In Proverbs 12:5 the Bible says that, “The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.” Therefore, it is good to be able to decipher between the advice of the righteous and that of the wicked. But unfortunately, the voice of the wicked is not always easily recognizable. The Devil, the enemy, will help make sure that such is the case.
Consequently, Peter warns in 1 Pet.5:8, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” The devil is very wicked and is always ready to cause us to sin against God. And one of the ways he does this is through wicked advice. What’s worse is that Satan will often use people whom we love and respect in order to get to us. Also, the people who are being used are rarely aware that the devil is using them to accomplish his will. That was the case with Job’s wife and three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
Job was a great man, a man of integrity. He was rich and was living a godly life until calamity hit. And then things went badly wrong. Bad fortune hit so hard and fast rapidly that even Job’s loving wife urged him to abandon his integrity – to curse God and die. It seemed that God had abandoned him and no longer cared. (Job 2:9). It must have been devastating for Job to hear that from his wife.
Then along came his three good friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They came with the best intentions. Job 2:11 says that “When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.”
They came together from three different places having agreed to go see Job – to sympathize with him and comfort him. That’s what good friends do. And when they got there and saw Job and the condition he was in, they couldn’t believe their eyes. They were devastated and felt his pain.
12When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. (Job 2:12-13).
They were so sorry to see how terrible life had become for Job that they tore their robes and sprinkling dust on their heads. According to Webster’s dictionary tearing the hair or clothing is done as a sign of anger, grief, or despair. Within ancient tradition, it was associated with mourning, grief, and loss. The first mention of someone tearing his garments is in Genesis. “When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes” (Genesis 37:29). A short time later, “Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days” (Genesis 37:34) when he thought that Joseph had been killed.
Other biblical examples of men who tore their clothes to express pain and sorrow include David, when Saul and Jonathan were killed (2 Sam.1:11–12), and Paul and Barnabas, when the people of Lystra began to worship them after Paul had healed a lame man (Acts 14:14).
So, tearing one’s clothes was a public and powerful expression of grief in ancient times. The practice continues today in the Jewish practice of keriah. (Keriah: the traditional Jewish act or ceremony of rending one’s garment at the funeral of a near relative as a symbol of mourning, Webster’s dictionary).
Job’s three friends meant well. As bro. Kercheville says, “The friends are showing themselves to be true friends and true companions of Job. There is nothing in this description to give us a negative idea about what was to come. Empathy and companionship is what we all need when suffering pain and loss. It is what good friends do and what these men did. Having gathered from afar, they sat in silence with Job for seven days. Not a word was said – for his suffering was beyond words. They were a great comfort to Job until they started talking. And then it all went downhill from there.
May we do better than Job’s friends. They didn’t get to read Paul’s advice in Colossians 4:6: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” As the saying goes, “If you have nothing encouraging to say, say nothing at all.”
Satan is ready and able to use anyone at any time – who is willing to do his will. He wants us sin against God, and is most successful when he works through the people whom we love and respect. But, may we with God’s help, be like Job, who resisted the devil by rejecting bad advice, for “We are not unaware of his schemes.” 2 Cor. 2:11