Peter & John vs. Job’s Friends

Peter & John vs. Job’s Friends, and The Lame Man at The Gate BeautifulI, too, love hearing that account in Acts 3, of the man getting healed that had been lame from his mother’s womb. This guy didn’t just have a limp. He had to be carried!
And he got instantly, totally healed, and went walking, and leaping, and praising God! What a testimony!Well, a couple weeks ago, I was in the book of Job, …and I thought of this lame man. What if it had been Job’s friends that tried to “help” this man, instead of Peter & John?

The alternative “what if” scenario might have gone something like this: Job’s friends start by sitting with him and saying nothing for a couple days. Then the oldest one opens his mouth, and speaks some great “helpful truth” to him. “You know, friend, the Bible says, ‘I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging bread.’ Here you are, out here begging, so it’s obvious you’re not righteous. You need to stop begging, and go home, and trust the Almighty. And you know you wouldn’t be in this condition, if there wasn’t sin in your life. You’re just reaping what you’ve sowed. The Almighty is just, and he rewards the righteous and judges the wicked. So you need to humble yourself, and repent, and change your ways. THEN God will heal you.”

You think there would have been any miracle that day? No way. He would have been destroyed by the “truth” brought in the wrong spirit. It is amazing how much of what Job’s friends spoke is technically “true”, and is also written elsewhere in the Word, sometimes almost word for word, but in a way that ministers life, …not death and condemnation.

Actually, Jesus’ disciples had some of that kind of thinking earlier, when they saw the man blind from birth. (John 9) They asked Jesus, “Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither… hath this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” He was teaching them that they were not to be focusing on who sinned, but rather working the works of God. And Jesus then proceded to heal the man.

They obviously learned that lesson well, because when they approached this lame man, they went straight to the “Such as I have, give I thee!” It was all about that man’s need, and God’s desire to manifest His love for man. Not even so much about doing the works of God, in terms of just performing a great miracle, but doing works, INCLUDING miracles and sign and wonders, that openly display the LOVE that is in God’s heart. Now THAT will change a man completely, and make the lame to leap!