Text Job 2:11-13
In our last article, we considered what Job said to his friends when he broke the silence. They had sat on the ground with him for seven days and mourned with him. At the end of that time, Job spoke up – he cursed the day that he was born. As we come to chapter 4, Job’s friends begin to reply.
In fact, chapters 4-31, are all about the the back and forth between Job and his friends. Each man has ‘his say’ 3 times, and after each Job responds. By the time that they finish, there seems nothing left to say and nothing has been settled. And it is at that point, in chapter 32, that a kind of young punk named Elihu steps in to rip one more strip off of Job.
If you have read those chapters, it is easy to be critical of these men…especially Elihu. But in fairness, we ought to ask…is there not something that they did right? What can we learn from what they did and said? What should we do based on their example?
It turns out that there was actually a lot to admire about them…so let’s start with that.
When they heard about all of the bad stuff that had happened to Job, they dropped everything and came running. They put their heads together and made a plan with Job as their first priority. It is often the case, that you find out who your real friends when disaster strikes. When everybody else is running away…who is it that is running to help? When family and friends are passing by on the other side...who is it that is stopping?
If ever there had been a good Samaritan back in that day…Job had been it. But now that Job needed help – where were they all? It was a bit ironic that the people who actually showed up…had to come from a long way off, to do it.
Which raises a question – where are we – when bad times hit a friend? Do we shake our heads and say…that’s too bad? Do we avoid them? Or do we ask God to help us to help them?
In short, do we do what Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar did? They got together to help. They formed a group, to share the load and to help each other as they helped Job.
They did that because is strength in numbers. And when a group of friends comes to help, it really says: “you are not alone” and “we are all in this together”. We may have take personal time off, use up some vacation time and rack up travel expenses. Investing ourselves in the lives of others is what we are here for. So I really like this about Job’s friends. They dropped what they were doing and came running
There is no substitute for ‘being there’. Cards and letters are good. Phone calls encourage, but bodily presence trumps it all. There is nothing like the human touch. So they showed up, because nothing else would do.
It was the godly thing to do, since God himself has not left us alone. He is everywhere at once and also close by. Immanent and transcendent, but not even that was enough. So He became flesh and dwelt among us as one of us. It was the divine litmus test…and still is.
When his friends showed up in person, it was a measure of how much they cared. And they came specifically to sympathize and comfort. They got it right and so should we .
The next thing that they got right was deeply personal. The text says:
When they looked from a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe, and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky.
They looked him in the face and saw how bad off Job really was. They had heard, but now they saw for themselves, and it got to them. They put themselves in his place and felt his pain. It was no longer just Job…they were all in it together.
They did what Job had done. They tore their clothes, threw dust on their heads and sat down on the ground…and wept. There was not a dry eye or a fake tear. .
A lot of things in life are way beyond our control. What they did admitted just that. They couldn’t reach out and heal Job. They couldn’t turn back the clock to bring his children from the grave. There was no sense in which they could undo what had been done. So they shared Job’s helplessness – which was actually the biggest help that they would ever be.
I’ll be the first to admit that I find that really hard to do. The first thing that I want to do…is to jump in and fix things. I am all about problem-solving and tinkering. And not liking to groan or complain, I start looking for something to do.
In a 1972 movie called the Poseiden Adventure, Gene Hackman played the ‘reverend’ Frank Scott. His most memorable line was, that “God helps those who help themselves”. And while I don’t believe that that is true, I sometimes act as if it is. The truth is more like…God helps those humble enough to admit that they need help and who ask for it.
Job’s friends got it right. They were were sympathetic and surrounded him to comfort and console. And they were humble enough, at least at the start, not to try to fix things as a matter of first priority.
They also got at least one other thing right. They were incredibly patient. The book says: “Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.
Have any of us ever shut up for a whole week? Are you kidding? I mean, if I have to sit on the ground in torn clothes with dirt on my head, someone is going to hear about it. But that is what they did. For a whole week – no one said anything…or did anything. No one fetched or carried – cooked or ate…They did not do or say a thing.
How hard is that? In our world, productivity is everything. Doing nothing is useless. Yet in their wisdom, they did nothing, said nothing, and just stuck it out with Job.
His life was on hold and so was theirs. He was in incredible pain. They hurt for him. And as long as he had nothing to say, they waited for him to speak first.
How comfortable are we with silence? Are we at peace inside of our own minds, saying nothing at all? Yet in times such as these, silence is eloquent and just the thing.
Summing up, here are the obvious things that they did right.
- They cared enough to invest themselves personally in Job’s welfare.
- They didn’t sent somebody else or settle for messages of condolence
- They sympathized and empathized
- They shared his deprivation
- They gave up their own comfort to stand by Job and to make common cause with him. They were shouting to the world…that they were not ashamed to be his friends.
- And they were patient
One of the less obvious things that they did right was that they eventually came around to some difficult conversations. It was, ‘the elephant in the room’ kind of talk. The thing that we’d all rather ignore and postpone.
It is not just a Canadian thing to be non-confrontational. Most of us will go way, way. out of our way – to avoid difficult conversations. It is to their credit that they stayed with Job long enough to talk about what was on his mind and on also on theirs.
Now as we observed earlier, they let him lead off and get the conversation started, which Job did by cursing the day of his birth. He basically said – life stinks – it is not fair – and I wish I was dead.
Then and only then that Job’s friends began to get things wrong. If only they had stayed silent. Job was perhaps not quite finished when Eliphaz spoke up. Had they let him go on, they would have discovered that he actually agreed with what they were going to say, because up until his life fell apart, it was what he believed too. But their patience had run out and they were raring to go.
So Eliphaz got the ball rolling …when he asked: “If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?
