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Study of Job 12:21 – Forgive me Friends

Study of Job 12 21

He pours out disgrace upon great men,

   Weakens the power of the mighty.

 

I learned that an old friend of mine had passed about the night before last. Yesterday, I learned that she had many, many friends according to Facebook. I do not like the people behind Facebook nor their methods, and I avoid all their products that I can. Unlike other tech giants, I do not invest in them directly. However, I know my family and friends use their products and that I am missing out on updates. Times like these, I am torn as to whether I have lessened my life by this decision. Won’t be the first time my family has suffered from such a decision.

‘Pours’ was also ‘heaps’. ‘Disgrace’ was also ‘contempt’ and ‘scorn’. ‘Great me’ was also ‘princes’ or ‘nobles’. I wanted to expand it beyond princes and just liked disgrace better.

‘Weakens’ was also ‘loosens’, ‘disarms’, and ‘slackens’. ‘Power’ was also ‘belt’, ‘strength’, ‘pride’, and ‘girdle’. ‘Mighty’ was also ‘strong’ and ‘nobles’. I did like the idea of weakening pride, but I settled on the most logical message.

One reaction to my friends Facebook page was to invite a lot of mutual friends to be my friends. I did not follow through because I felt the timing was weird and I don’t use Facebook anyway, so why bother. Another reaction was to comment on her page, but my wife did, so I let that stand. My final reaction was to just delete my account and be done with it. Hard to do that when you might want it back.

My first reaction to my friend’s passing itself was to wonder if she was a Christian. It is the main goal of life to decide that, but I am not here to judge her for that, so I moved on. My second reaction was to compare her life to mine and others I know. I decided that had no merit as God calls us each to our own path and there is no way to tell how well she did at that and nothing else matters. My final reaction was that I need to do a better job of treating my life as important today and not important over the next 65 years or so.

God has more patience than any of us. He has allowed evil to last much longer than I feel like I would. When this verse says He pours out disgrace and weakens power, I want to clean the slate and try someone else. But I am a sinner and have not been a good friend to many people who I used to count as friends, and I rarely take the time to go out of my way to keep an old friendship going, much less growing. I know God has forgiven me, but I wonder how many people have not. I pray that God will lead me to contacting and caring for those who need me to do so for His glory. I certainly am not smart enough to figure all that out.

Written 11/30/23 Posted 1/30/24 Job 278

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