Friday Morning Reflections – Wisdom Literature

I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all! (Job 16:2)

The Advice Of Friends

It goes without saying that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were not the source of encouragement needed by the man called Job. His tragic story is told of the loss of his wealth and death of ten children compounded later by the loss of his health. Nothing could prepare him for the onslaught of criticism from his friends that belittled him and charged Job with being a hypocrite. A fourth person quietly listened to the barrage of unkind advice from the three friends until he spoke up in anger against the condemnation leveled against Job. In the end it was the Lord who had the final word as the breath of God consumed them all as a whirlwind. He accused Eliphaz and his two cohorts of speaking against what is right and demanded they make sacrifice while Job prayed for them. The Lord restored Job’s losses and gave him twice as much as what he had before.

Peeking behind the curtain we saw the story of Job unfold from its beginning with Satan making charges against God about Job. We saw the misery this wonderful man of God had to endure and our disgust at the horrible manner he was treated by his friends. But I can’t help but think that while we look at the book of Job as the central theme of victory over suffering it is also clear a lesson on friendship gone awry. It is easy to sit back and judge Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. But I have been where they put themselves with Job. I have been critical and unkind in judgments made of others. No one this side of heaven knew the real reason Job lost everything. The mistake his friends made is they thought they knew the answer. They were not bad friends. They were friends who mourned what happened to their friend and tried to find the right words – failing miserably.

True friendship requires patience, love and understanding whether we understand or not. The story is told of a father who was sitting in a restaurant quietly by himself while his children were raucous and loud. He seemed detached from what was going on around him. Finally, in anger a man approached the father and berated him for allowing his children to act in such a manner and not taking action. Asked why the father was being so inconsiderate a grieving father looked up in tear stained eyes explaining he was trying to find a way to tell his children their mother died. There was a story. In the book of Job there was a story the friends did not know. It is clear they should have taken the higher road with their friend Job but they did not. I have found myself on the same path.

Let us learn to be a good friend who seeks to comfort others measured by the compassion we have for a story that may be unknown to us. There are so many times we don’t know the right thing to say and often the right thing to say is nothing. But when we venture to speak may our hearts speak before our lips.

To love, if we study the revelation of Jesus’ behavior, means to desire for any individual, at any cost to himself or us, his release to growth. (Winifred Kirkland, The Man of the Hour, 1942)