Job is my favorite book of the Bible. I have loved Job since hearing E. V. Hill preach his wife’s funeral from the book of Job. Job’s story is heart-wrenching, but his faith is exceptional, and his God proves to be magnificent and glorious.
Job suffers, not because he is sinful, but precisely because he is so committed to the Lord. God throws Job into the fight of his life because Job can survive and because Job will ultimately point the world toward a God who is glorious and good. Job learns much. Job learns that God is far greater than he could have ever dreamed. Job also expresses a gospel hope in Job 9:33 when he declares, “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both,” or as it is also rendered, “Would that there were an arbiter between us, two might lay his hand on us both.”
Job needed an intercessor. Job needed the advocate that we are told of in 1 John 2:1, “Jesus Christ, the righteous.”
But, it turns out that what Job didn’t need was friends. Job had friends.
Now, if you are familiar with Job’s plight you might say something like “With friends like that, Job didn’t need enemies.” But, I believe that Job’s friends should be reconsidered from a different angle.
Were they misinformed? Yes. Did they speak when they should have kept silent? Of course. Did they even engage in some really bad theology during a time of terrible tragedy? Yes, and in all honesty, who of us hasn’t been guilty of doing the same?
But, in all of those criticisms, what have we missed about Job’s friends?
They were there.
They talked too much, but they were there. They ministered with their presence. In fact, when they learned what had happened to Job, “they made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.” And then, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar showed up and “They raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat on the ground seven day seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Job’s friends might not have had great words, but Job’s friends were there. Would Job have rather been alone, or would have have preferred to be surrounded by friends–even if those friends said stupid and sometimes insensitive things?
It has been the rare experience of my life to hear people in times of great grief and loss say that they wanted to be alone. Normally, when bad things happen, people want friends, loved ones, and community to surround and support them.
In the E. V. Hill sermon referenced above he opens by saying, “I want to thank all of you who have come from so many places, and not any of you had to be asked to come, all of you called and said, ‘I’m on my way.'”
Friends show up. When life gets hard, communities rally. Churches act like the church is supposed to act.
Friends don’t have to be asked to come, they just call and say, “I’m on my way.”
Job’s friends didn’t have the right words to say, but they showed up anyway. Will you show up in times of trouble? Will you be there when others aren’t? Are you willing to sit in silence for seven days and weep with your loved ones, if that’s what they need?
Job’s friends get a reprove from God because they didn’t speak of God what was right. But God did not rebuke them for showing up.
When the world runs out, friends run in. When the day is darkest, friends bring a flashlight.
The next time you are tempted to throw Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar under the bus, remember, they went to Job when he needed them. Job did not have to walk alone.
Remember those friends who show up, even when they don’t know what to say, and be that friend.
Someone you know is counting on you to be there one day. Don’t let them down.
Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash
Subscribe to The Ordinary Christian Podcast.
