • Yet, “in the heat they disappear,” leaving parched travelers stranded. Job says, “That’s how my friends have treated me. When I needed them most, they vanished.” What trust looks like when it fails • Proverbs 25:19: “Like a bad tooth and an unsteady foot is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.” • Psalm 118:8-9 exposes the emptiness of relying on earthly help. • Jeremiah 17:5 pictures the person who trusts in man as a “shrub in the desert.” Job is living out those verses. His friends’ counsel is no more nourishing than a dried-up creek bed. Lessons about where to place our trust 1. Even the godliest people can fail us. – Peter denied Jesus (Luke 22:54-62). – Paul lamented, “At my first defense no one came to my support” (2 Timothy 4:16). 2. God never fails. – “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). 3. Real trust is tested in the “dry season.” – When circumstances heat up, whatever we lean on either evaporates or stands firm. 4. Disappointment with people can drive us deeper into God. – David: “When my father and my mother forsake me, the LORD will take me in” (Psalm 27:10). Practical steps for steadfast trust • Shift expectations: appreciate friends, but reserve absolute dependence for God alone (Psalm 62:5-8). • Speak honestly with God about the hurt, as Job did—He welcomes the conversation (1 Peter 5:7). • Recall specific instances of God’s past faithfulness; rehearse them in prayer and conversation (Psalm 77:11-12). • Anchor daily decisions in Scripture, not in fluctuating human counsel (Psalm 119:105). • Cultivate friendships that point you back to the Lord, recognizing they too are fellow strugglers (Hebrews 10:24-25). Seeing God’s unwavering character While wadis dry up, the “fountain of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13) never does. Job’s friends disappear in the heat, but God meets Job in the storm (Job 38-42). Trust, therefore, must rest on the One whose resources never evaporate. |
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