Job 4:1-11 – Be sensitive to a person’s plight

After seven days and seven nights Job broke his silence wishing that he had never existed. He cursed the day that he was born. He wondered why he was allowed to survive so long only to go through so horrible a condition. He candidly expressed his feelings believing that he had three understanding and compassionate friends. Little did he expect to receive such a sanctimonious response from his friends. And because of their self- righteousness and smugness, the advises they gave, became an irritation more than bringing comfort. Job indeed was a righteous man. He did nothing to warrant the calamity. He was just a poor subject of a wager between God and Satan, all because he was righteous, a pursuer of God and was highly regarded by God.

The well-intentioned friends became an example for what we ought not to do when we are seeking to comfort or counsel someone in crisis. The term “Job’s comforters” gets its illustration from what the three friends did to poor Job. Instead of bringing comfort to him they added to his distress by their needless sermonizing. They of all people knew the least about why Job was undergoing such a trial. Hence their words were spoken presumptuously, assuming that they were wiser than they thought. Instead of bringing relief their words brought just the opposite effect.

Eliphaz being the oldest was the first to speak out. He was so smug that he felt that he needed to say something. His opening words were condescending. He wondered if his friend Job, in such an anguish, would be able to bear what he was going to tell him. So he began by apologizing for the lecture he was about to bring on him. His premise was that Job might not be able to bear with what he was going to say to him in his emotionally depleted state. Reminding Job that he was once a counsellor himself and had strengthened others, so he couldn’t be so weak now to have wilt under his own plight. In saying so, he was insinuating that Job was not who he thought he was after all. What an insult! While he conceded that Job was a person of integrity he spoke as if he doubted he was. If Job was as innocent as he insisted, instead of wilting under the pressure he should rest confidently in God. Eliphaz reminded Job that people who are innocent never perish. God never cut short a person’s life in his prime when that person is righteous before him. His argument was that Job would recover and so affirm his righteousness. If not, then it would prove that he had some terrible hidden sin in his life. Eliphaz was suggesting that Job must have sinned to be going through such sufferings. His argument was this: no sinner, however powerful, can ever escape the wrath of the divine.

Let us learn not to sermonize with our words. Be sensitive to the plight of a person. The best thing to do is to pray for and with a person in crisis, don’t ever second guess the cause or reason for his plight. Simply put, don’t try and play God.