What Can We Learn From JOB’S “FRIENDS”?
In the first two chapters of the book of Job we observe Job being hailed by God as a blameless, upright man with “no one on earth like him” (Job 1:8). Satan responds by arguing that Job was devout simply because God blessed him. In other words, he was “in it” solely for the blessings. Thus the LORD allows the devil to attack Job in which the man winds up losing all his children, his great wealth, his numerous employees except for four and even his health as his entire body is afflicted with painful boils (Job 1-2).
Job’s three friends — Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar — hear about his extraordinary troubles and come to sympathize with him and comfort him. The main body of this unique book of the Bible consists of Job dialoguing back-in-forth with these three “friends” (although quite a bit of what Job says is directed at the Almighty).
No less than 15 chapters are devoted to the verbiage of these three individuals and 21 if you include the fourth friend, a young guy named Elihu. This is in comparison to 20 chapters for Job. The question is, what can we learn from these four men in these numerous chapters wherein they seemingly “minister” to the suffering Job?
Here are a few insights…
Be Careful NOT to Make Rash Judgments and Accuse Accordingly
I have no doubt that the initial intention of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar was to comfort their agonizing friend — Elihu too — but they quickly fell into myopic judgments and accusations of great sin. The problem with making erroneous judgments based on limited information and then voicing the conclusions is that it’s a form of slander, which naturally poisons the minds of listeners against a person who’s not guilty of the things said. Keep in mind that satan is the false accuser of brothers & sisters in Christ (Revelation 12:10) and, in fact, the Greek word for ‘devil’ literally means “slanderer” or “false accuser” (which you can observe here). In other words, any one who practices false accusation is acting like satan!
Do you want to be like satan? Obviously not. Then please resist making rash judgments & the corresponding fallacious accusations about things in which you have limited knowledge.
This is the main reason the LORD was angry with Job’s friends (Job 42:7). They didn’t have access to what went down in the spiritual realm before Job’s great trial, so they arrogantly assumed Job committed some heinous sin, which brought about his terrible losses and sufferings (Job 15:5, 22:5 & 22:10). The problem with this is that it wasn’t true, not even remotely! In truth, Job was the most blameless, upright man of the face of the Earth at the time and God literally boasted of him in Heaven (Job 1:8)!
For anyone who thinks Job opened the door to his satanic attacks through fear, see this article.
Be Careful NOT to Cite General Principles as Absolutes
The bulk of what the four friends say to Job is true, as far as general principles go (similar to the sayings in the book of Proverbs), and this explains why Paul quoted Eliphaz in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 3:19). Yet general principles aren’t always true. For instance, consider Eliphaz’ statement:
7“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
Job 4:7-8
To sin means to “miss the mark” by failing morally and so the practice of sin naturally brings negative results to which there are consequences (Numbers 32:23, Romans 6:23 & James 1:15). This is a general truth. A person who “plows evil” will reap trouble if s/he doesn’t repent (and, even then, there are often natural consequences to sin even though God forgives the penitent, like after committing sexual immorality or a crime). However, it’s not absolutely true that the innocent never perish prematurely and the upright are never destroyed.
Some bad things that happen are simply accidents in a fallen world (Luke 13:1-5) while other misfortunes are the result of contact with a person who chooses to sin, such as being the victim of a criminal. Also, some sufferings are actually the consequence of practicing truth and living a godly life (Matthew 13:21 & 2 Timothy 3:12). For example, righteous Stephen was stoned to death after being slandered by false witnesses (Acts 6:8-7:59) and of course the sinless Christ was unjustly executed (Hebrews 4:15 & 1 Peter 3:18).
The simplistic theology of Job’s friends boiled down to God blessing the godly and punishing the ungodly. They had no category for what was happening to Job and erred due to their ignorance.
Be Compassionate When Someone Is Suffering
To be compassionate means to have sympathetic understanding toward those who are suffering in some way. Rather than sympathize with Job and console him, the three friends wasted no time in designating him as their opponent in a big theological debate. Focused on winning, they pounded away at Job’s perceived flaws with their pride being at stake; young Elihu wasn’t much different.
Related Topics:
TEMPTATION, TRIALS and TESTS — What’s the Diff?
Spiritual Warfare — Do You know What You’re Fighting For?
Spiritual Development — The Four Stages
Spiritual Growth is Like Climbing a Mountain
Spirituality — How to be Spirit-Controlled Rather than Flesh-Ruled
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