“It was not an enemy insulting me…
But it was you … my companion, my close friend.”
—Ps. 55:12-13

Now the Friends are Ready to Talk

As we saw earlier, the three friends had come together to comfort Job, and as they journeyed together they probably talked about what they were going to say and how they were going to go about it.

Each one addresses Job a little differently, each according to his own personality and probably age and position. Yet, their words contain pretty much the same message, just wrapped a little differently.

The first one to speak is Eliphaz. I would describe him as the most candid friend. I’m sure you would recognize this person: he’s the one in your life who always feels it incumbent on himself to say whatever is on his mind.

He figures the only way to help Job is to speak very directly, and plainly. So he begins by saying: “If I try to speak to you Job, are you going to be impatient with me? Do I have to walk on eggshells with you? Are you going to bite my head off, Job? But who could help speaking after listening to all the junk you have said?” So without holding any punches, he goes on to put into plain, bald language the bitterest thought of all, a thought that Job had probably been wrestling with already.

“Job, you have taught others, helped them with your words, strengthened and upheld those that were falling, and now, when you’re put into some of the same circumstances, we see you discouraged and troubled.”

Boy that ought to comfort Job! Don’t you think that Job knew all this already? When he’s sitting there talking about death and the grave as a place of rest, don’t you think he knew he was fainting? In addition, did the memory of the way he had instructed others add to his despair? Nevertheless, it must have been hard to have his friend say it in cold, bare words.

Think of it, here Job sits in front of him stripped of everything, his heart torn and exposed, his words desperate, his eyes wild and probing and pleading for comfort, and what does the gentle Eliphaz have to offer? The gist of his entire argument can be summed up with the stinging comment he makes. “It seems to me, those who sow trouble reap trouble.”

I’ve found myself in exactly the same position. I touched on this earlier, but when Patrice and I moved to Ann Arbor, I left a position of church leadership where I taught, counseled, and encouraged others in their times of trial. Then came to Ann Arbor to be, as one brother called it, “just another ‘cog in the wheel.’”

I never realized how important that place of recognition was to me until it was taken away from me—in fact, I discovered I had my entire identity and self-worth tied up into that identity. When a brother was trying to help me deal with it, I was constantly reminding myself how I used to give the same counsel to others. It was almost as if I was hearing my own words being played back to me. That bothered me more than the problem he was trying to help me with!

“Job, you of all men should know how to trust God in the hour of trial,” Eliphaz continued. “Isn’t your knowledge of Him sufficient to give you confidence now?”

I’m sure those of you who are in a fiery furnace right now recognize those words. They are the words of many who are trying to comfort you. They talk to your grief and try to comfort you by saying, “You encouraged others to be strong, and now you’re fainting yourself. Where’s your faith now?”

If you’re interested, you can download the whole study of Job.

Other Bible Studies and Commentary are available at http://doulos-studies.info.