“And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” (Job 42:10 KJV)
Job is one of the most fascinating books of the Bible to me. It really asks, and attempts to answer, several questions. It shows the great respect that his friends have for him in just sitting with him for several days before the dialog even begins. It shows statement and counter statement in turn to try to explain the big “why” question. We even get to see this play out without any historical distractions, i.e. it doesn’t matter who is the current king or what current war is transpiring. Yet, the most interesting thing about the story in general is that none of the back and forth contains a scene where they just lift each other up in prayer. We see dialog around potential whys and what may need done, but there is so much value in just getting close to a friend and lifting them up to the Lord who can take care of all that.
Did you notice when Job’s captivity ended, or his fortune was restored? “When he prayed for his friends…”. In all that we search for to better understand. In all that we long to know why. In all that we try to reason out. The one command that we can best illustrate our love for God is to love our neighbor. God really seems to put such a high emphasis on this.
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16 KJV)