Bible Reading for January 5 – Job 6-9

How can we help our friends in their time of need? Unfortunately, Job’s friends provide both a positive and a negative example. Oh, they started out all right. In 1:12 we learn that when they saw Job’s suffering they cried, and tore their clothes, and put dust on their heads – all very appropriate expressions of grief in their culture. They thus mourned Job’s loss right along with him – and that is one of the best things we can do for our hurting friends.

They also sat with him for seven days and seven nights (1:13), and that’s another good thing to do. Just being there can be a powerful reminder of our care and concern. Providing a listening ear to someone who is grieving, allowing him or her to share memories of their departed loved ones is an important way to help them heal.

But then, Job’s friends opened their mouths and ruined everything. Now, a lot of what they said was true, at least in general. Eliphaz was right that no human being is pure and innocent (4:17). Bildad was right that God is always perfectly just, and always does what is right (8:3). But they tried to apply their general knowledge about God in a way that did not, in fact, fit Job’s particular situation. So they ended up accusing Job, assuming that he must have done something wrong to bring all his suffering upon himself. That’s why Job bitterly compares his friends’ words to a dry stream-bed, a place where the hope of man and beast soon turns to disappointment (6:17-20).

So, why did Job’s friends try to sit in judgment on him? Why did they insist that he must deserve the blame for his problems? So they could remain in control. After all, if we can attach a cause to every effect, we know how to stay out of trouble, right? So, all too often, we try to figure out why someone is suffering so that we can assure ourselves the same thing won’t happen to us.

But when we do that, our focus is on ourselves, on trying to assuage our own fears (6:21). Instead, when our friends are hurting, we need to be more concerned with consoling, comforting and encouraging them. And if we all trust in God’s justice and mercy, even when we don’t understand what is going on in our lives, we’ll have the confidence to do just that.

Job 6:14-30 (ESV)

14 “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15 My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away,
16 which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.
17 When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
18 The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.
20 They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed.
21 For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid.
22 Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?
23 Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?
24 “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.
25 How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove?
26 Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
27 You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.
28 “But now, be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face.
29 Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake.
30 Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?