11-14-14. Job 36:13-14. Don’t Harbor Resentment…Freely Forgive.
11-14-14. Job 36:13-14. Don’t Harbor Resentment…Freely Forgive. by Kevin E. Jesmer. 11-14-14.
From Elihu’s observation of life, we can see the difference between the righteous and the godless in their reaction to affliction. Do they harbor resentment or not? Is the harbored resentment directed towards people or God or both? Look at verses Job 36:13-14, “The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when he fetters them, they do not cry for help. 14 They die in their youth, among male prostitutes of the shrines.” (NIV) There is a big difference on how people of faith react to suffering and affliction and those who have no faith. To harbor resentment means that one keeps resentment and preserves resentment in their hearts. They don’t forgive. They keep ill feelings. They hold grudges, even for decades. When our singing group was called to sing a man’s 90th birthday celebration, the man made it clear that a certain someone was not to be invited. When one senior lady was talking about another 90 year old, she made it clear that the argument about who was owed money for a tractor sale 60 years ago was still on the table. I am sure that there will be people who hold ill feelings towards me for events in the past. (To those I say, “I am sorry.”) My sinful nature wants to harbor resentment to others for decades also. It is Jesus and my Christian faith that challenges me to forgive and extend the hand of grace to others.
The only way not to harbor resentment to others, is to forgive as the Lord has forgiven us. We may harbor resentment because we have been wronged. Maybe we have been legitimately wronged or maybe we feel wronged when nothing was even intended. It is just a feeling that we can’t let go of. But we must forgive. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matt 6:12) There is also a warning in the same chapter, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt 6:14-15) Forgiveness is serious business in a Christian’s life. We need to take the plank out of our own eyes when we try to take the speck out our brother’s eye. Forgiveness will come easier when we know how Jesus has…and is…forgiving our own sins. The same grace extended to us, by the Lord, must be extended to others. When this happens, Jesus and his Gospel will be glorified. People will be attracted to Jesus by your active forgiving and refusal to harbor resentment.
The worst thing is to harbor resentment to God, thinking that he has done us wrong for certain trying events in our lives. There are times when God allows many trials. Elihu acknowledges this. Look at verses 13b-14, “…even when he fetters them, they do not cry for help. 14 They die in their youth, among male prostitutes of the shrines.” Elihu says that God fetters people. The definition of fetters is, “Anything that restricts or restrains.” (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fetter) Elihu was implying that Job was fettered by God to lead him to repentance and freedom from suffering. I don’t know about that. But I do know that trials are allowed to come upon a believer. And these trials serve as a refining fire if we are in Jesus. They are never meant to make us harbor resentment to God and others. They should draw us closer to the Lord, if we embrace them with faith and grace.
The bottom line is that God is love. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 John 4:16). He is the incarnation of love. It is not possible that God can ever not love. In the midst of our suffering, if we think that God can not love us. Maybe he has forgotten about us. Maybe he has turn away from us? We harbor resentment towards God. “If God loves me, how can he allow me and my loved ones to suffer so much?” We can not know all the answers about human suffering. I know that one day in heaven, we will know, “why”. Maybe we will have answers in this life. But one thing I know, is that we must never doubt the love of God. There is the story of one man who harbored resentment towards God. He prayed that his father be healed. When his father was not healed and died, the son rejected Jesus for two years. After two years he realized that God did in fact heal his father in heaven, but God didn’t plan to allow his dad to spend the rest of his days on earth wit his son. He took him to heaven. The son accepted this. He accepted the love that God always had for him and his family. The son got his answer. He no longer harbored resentment. God is love.
Jesus, never doubted the love of his Father in heaven, even when he was suffering and dying on the cross. Near his death, Jesus cried out, “Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46) It is never easy when we are suffering, but we must never doubt the love of God. We must never harbor resentment towards God or others.
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