This week I want to consider another question in our series, “Jesus is Enough.” Is Jesus enough when friends forsake you? Job had three friends to come and visit him. They were not much of a comfort at all. The first thing they did was to sit and look at him for seven days. They looked like vultures perched on the bed post just looking at him. Job needed comfort but when they finally do speak to Job they don't comfort, they criticize him.
Basically, what they told Job was something like this, "Job, you surely must have done something wrong. You have sinned. Let's find out what sin you committed and get rid of it so you can be healed again." They became sort of the sin search committee.
In Job 19:14 we read how Job felt about these friends. The verse says, “My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.” There is nothing more wonderful on earth than friends, real friends, God given friends. But sooner or later even your friends are going to fail you. When that happens, is Jesus enough?
Many people have been betrayed by friends. Judas betrayed Jesus. David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, looked forward and quoted Jesus when He said, "Ye mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted; which did eat of my bread hath lifted up his heel against me" (Psalm 41:9). That was a deep wound in the heart of Jesus.
Friends will forsake you and fail you. Job's own wife turned against him. His friends forsook him. When we suffer that is one thing. If we have a friend to suffer along with us and pray with us and encourage us, thank God. But what if we go to that friend for comfort and all we get is criticism. Is Jesus enough? Job discovered that when his friends forsook him that God was enough. I hope you will discover that as well. When suffering surrounds you, when friends forsake you, Jesus is enough. A verse that comes to my mind is Psalm 73:26. It records these words, “My flesh and my heart faileth:” (I think we could also say health, finances, friends, etc sometimes fails to) “but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” God bless you this week. Remember that God loves you and so does First Baptist Church.