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

Ruth E. Knowlton tells the following story:

"Years ago I lived in an apartment building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine, and I could look across the alley into the apartment on the same floor as mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her as she sat by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.

"After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her windows were dirty. Everything was indistinct through her smudged windows. I would say to myself, 'I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her windows? They look dreadful!'

"One bright morning I decided to do my spring housecleaning and thoroughly cleaned my apartment, including washing the windows on the inside.

"Late in the afternoon when I was finished, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her windows were clean!

"Then it dawned on me. I have been criticizing her dirty windows, but all the time I was observing them through my own dirty ones!"

But what does this have to do with Job? Job’s friends all came to him when he was in need. His friends came when his house was destroyed, his wealth was gone, and his family (except his wife) was gone. By today’s standards, they were very good friends. Job was in trouble and these, his best friends, must have known that he was a righteous man, but they thought that he must have sinned something horrible to get on the wrong side of God in such a manner. After all, its only the sinners who have problems. Those who follow God, sure they may be tempted, sure they may have struggles, but God obviously does not take away blessings!

These friends of Job were well versed in scripture. It may even be that one of these three friends was the one who instructed Job in the way of the Lord, yet they missed something in their theology – by their understanding of God, they were trivializing God. They were viewing Job through their own dirty windows. God does not always do what we think He should do, and when He does, we take the dirt from our window – the dirt of misunderstanding, of guilt, and of pride – and apply it to the work of God.

The friends were wrong and yet right at the same time. God was going to bless Job even further, but God wanted to display His power, His might, and His knowledge. God was pitting His servant against all the wiles of Satan. The friends did not perceive this because although they walked with God, their understanding of Him and His mighty works came from their experiences and the experiences of others who did not fully serve and walk with God to the best of their abilities.

Why Job? The answer is because Job was at that time, probably the closest to God of anyone on the entire earth. That is why Job went through everything.

The friends were right in their understanding, as far as it goes. The friends’ understanding of God, however, was misapplied and taken out of context; people certainly reap what they sow. Job sowed righteousness and uprightness. Job sowed a relationship with God, and so he reaped God’s trust. He reaped the anger of Lucifer. He reaped earthly sorrow and then a deepening understanding of God (but that is later in the book).

Let us therefore serve the almighty with alacrity and strive to be worthy of God’s immense trust and faith as well as Satan’s hatred and disgust.