Nameless Heroes of the Bible

By Carl Wells

Nobody knows their names . . .

Except God--and perhaps several million
(billion?) of their closest friends in heaven.
The Bible gives us true stories about a
large handful of fascinating, but nameless,
people.
You and I are like them. We too will be
nameless to history. And we too have an
opportunity to act in ways that have a profound
effect for good on the way history unfolds on
the earth.
They are Nameless Heroes of the Bible. What
do they have to teach us?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468558920

Carl Wells

Carl Wells enjoys living in Southern Indiana, in what might be described as Flyover Country, except that almost nobody flies over.

Book preview

Introduction

and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 21:27

The Bible is filled with men and women of varying degrees of fame. Even non-Christians have at least heard of many Bible characters. Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, and Paul are a few examples of many.

There is, however, another type of person in the Bible other than those who were either famous or at least mentioned by name. There are: people who are nameless. There are countless nameless people in the Bible. They are identified as existing and they act as moral agents—for good or for evil—but they are not given names. For example, David had six hundred men with him when he pursued the Amalekites who had kidnapped his people; only David is named.

In fact, only a tiny percentage of the people who are signified as existing in the Bible, are named. For the Israelites coming out of Egypt, the numbered men of the camps by their armies were 603,550—not counting the multitudes of women and children, and not counting the Levites (Num. 2:32-33). Of these we know even the bare names of a miniscule handful.

This is true whether we speak of the people of God, or of the enemies of God. For example, when Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen and people without number—in short, a lot—of this multitude we know the name of: one, Shishak himself (2 Chron. 12:2-3).

It is so obvious and homely a fact that most of the people in the Bible who are signified as existing are nameless, that the point scarcely may seem worth making. What did I expect—that the Holy Spirit would name each of the 603,550 men, and name each of the women, and each of the children? And keep on doing that for every person signified as existing in the Bible, whether among God’s people or among God’s enemies? We would need a wheelbarrow to carry around a Bible. Plus not too many people would read through the countless lists of names. Our eyes tend to glaze over as we read through even relatively brief lists of names in the Bible.

No, clearly the Holy Spirit was wise to limit the names in the Bible to relatively few. But it seems to me that the Holy Spirit was also incredibly wise, and practical, to tell us about a significantly large number of nameless people in fascinating—if not extensive—detail.

This was wise because you and I are part of the nameless multitude of the earth. Oh, we have names. But we will be nameless to history. In a very few years, all of us will be dead and forgotten. No matter how distinguished our lives—and almost none of us are distinguished—we almost certainly will be forgotten very, very quickly, even in our own family. Our grandchildren may remember us, but our great-grandchildren will not, unless we have extraordinarily long lives. The larger world, meanwhile, has forgotten us before we’re even dead.

Our namelessness to history might be vastly discouraging, except that God tells us He not only knows our names, He knows us as individuals. He tells us He knows the exact number of the hairs on our heads (Matt. 10:30; Lk. 12:7)! That indicates He is taking a pretty intense interest in each one of us, as unique individuals. We may be forgotten to history, but we are not forgotten to God. We can be sure that He knows the names and characters of each one of the 603,550 men, and of their wives and children. He knows the names and characters of His friends, and of His enemies.

Each of us has importance, for good or for bad, because the God of the Bible exists, and we are made in His image (Gen. 1:27; 5:1). Our lives resonate in the world, for good or ill, and even though history will forget us.

To help us keep our moral equilibrium, to encourage us that people nameless to history are not nameless to God, the Holy Spirit has given us in the Bible a significant number of examples of nameless people who acted in a manner which must have been pleasing to God.

It is said of us that sometimes we can’t see the forest, because our view is so obscured by the trees. This is true. But there may be times when we can’t see the trees, because our view is so obscured by the forest. This book will try to direct our attention to some interesting trees of which we may have lost sight, because we’ve been so focused on the forest.

Of course a book could be written with the title, Nameless Enemies of God. But for now my particular interest has been to speak of the nameless heroes of the Bible. I hope this will accomplish at least two things: 1/encourage each Christian to understand that you in your nameless obscurity are a person with great potential for service to God and mankind; 2/encourage non-Christians to understand that God often brings in non-Christians from out of the cold, into the warmth of His growing and wonderful kingdom.

There are 65 chapters to the book. Thirteen chapters concern nameless heroes of the Bible who arise out of those who were not originally among the official people of God. The other 52 chapters are devoted to nameless heroes of God arising out of those who were already officially part of God’s people—26 incidents from the Old Testament, 26 incidents from the New.