Okay Job, you’ve had your say. We have been patient and waited our turn. Now will you be patient and listen for a change? And then he added: ‘who can refrain from speaking”? In other words…enough is enough. We’re sorry about everything that’ happened…we really are. But…it is time that you faced up to the facts.
And you already know what I’m going to say – because it is what you used to tell others. You have taught many, strengthened the weak, corrected the stumbling. And now that you are the one who needs help, it’s almost as if you have forgotten everything that you once knew.
But the facts are the facts. We all know that God does not allow the innocent to perish, or the righteous to be destroyed. But now that you are perishing, you are horrified. You are out of patience and can’t seem to figure out why this has happened. So let’s connect the dots even, though you ought to be able to do it yourself.
As Eliphaz rambles on, he says in effect…no one is sinless. In verses 17-19, He claimed to have received a message in a vision, that asked:
Can mankind be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His servants; And He accuses His angels of error. How much more those who live in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth!
He sounds a bit like the apostle Paul when he wrote to the church at Rome in 3:10, saying: There is no righteous person, not even one
And again in 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
So…Job, who do you think that you are? Even the angels have sinned and God made no exception for them. Don’t be surprised, that God has now gotten around to you for you are not the one exception to the rule.
Coming to chapter 5, Eliphaz goes one step further in verses 1-4, saying:
“Call now, is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn? For irritation kills the fool, And jealousy brings death to the simple.
I have seen the fool taking root, And I cursed his home immediately.
His sons are far from safety, They are also oppressed at the gate, And there is no one to save them.
Eliphaz claimed that Job – in his unrepentant condition was disqualified to pray. No one would hear him…not even the angels.
He said that – Job had become a fool – in the eyes of God. And it was God who had brought him down…and destroyed his children. God had allowed his goods to be plundered. And Eliphaz knows this because trouble of this kind does not spring from the ground. Stuff like this does not just happen…so, open your eyes, this is justice from heaven.
But wait…do you want to know what I’d do? His advice is found in verses 8-16. And if Job takes that advice, here’s what will happen – Verses 17-27
So I advise: That you seek God…Appeal to him for forgiveness – because
- God’s ways are unsearchable
- His benevolence is generous
- He raises the humble and exalts those who repent
- But he frustrates the shrewd and defeats the wicked
So…turn to God and come out of the darkness, and God will save you and forgive.
The key, is to comprehend… where you stand. You have been disciplined but not destroyed. You’ve been struck down but not without hope. So… thank God for that and accept it. Because the one who has inflicted pain can take it away, and the one who has wounded can also heal
And he will do all of that – you can count on it. God will save you – more times than you are in trouble. Having saved you, he will protect you. He will protect you from:
- famine and death,
- from war and the sword
- from verbal attack and even, the forces of nature.
God will be for you and not against you..and you will know peace and security
- You’ll be at peace with God – at peace within and at peace with God’s creation
- No one will steal your stuff.
- Your descendants will be many, yours sons secure
- You will live to a ripe old age and pass away in peace.
It’s all out there waiting…the ball’s in your court, Job. Time to repent, to come clean and throw yourself on God’s mercy.
Do you want to know how I know? “Behold this; we have investigated it, and so it is. Hear it, and know for yourself.”
Eliphaz comes on strong and comes off promising the world. He knows what he knows and Job’s only hope is to know it too.
This first speech from Job’s friends is the most friendly of them all. It is the least faultfinding and the most kind, and it is positively hopeful
It is all of this, while at the same time saying:
- Job you are a sinner – and you’ve got to repent.
- As long as you refuse…you are the fool.
- Time to shut up, own up, and make up with God.
From here on in, things go from this – to much worse. The friends become more and more accusing. They begin to list the categories of Job’s sins…and then get down to graphic detail. Their tone changes. Tender appeals become sharp-tongued and harsh. Peers become superiors who put Job down. Spiritual counsel gives way to verbal beating as mercy disappears.
They accuse Job of abandoning God. They say that he is guilty of hidden sin – he’s been a hypocrite, A man with impure thoughts…and the list goes on. No wonder then that God responded as he does in chapters 38-41.
But the point is that they started well and did so much that was good and right, but ended up undoing it all – by what they went on to say. It is easy for good intentions to go off the rails, which happens quite often when you are right and know that you are right.
Anyone ever been right? Totally right? Righteously right? And then found out that you were wrong and wrong and wrong again? Kind of brings you up short, right?
Well that’s where they were headed…because they did not know that Job was blameless in the sight of God. There was no room in their worldview for the possibility of ‘righteous suffering’. Out of sight and mind…was Satan’s role in what was happening, even though they did know that God had judged sinful angels…and had said so.
In their world…the righteous always prosper and the wicked always failed. Sin and suffering went hand in hand – ordained by God and it was fair. So as they tried to wring a confession out of Job, they became more and more desperate.
Days passed into weeks. They stayed on, for in a real sense, they could not go home. They could not go home until Job confessed, for if Job had not fallen into a life of sin, and yet had suffered as no one had, then, literally, no one is safe. What happened to Job could happen to anyone, at any time and apparently for no reason at all.
All of which causes us to ask: In whom or in what do we trust? Where does our sense of security come from? Does it come from our good deeds? Do we feel secure only as long as we have an answer for everything? Or have we placed our trust in God – and especially when we don’t have the answers?
That is what is called for. God wants us to know His will and His ways. He wants us to do his will and to live in ‘all good conscience before him. But He also wants us to trust him when life does not make sense and when bad things happen. God will not fail us…now or in the end.
Until then, let us not fail each other. But let us encourage each other, and so much more as we see the Day of the Lord approaching.