In our last visit we looked in an introductory way at the benefits of being a part of a small group. You might feel you don’t need a small group experience. You’re doing well on your own. Well, consider Job if you feel this way.
He is introduced in the opening verse of his book: “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” This was reaffirmed by God in verse 8, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Between these two verses you find that Job had ten children, abundant animals and servants and was considered “the greatest man among all the people of the East.” He was spiritually responsible as a parent, even with regard to his adult children. Surely, this man didn’t need a small group experience.
But as I pointed out earlier, he was not only a friend of God, he had at least three close friends. It doesn’t say how they became friends, but it does describe how these friends responded when they heard about the devastating reversals in Job’s life. At the time they weren’t living in close proximity to each other, but somehow they got word of Job’s predicament and “set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.”
This response was natural and spontaneous. The kind of response you would expect from friends who had established a close bond between them. They experienced the dynamic synergism of a small group.
