Fair-Weather Friends

My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
Job 6:15-17
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Fair-Weather Friends
We all know someone who is a fair-weather friend, who only shows up during the good times and sinks away during the troubles.  This is what Job is accusing his friends of being.  They are like the dry streambeds of the Near East which swell and burst their banks when the snow melts in the high mountains but then quickly go dry in the hot summer months.  Job’s friends are worse than fair-weather friends.  For like the flooding streams they come and deliver what is not needed at the wrong time.  Yet when they are needed, they have nothing useful to offer and leave the area parched.  His friends had come at Job’s lowest point but did not bring the much-needed Gospel. Instead, they brought only the Law and a distorted one at that. They confused Job’s blessings and sufferings as something Job had deserved by his own actions and impious living.  They missed the point that God gives to us not because of our merits but out of His love for us.  God is not a fair-weather friend who only shows up when things are going good and then vanishes when they are not.  God is the reason for all the good in our lives and in the bad times, our gracious Father is there with His love to overcome.  God never promises a carefree painless life to those who believe in Christ, but He does promise that when the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh attack us, He will be there to defend us and see us through those times.  “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).  He has given us refuge at the foot of the cross, to be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.