Bible Passage: “You are miserable comforters, all of you! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?” (Job 16:2-3 NIV)
Scripture Reading: Galatians 6:2
There is a well-known quote of unknown authorship that says, “The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.”
Hurt caused by a friend is worse than that caused by an enemy. We expect pain from an enemy. But friends are supposed to be something different.
As Job wrestles with God, some of his closest friends come to sit with him in his pain.
But rather than offering unconditional love, support, or empathy, they instead engage Job in a fiery theological debate on the nature of God and suffering.
Read the room, guys!
Job is crying out that he has done nothing to deserve his trials. We know from chapter 1 that he is indeed innocent.
But that doesn’t fit with his friends’ theological convictions: Suffering comes from sin, so Job must have done something. They are angry that Job is maintaining his innocence, and push back hard, calling on him to repent of his sin so God will stop punishing him.
It’s the last thing a devastated man needs to hear, and Job calls them out in today’s passage:
“Miserable comforters!”
If we’re being charitable, we might say that Job’s friends were deeply committed to truth, and when they felt Job was missing it, told him so.
But even so, this was not the right moment for that.
Job needed compassion and care, not a lecture or rebuke. His anger towards them is understandable. They are being bad friends, and that hurts.
The hardest part about any man’s friends is that they are human. Broken and struggling, just like us. They don’t respond perfectly, and miss the point, and sometimes say hurtful things, and perhaps even stab us in the back.
And, if we are being honest, we’ve probably done some of those things to other men, too.
Every man needs good friends around him, and we need to be good friends to others, especially in hard times. The apostle Paul wrote, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).
We have the opportunity to bear others’ burdens every day.
When our friends fail us, we can call them out, as Job did. We can also remember our own failings as a friend, which can make us more patient.
And we can come alongside trustworthy brothers who will carry our burdens, as we carry theirs.
Prayer: Lord, forgive me where I’ve failed to be a good friend, and forgive my friends for where they have failed me. Raise me up to be a strong brother to my brothers, and bring strong brothers around me to support me as well. Amen.
Reflection: Who is a friend you can go to when you’re having a bad day? What about them makes them someone you want to approach? If you can’t think of one, what is something you can do to change that?
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