I have organized the chapters in the following pattern: one chapter concerning heroes arising out of OT people of God, one chapter concerning heroes arising out of NT people of God, one chapter concerning heroes arising out of OT people of God, one chapter concerning heroes arising out of NT people of God, one chapter concerning heroes arising out of those who started out not being among the people of God. This five-chapter pattern is repeated 13 times through the entire 65 chapters.

My basic principle of interpretation is simple, and boringly, conservatively orthodox. I believe the Bible to be a—rather, the—supernatural communication from the God who created the universe. The Bible was without error in the original manuscripts, and while copying errors have happened they clearly have been minute.* To deny the truth of the Bible is to lose touch with reality at the most fundamental level. The Bible is true, and must be obeyed by us, if we are to please the God who created us.

The cheering truth is that a great number of nameless people in God’s Bible have shown that loving and obeying and pleasing Him, is something worth doing, with practical consequences for good.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he mentioned only a few people by name. But he also made a fascinating comment about the rest of my fellow workers. Their names, he said, are in the book of life (Philip. 4:3).

The names of his fellow workers are lost to history, but they are not lost to God. And it is not simply that God, who is all-knowing, remembers them as having once existed. No, the generous and loving God has taken Paul’s fellow workers to be with Him for an eternity of joy. Jesus Christ told His apostles that ‘In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you’ (Jn. 14:2). Jesus Christ then died on the cross in the place of His people, so that nameless multitudes would one day inhabit the many dwelling places He has prepared for them.

Your name and mine, like the names of Paul’s fellow workers in Philippians, will be lost to history. But we will never be lost to God. If we are willing to be numbered among the multitude of fellow workers of Paul, you and I too will find our names written in the book of life for eternity.

Chapter 1.

Servant of Abraham

But when food was set before him to eat, he said, I will not eat until I have told my business.

Genesis 24:33

When Abraham was looking for a wife for his son Isaac, he knew better than to search for a wife among the unbelieving daughters of the Canaanites (Gen. 24:3). Abraham was old, advanced in age (Gen. 24:1), but he was still thinking. Believers are to marry believers only, as the Bible frequently tells us in both testaments.

Abraham decided to look for a wife for Isaac, among his relatives a long way off. To fulfill his will, he trusted to the behavior of his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned (Gen. 24:2).

While the designation the oldest of his household does not necessarily tell us that the nameless servant was an old man, my guess is that he was, in absolute terms, quite old. Immediately we have a hint that God expects active, wise service from old people. Moses began his greatest usefulness to God at about age 80! God’s people will still yield fruit in old age; /They shall be full of sap and very green (Ps. 92:14). Christians who are old can be depositories of wisdom, if they have been actively serving God for a long time; experience can be a great teacher.

The Holy Spirit has not told us the man’s name. Some theorize that he may have been Eliezer of Damascus, because when Abraham was still childless, E. of D. was the heir to Abraham’s house (Gen. 15:2). However, significantly more than forty years had passed since Abraham mentioned Eliezer as the heir of his house, so Eliezer might well have died by the time Abraham was looking for a wife for Isaac.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit has rather pointedly refused to identify Abraham’s servant by name, in the long chapter in which we follow his actions. He is called—by my quick, hopefully fairly accurate count—his servant (one time), this man (one time), Abraham’s servant (three times), him (eight times), the man (eight times), the servant (nine times), and he (thirteen times), but he is never named. He also frequently is referred to by words such as me, you, your, his, I—but never named. The Holy Spirit is going out of His way to avoid mentioning the man’s name, almost taunting us with the fact that He is not going to tell us this man’s name.

Why? Maybe God just wants to focus on the way in which He acted in getting a wife for Isaac, a wife from whom the believing line would continue to come down through history, culminating in the birth of Jesus Christ.

Or maybe the man is simply not that important a figure; he wasn’t worth mentioning by name. He was a servant*, and instead of taking inventory on the sheep, he was given an alternative job of going to Abraham’s brother Nahor in Mesopotamia and getting a wife for Isaac. Big whoop; no need to mention him by name.

My own speculation—and it is clearly a speculation: unproven—is that the Holy Spirit is giving us an elbow in the ribs as to the importance of nameless people precisely by refusing to give us the man’s name. The nameless man was, in my reading through the Bible, the very first nameless person who had an heroic role in the Scriptures. At least he was the first who impressed himself upon my consciousness. God was telling us, relatively early in His Scriptures, that here is how His nameless multitudes of believers are encouraged to behave. Here is a nameless man who pleased Me, God is saying. Take note of his example.

