What immediately springs to mind when you hear, “the friends of Job”?
It’s not positive is it?
We think of the misdiagnosis of Jobs problem and the subsequent bad advice. However it started out in a way we can learn from.
In Chapter 2 verse 11 it says they made an appointment together to “come and mourn with him, and to comfort him.”
In trying to be a friend I know that I have not always been as helpful as the friends of Job.
In Verse 13 “they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him.”
It was Job who finally spoke. I wonder how long the friends would have sat in silence. How long would I?
Several years ago a good friend of mine lost a child very unexpectedly I didn’t want to call. I had no idea what to say. I had never been through anything like this but as a pastor I felt I had to say something. So I said…
“There are no words, if there were, I would say them.” And then we wept together.
Being a friend doesn’t always mean knowing what to say. It often means we mourn with those who mourn and we rejoice with those who rejoice. It means making an appointment with other friends or just making a decision to go, sit on the ground, and weep.
