When Words Fail: Job 3:1-10, 4:1-9 - Second Sunday after Pentecost

It’s not uncommon for church members to list me as a reference on scholarship or job applications, and I’m always happy to support them, particularly when I know that they have the gifts and the attitudes to be successful.

However, if Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Elihu the Buzite listed me as a reference to become licensed professional counselors, pastors, or even to write get well messages inside Hallmark Cards, we would have to have a long chat.

These four men attempt to counsel Job as he grieves the loss of everything he had while suffering a horrific skin disease.

Image by Andrys Stienstra from Pixabay

Initially, they were a tremendous comfort. When Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar learned of their friend’s troubles, they went together to comfort him. When they first saw him, they didn’t recognize him, due to the anguish that had overtaken him and the disease that had disfigured him. They raised their voices and wept aloud, they tore their robes and threw dust on their heads. Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and nights, and didn’t say a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

I must give them credit that in those first seven days, they were a huge comfort.

But once the seven days of mourning were over, Job began cursing the day he was born.

I’m sure that was an awful thing for Job’s friends to hear. When Job accuses God of acting unjustly towards him, they immediately jump to God’s defense.

As I said last week, Job and his friends are of the mindset that God prospers the righteous and curses the unrighteous. Job’s friends insist that Job is not as righteous as he believes, and the very fact that he’s questioning God proves it. They become accusers. Do you remember whose name means accuser? Satan! Job’s friends are doing the Satan’s work for him!

I want to believe their intentions were good. But they were wrong to believe it was up to them to explain and defend God’s ways when they had no idea. They thought they could fix Job by defending God. They wanted to convince Job that if he got himself right with the lord, his suffering would end. I’m sure they believed they were doing the right thing, and that they expected God to reward them for it.

But I also think they needed to prove to themselves that they were more righteous than Job. Otherwise, the very same things were going to happen to them. Therefore, by defending God against Job’s accusations, they were hoping to earn divine brownie points.

We know that’s absurd.

Still, what would you do in this situation? You see someone suffering, and your heart breaks for them. You see how illness and anguish have ravaged their bodies. You hear the turmoil in their souls as they cry. The pain is so great you can actually feel it in your own body.

The first thing you can do is remember that you cannot fix them. There are no words that will take the pain away. As far as the reasons for their affliction, I can’t explain why good people suffer any more than I can explain why there are cancers, famines, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

Some pain and suffering can be attributed to tobacco, drug, and alcohol abuse, poor diet, lack of exercise, too much stress, or the careless disregard for one’s safety. They don’t need anyone to tell them why they’re suffering. They know. Shame and regret are their constant reminders.

When Job’s friends kept silent with him, they were present in his pain. That made a difference. When they spoke, they removed themselves from his pain and lectured him from the safety of their privilege. In the end, they were as destructive to Job’s Spirit as the sores covering his body.

No lifeguard has ever saved someone from drowning; no firefighter has ever rescued someone from a burning building by sitting in a safe place and quoting Scriptures, one-liners, or cliches.

People often say, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you,” or “Call me if you need anything.” That’s better than anything Job’s friends said. But you’re putting the onus on them to ask you for help. What if you offered to do something specific, like calling them, taking them out to eat, or cutting the grass?

What if you simply offered to lay hands upon them and pray? Even if you’re uncomfortable praying out loud, you laid hands upon them as you prayed silently? It’s far more helpful to receive a gift than ask a favor.

Bottom line, no human being can explain why bad things happen to good people; why life is unfair; why God acts miraculously in some circumstances and seems to stay silent in others. So why act as though you’ve figured it out? God’s ways and God’s reasons are beyond our comprehension. But God’s presence and God’s mercies are real.

When God calls you to care for the suffering and afflicted, it is enough for you to do what Jesus asked of his disciples on the night of his betrayal: stay with me. Keep watch. And pray. Do those very things, offer yourself to the other in Jesus’s name, and the Lord will take care of the healing.

Job 3:1-10, 4:1-9 (NRSVue)

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ² Job said:

³ “Let the day perish in which I was born,
    and the night that said,
    ‘A male is conceived.’
⁴ Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it
    or light shine on it.
⁵ Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds settle upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
⁶ That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.
⁷ Yes, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry be heard in it.
⁸ Let those curse it who curse the Sea,
    those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.
⁹ Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light but have none;
    may it not see the eyelids of the morning—
¹⁰ because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb
    and hide trouble from my eyes.

 

4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

² “If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
    But who can keep from speaking?
³ See, you have instructed many;
    you have strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
    and you have made firm the feeble knees.
⁵ But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
    it touches you, and you are dismayed.
⁶ Is not your fear of God your confidence
    and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷ “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
    Or where were the upright cut off?
⁸ As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
    and sow trouble reap the same.
⁹ By the breath of God they perish,
    and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.