Because: Abraham’s servant is very far from a cipher. He is a man of remarkable character, who acted with great, almost ludicrous faith in God, and with great practical wisdom.

He began well, simply by setting out to obey his master Abraham’s instructions. He swore to follow Abraham’s instructions. He loaded ten camels, took along some men with him (Gen. 24:32), and made the long trip to Mesopotamia (Gen. 24:10).

When he got there, in God’s providence at the time when women go out to draw water (Gen. 24:11), his first act was to pray to God.

The manner of his prayer was in itself instructive. We are informed in verse 45 of Chapter 24, that he prayed silently. This is not an insignificant point. Clearly God is so powerful that He can hear our silent prayers. There is no need to speak aloud. There are certainly many appropriate, even necessary times for us to pray aloud, but God hears us even when our prayer is silent, coming from our heart. Our God is omnipotent. And this omnipotent God hears our prayers and takes note of them, as He heard and took note of the prayer of Abraham’s servant. He answered that prayer positively, we find as the story unfolds. Silent prayer is prayer, we learn very early in God’s Bible.

The substance of the servant’s prayers demonstrated heartbreaking faith and practical wisdom.

And he said, O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; now may it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’;—may she be the one whom Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Isaac; and by this I shall know that Thou hast shown lovingkindness to my master. (Gen. 24:12-14)

He straightforwardly asked for success, but with courteous respect to God. He recognized the centrality of his master Abraham; he was not too proud to be a servant to Abraham. He said please; he didn’t demand, although he certainly stated clearly what he wanted. He knew that success would mean lovingkindness to Abraham. He wanted that lovingkindness, that grace, that undeserved but desired blessing.

He prayed that God would make it clear which girl that God Himself had appointed as a wife for Isaac, and framed his prayer in such a way that the girl God had appointed would be a girl with a servant’s heart. The girl God chooses, the servant said, should be kindly willing not only to give the servant a drink, but also willing to water those ten thirsty camels! That’s a prayer of practical wisdom.

And God said, wham, bam, done. And it came about before he had finished speaking (Gen.24:15)—before he had finished speaking!—that God provided the servant, Abraham, and Isaac, with the beautiful—oops, sorry, she’s not just beautiful, she’s very beautiful—pure, and servant-hearted Rebekah. How typical of our generous God, to give far more than we ask for, when we ask in the right way. The servant asked for a servant-hearted wife for Isaac, and God, before he had finished speaking, gave him a servant-hearted wife for Isaac. And gave a girl who was very beautiful. And gave a girl who was sexually pure (Gen. 24:16). And gave a girl who recognized God’s call (Gen. 24:58). And gave a girl who was modest (Gen. 24:65).

The servant did not dilly-dally. Perhaps the way Rebekah carried herself inclined him to suspect that she might be God’s answer to his prayers. In any case, he ran to meet her and politely asked for a drink of water.

Rebekah’s response immediately showed that there was a good chance that he was on the right track. She spoke respectfully to him: ‘Drink, my lord,’ and she quickly gave him a drink.

Rebekah, without being prompted, also volunteered to draw water for his ten camels, acting with great quickness. She quickly emptied her jar into the trough, then ran back to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels (Gen. 24:17-20).

Servant-hearted people are rare, and are worth their weight in gold. If you want a good spouse for your child, pray that God would give him/her a servant-hearted spouse. But if you’re going to pray that way, in simple justice you ought to be raising your own child to be servant-hearted. Our instincts are not that way, but we can be trained to be servants. Cultivate your own miniscule gift of serving, and God will see no inconsistency in you expecting and wanting the same servant’s heart for your children. And He will then be far more likely to give your children spouses with servants’ hearts. And don’t be surprised if our generous God gives your children spouses bearing other delightful gifts as well, just as Rebekah was even more wonderful than the servant asked.

Abraham’s servant wondered if this might indeed be God’s provision for a wife for Isaac. He also politely asked if he could have lodging. Rebekah generously said they have ‘plenty’ of straw and feed, and room to lodge.

She also identified herself as the granddaughter of Nahor. Guided by God, the servant of Abraham had indeed landed among Abraham’s relatives.

The man bowed low and worshiped God, acknowledging His kindness both to Abraham and to himself. He was always very conscious of the acting and generous God.

A few verses later food was set before him, but the servant said he wouldn’t eat until he had told his business. First things first.

