Are you hasty?

 Job 20 & 21

• Summary

Chapter 20 records another response of Job's friend Zophar to Job's plight.  In it he asserts that men have known from the beginning of time that the wicked are only prosperous for a short while and then God in wrath will bring about his destruction. 

In chapter 21 we have Job's reply - but he doesn't agree with Zophar.  He tells him that this is not so - those who are wicked can go to the grave in richness and prosperity with no apparent judgement in this life.  Because of this men sneer at God and any need to serve him.

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Job then asks how they are comforting him seeing their answers are false?

• Thoughts

My attention today was caught by the beginning of Zophar's reply to Job in chapter 20:2,3:

'Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.  I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.'

In chapter 19 Job had just been pouring out his grief, begging his friends for pity whilst asserting his belief in his Redeemer and being a child of God.

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But Zophar here seems  - well maybe even incensed - he is in such a rush to answer and totally disregards Job's plea for pity and claim of having 'the root of the matter ' in him.  

Instead Zophar goes on another tirade about the wicked seeing God's judgement in having all their possessions, riches, home and safety taken from them - perhaps a thinly disguised dig at Job's situation.  Job's answer shows that Zophar is wrong -  wicked and powerful people do not always see judgement in this life.

But what struck me today is this hastiness of Zophar to reply and his wrong judgement of Job's situation.  He said, 'therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste'.

The Proverbs tell us, 'Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him' (29: 20).  This strong language warns us that we are even worse than the foolish if we are prone to answer people too quickly, or hastily.

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We have other examples in the Bible of those who appeared to respond too quickly - taking action or speaking before they had thought and considered the situation sufficiently: 

• Eli, a priest of the Old Testament tabernacle at Shiloh, assumed that an exceedingly distressed woman, Hannah, was drunk because she was praying silently with just her mouth moving.  Given her grief and tears perhaps she also looked somewhat dishevelled, but Eli jumped to conclusions and condemned her telling her to stop drinking.  The situation was recovered by the grace with which Hannah replied and Eli's faith inspired kind response.

• And then we have the soon to be King David  - whilst a fugitive he was refused food and provisions by a rich, cruel man, Nabal.  David in his haste and anger was ready to destroy Nabal and all his family and only the quick and gracious action of Nabal's beautiful wife Abigail was able to diffuse the situation.

What were the motivations behind Zophar, Eli and David's quick responses?

They were all offended to some degree - they all acted or spoke without full knowledge of the situation, and they all no doubt thought that they knew best.

I think of situations in my own life when people have seemed to speak and behave wrongly and I have angrily responded, but perhaps on getting to know the situation or person better I have realised that their behaviour and words sometimes stem from their own problems and I have been offended and interpreted it wrongly.

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Have you experienced this?  

You respond quickly to a situation - perhaps harshly or angrily, and then later you are sorry that you have responded so hastily - you say, 'I didn't realise', or 'If only I had known...'

Let us not be 'worse than fools' in our responses!  Let us pray that we don't bring shame on ourselves by 'answering a matter before ' we fully understand all about it (Proverbs 18: 13).

As we are faced with difficult situations in our workplace, or in our families may we be 'swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath', because if we aren't the Apostle James tells us that our anger does not produce God's righteousness (James 1:19,20).  It does not bring the peace, love and understanding to a situation that those of us who are christians, and who have the Spirit of God within us should be shining to those around us.

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How often we have to confess to God that we have fallen again!  That we have misjudged and jumped to conclusions again and need his forgiveness and perhaps the forgiveness of people to whom we have caused additional pain and hurt.

Do you notice sometimes when you are about to hastily respond that it is from a feeling of hardness rising up inside you?  

It may especially be when we are tired; when we have been exposed to too much influence of the stresses and ways of man; or have succumbed to the temptations of covetousness and lusts and we have a guilty conscience, far off from God.

If we are watchful and realise how our natural response is rising up, there may be time to stop - to take a deep breath, to think of our Lord and how he deals with us with such undeserved patience, love and compassion - of how we are to yield to the soft influence of the Holy Spirit within us and our speech to be seasoned with grace.

May the Lord help us each to keep close to him, in prayer, in thought, in what we read, see and hear, in taking adequate time to rest our bodies, minds and souls, so that when faced with these situations we do not hastily respond in our own spirit and strength and be as Zophar, who rejected Job's plea for pity and understanding.

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