Job 19:19

19 All my inward [cowd] friends [math] abhorred [ta`ab] me: and they whom I loved ['ahab] are turned [haphak] against me. KJV-Interlinear

19 'All my associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me. NASB

Inward, meaning those who are the closest of friends, those to whom one might tell of ones most secret thoughts, or plans, or hopes in business or private ambitions, even those people with whom Job new very well and most probably for a very long time. Those folks also abandoned him during these days of his suffering.

And now, we have come full circle in Jobs life. He has been abandoned on all sides. Job has lived perhaps a hundred years by this time. During those many decades, he rose to a position of prosperity and social respect.

But in a matter of a day, he lost his children and his vast wealth. In days or perhaps weeks later, he lost his health just as quickly when Satan went for round two. And Job has had his medical condition for quite some time now. We have already gone over the probably timeline of these events earlier in the study.

The thing to note here, is that Job had a much longer history with his prosperity and friends and family, than he has had with his suffering. Possibly a century verses just a few months, and look how his friends and associates, and even his family, have abandoned him so quickly.

Everyone has known of Jobs reputation. They have known him for a very long time. If anyone had any hidden secrets, then someone would have known about them and they would have been revealed. He had no allies now, and no one with any reason to keep his inner most secrets, secret.

Job had no hidden sins, no hidden secrets, no hidden quirks, which would have made him anti-social or weird, or dysfunctional, or anything else that would have been considered as unacceptable in society, or in truth.

And yet, in a heartbeat as opposed to a century of life, everyone around him melted into the shadows and away from his life. And they did it with no facts, no logic, no reason. People reacted based on arrogance, bias, superstition, envy and selfishness.

Some blamed him - his wife because of her loss. Some wanted to see him fail - his three friends because of their approbation and lust for their own recognition. Some just did not want to have anything to do with him - strangers avoiding trouble, or family who did not want to get involved.

Job was given no consideration and no benefit of the doubt. He was isolated and alone.

And so it would be with Christ when He approached the Cross. From the moment of His arrest, not one person could be seen with Him. Through His six trials, not one person stood up for Him. And while on the Cross, even the Father and the Spirit withdrew from Him for those three hours of judgment on the Cross from noon until three. Jesus was indeed totally alone.

No human, no angel, no one could fulfil His mission of salvation. No one could even come close. No one could even approach His task.

Christ did what no man is capable of doing. He defeated sin and death. He endured unbelievable suffering so that we would not.

Job is the picture of Christ's suffering. And though at the time, he was not certain of the purpose for his suffering, by the time it was all over, he was the only one who clearly understood it all.

Now is the time to post a prayer.