He told the story of Abraham’s instructions, of his own prayer, of God’s apparent answer to prayer in sending Rebekah to him. Having given a full explanation, he followed this up by saying, ‘So now if you are going to deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, let me know, that I may turn to the right hand or the left’ (Gen. 24:49). He was not demanding; if they tell him it’s no go, he will leave. He was courteous but he was also straightforward. He wanted Rebekah for Isaac’s wife, and he wanted her now.

Laban and Bethuel recognized that all this was from God, and agreed to send Rebekah to Isaac. The servant immediately bowed to the ground before God.

He gave gifts to Rebekah and to her brother (Laban) and to her mother (Milcah). Then, finally, he ate and drank.

He spent the night with them, but in the morning he was ready to return home with Rebekah, that very day. Her relatives asked for ten days, but the servant was in no mood to delay. He wanted to take Rebekah away immediately. Rebekah was consulted, and agreed to return with the servant right now. They reached Isaac safely, and the servant reported on what had happened.

Abraham’s nameless servant shows us the value of a faithful, God-fearing servant of God. He was doing the will of his master and of God, and was not focused on his own will. He prayed with great practical wisdom, recognizing the incalculable value of a servant’s heart. He acknowledged God’s centrality in all of life. He was courteous, but straightforward, prompt, diligent. He acted to see God’s desires fulfilled; his example to us is clear. May we imitate him as we seek to serve God in our day.

Chapter 2.

The Man Whose Son Was Demon-Possessed

Lord, have mercy on my son

Matthew 17:15

A nameless man had a son who was an epileptic, and that son often fell into fire and water. Having a need, the man came to Jesus Christ. He fell on his knees and asked for mercy (Matt. 17:14-18).

Jesus Christ rebuked the demon, and the boy was cured at once.

This is a very simple and brief story, but there are several things worth noting.

When the man came to Jesus Christ, he came humbly, falling on his knees before Him (Matt. 17:14). Pride is the leading sin of most of us, as it was the key sin of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:1-6), who knew better than God. This man fell on his knees before Jesus Christ. Perhaps you and I should be on our knees before Him more often.

The man further expressed his humility, in asking for mercy on his son (Matt. 17:15). He didn’t ask for justice. He didn’t want justice. He wanted and needed mercy, and knew it. He also wanted something beyond the ordinary run of human events. His son he identified as being epileptic (described rather as being a lunatic in at least one translation), and this was causing numerous practical problems. Having a need, the man told his need straightforwardly, and asked for help.

The man mentioned that he had tried working through Jesus’ disciples, but they had not been able to help. He was not complaining, he was just stating the facts. There may, in fact, be times when even the godly, well-intentioned people of God are not able to help us with our problems. We can always go directly to God, as the man went directly to Jesus Christ.

This is intended not at all to disparage the help other Christians are able to give us. Indeed, we need other Christians desperately, and most of us need to work far more diligently at involving other Christians in our lives, and need to work far more diligently at involving ourselves in the lives of other Christians, and in the lives of non-Christians. No, we need other Christians, and they can help us, and often do help us in tremendous fashion. They are able to help us, however, because the Holy Spirit lives in them; the Holy Spirit comes to them from the Father God and bears witness of Jesus Christ (Jn. 15:26). The triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the ultimate source of the help we get from Christians.

But we can always apply directly to God through Jesus Christ. The man went to the disciples of Christ, was not helped, and went directly to Jesus Christ. Do you and I have something about which Christians have been not much help? Do we have something we’re afraid or ashamed to share with others? Do we have high aspirations, about which we are hesitant to speak with others? If we do, we wouldn’t be the first, in any of these categories and probably several more. We can, with the nameless man, always go directly to Jesus Christ for help. Are our prayers to him flawed and perhaps even wrongheaded? Join the crowd. God has seen and heard as bad or almost as bad, from a lot of people. And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Rom. 8:26-27). The Holy Spirit helps our prayers along, separating the wheat from the chaff, and intercedes for us. There is nothing to stop us from going to God through Jesus Christ, flawed though our prayers and actions are.

The man was not helped by the disciples, he applied directly to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ immediately acted in response to the man’s request. He rebuked the demon, the demon came out of the boy, and the boy was cured at once (Matt. 17:18).

The nameless man quickly passed from the Bible record. May we learn, through him, the value of humility, the need to need mercy, the practicality of speaking up straightforwardly, and the always-open opportunity to approach directly to God through Jesus Christ.

Chapter 3.

The Helpers of Job

Then all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all who had known him before, came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold.

Job 42:11

The story of Job is well known. Job was very rich, and very godly. Satan told God that his (Satan’s) theory was that Job loved God only because God had blessed Job so greatly. God gave Satan permission, in two stages, to bring disaster on Job. That’s the kind of job that Satan, in his envious cruelty, would be sure to execute promptly. Job was deprived of his wealth, of all ten of his children, and of his health (Job 1-2:8).

Through all this, Job continued in his integrity, but he had to admit that he felt that God was being unfair to him, and he spoke up and said what he thought. God eventually spoke up in return, explaining Himself more fully, rebuking Job to a certain extent but not in a fiercely angry way (Job 38-41). At the end of a fairly long book of 42 chapters, Job had a deeper understanding of God’s right to do what He wants with His own. God, for His part, did not overmuch blame Job for getting a little testy, and said that Job had spoken what was right about God, whereas Job’s three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had not done so (Job 42:7).

God then restored the fortunes of Job, giving him exactly double the amount of his former wealth. His 7,000 sheep had been killed; God now gave Job 14,000 sheep. And so on through camels, oxen, and female donkeys, double always being restored to Job. In the case of his ten children who had been killed, God did not give Job double this time. But He did give Job ten more children, seven sons and three daughters, just as before.

God is in sovereign control of every event of world history. But He uses means. God restored the fortunes of Job, yes, but God also used, at least in part, the actions of human beings to restore Job to his wealth.

God used in this case, quite a few nameless people. Then all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all who had known him before, came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold (Job 42:11).

We can guess that these nameless people were very numerous indeed. We are told that all who had known him before, along with his brothers and sisters, were those who came forward with money and a ring of gold. We are told each one did so. If we read the book of Job, we find that Job was the kind of man to have a very wide circle of acquaintances. He had been a man of astonishing generosity, helping widows and orphans and involving himself in their lives in very practical ways (Job 31:16-22). He had been respectful even of the rights of his slaves (Job 31:13-15), recognizing their common humanity, under God, with him. Job delivered the poor and the orphan (Job 29:12). He was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, enemy to the wicked in cases where justice was needed (Job 29:15-17).

Satan, in fact, had been wrong—what a surprise, that Satan would be wrong—in accusing Job of having a mere cupboard love toward God. Job had always truly loved God, and had shown it by his actions toward other people.

It is certainly no wild speculation, therefore, to guess that in his hour of need, the all who had known him before was a very large number of people. We can fairly guess that countless people whom he had helped and had treated with respect, now came forward. Each one brought a little bit. Each one brought a piece of money. Some of those pieces of money may have been large in value, others perhaps very small. Each one brought what he or she could. Remembering Job’s kindness to them, probably they were delighted to be able to help him now in his hour of need, whether the value of the coin they brought was large or small. Each one also brought a ring of gold.

This has the feel of something pretty well organized. People must have talked together, and planned this out. Let’s all bring a piece of money, and all bring a ring of gold. Tell everyone who knows and loves Job. Let’s get together three months from today. No, make it four months, so that we’re sure everyone knows about it and has time to get his gift together.

Something like that must have happened. On the day appointed, or over a much longer period, each person came forth with his or her gift. They were very glad to do so, no doubt—thrilled to be able to help the man who had helped them and had treated them kindly.

And if each person does a little bit, a lot of money can be raised pretty quickly. The amount of money which was suddenly plopped in Job’s lap, must have been pretty extensive. God is a God of means. God, through the actions of Job’s siblings and those who knew him, gave Job capital with which to begin to move his herds of sheep, camels, oxen, and female donkeys from their current zero to their eventual position double his original wealth. This was of course possible due to God expressly blessing Job (Job 42:12), but God is a God of means. He used the giving of others to put Job back on his feet financially, and to shove him off in the right direction toward renewed wealth.

If there are 30,000,000 adult Christians in the U. S.—true believers who really have been converted by God, not self-deceived pretenders—and there probably are that many, we can begin to understand the power of nameless Christians to accomplish good. What if, for example, each of the 30,000,000 adult Christians contributed just $50.00 once a year toward crisis pregnancy centers or to right to life groups, or to other people striving to protect unborn children from being murdered? Fifty dollars is not a lot, and most of us could give that easily. Fifty times 30,000,000 is one and a half billion dollars. That would be quite a war chest in the battle for saving the lives of unborn children. If we nameless Christians had the heart to do that every year—we already have the financial means, but right now we lack the heart—our God would use that means for great good in defending the unborn. If being the key word here, of course. If a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his fanny so hard when he landed, as my late father so often reminded us.

However, the help given by Job’s siblings and by all who had known him before was not just financial, as dramatically significant as that financial help was. No, we are told that these nameless people came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him.

Perhaps on one appointed day, more likely on many days stretched over weeks and months, suddenly people came to Job, to express their love and their appreciation for him. This was active love on their part. They didn’t just happen to see Job downtown, and feel forced to speak up and say, Sorry to hear about all the tough times you’ve had, Job. No, they came to him. Their actions were intentional. They brought money, rings of gold, but they brought much more.

They gave him their fellowship. They ate bread with him. We can guess that they provided this bounty as well. Knowing Job’s straitened means, they would not have expected him to provide food to feed them. They didn’t just drop by with a casserole or a pie, then immediately leave. They ate bread with him in his house. One of the numerous ways we Christians can vastly improve our fellowship with other Christians and with non-Christians, is to eat meals together in our homes. That’s where we can make more progress in getting to know people well, in two or three hours, than we can in ten or twelve years of polite greetings at church or in our neighborhood. Job’s siblings and friends came to him, bringing the food, and ate with him.

His friends consoled him and comforted him. This consolation and comfort must have been of great practical benefit in restoring Job to active life. He had been through a lot. He had lost all his wealth, had lost all ten of his children in one day. Painful boils followed (Job 2:7-8). Three close friends then indicated their belief that he, Job, was being punished by God for his sinfulness, which Job understandably found extremely frustrating. Even his closest friends were piling on!

So we can be sure Job needed all the consolation and comfort he could get. His siblings and all who had known him gave him what he needed psychologically. Suddenly, Job’s life was not over. God encouraged him directly in His communication with Job, and now God encouraged him through the means of other people.

Knowing he was loved and respected, Job had the emotional strength to return to life. He also had capital with which to begin to rebuild his flocks. Eventually, he waxed doubly wealthy. He fathered ten more children, including three named daughters who were famous for beauty. He lived 140 more years, seeing four generations of heirs (Job 42:12-17).

Job’s nameless siblings and friends have much to teach us. Each did a little bit, and it added up to a lot. Their interaction with Job was personal: they came to him, they ate bread with him, they consoled him and comforted him. It wasn’t just words, with no substance to back it up. They opened their hearts to him, and they opened their wallets.

We too can be the means by which God brings good to others. We can be generous financially, we can interact with others in a personal way, we can comfort and console others. His friends came to him. We can go to others in active love. Our God of means can use the generosity of His nameless millions to advance His kingdom greatly.*

Chapter 4.

The Two Blind Men

And as they were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David! And the multitude sternly told them to be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David! And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, What do you want Me to do for you? They said to Him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened. And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight, and followed Him.

Matthew 20:29-34

The two nameless blind men were not actively seeking Jesus Christ. A multitude of people were following Jesus Christ at that time, but these two were not among that multitude. They were simply sitting by the side of the road.

In the providence of God, they happened to be sitting by the side of the road. Suddenly they sensed a multitude passing. Listening carefully to the speech of others, perhaps even asking a question or two, they had the disturbance explained to them: Jesus was passing by.

They may not have been actively seeking Jesus Christ, but they had heard of Him. They knew that some people, at least, believed that Jesus Christ was one who could work miracles. They knew that some people, at least, believed Jesus Christ to be some sort of extraordinary messenger from God, perhaps the Son of David the Israelite people had been expecting someday. Was He a prophet? Divine? Whatever He was, He was unusual.

They recognized their moment had come—maybe it had come, that is. They probably didn’t reason it all out, thinking, God in His providence has put us here by the side of the road at exactly the right time to be able to hear that this extraordinary person Jesus Christ is passing. Such a realization may have come later, but at the moment they simply heard that Jesus Christ was there, and responded instinctively.

What they did was, they cried out. Probably they were friends. They were two men who were suffering one of the saddest states men can experience: physical blindness. Their common handicap had thrown them together, probably, and over the course of months or even years, their friendship had grown. Each found consolation, support, a psychic lightening of the darkness, in the fellowship of the other. This is purely a guess, of course, but it seems very likely. We always need other people, and we need them all the more when we suffer bitter disappointment. In the bitter disappointment of their blindness, these two men had found one another, and it is very likely that each had found in the other, a similar outlook that allowed them to be friends rather than just acquaintances.

Because, at the moment of crisis, they acted as one. They didn’t have to discuss what to do. Is it possible that in prior days they had talked about Jesus Christ among themselves? Had they discussed what they would do if Jesus Christ came