Bulletin Articles
What Job’s Friends Can Teach Us
Sometimes judgments can be hurtful. I have been guilty of being tone deaf to the problems of others. We all have a right to our convictions, and we have a right to express those convictions, but when we make sweeping generalizations that show little compassion or appreciation for nuanced conclusions, we may find ourselves defending the indefensible. This is not the way of God or His Truth.
Job’s friends are an example. They had strong reasons for their convictions. After all, sin does cause suffering and they were not entirely wrong. Much of what they said was correct. Their arguments were expressed with conviction and they seemed to have broad support. However, they were wrong in certain details, and their lack of understanding increased Job’s suffering. When we judge based on outward appearances and fail to grant that there may be more going on than meets the eye, we may do far more harm than good when we press unwarranted conclusions. Ignorance is still ignorance even if stated with conviction.
The friends did not have the full picture of Job’s situation. They made assumptions and pressed them as absolute when, in reality, they were clueless (see Job 38:1-2). They piled on and increased the emotional damage Job was suffering because they knew that Job just needed to repent. The case was clear-cut. Or was it?
Suffering is complex. We suffer physically and mentally for many reasons. Reducing suffering down to one cause without nuance and failing to confess that we don’t always know why things happen will not bode well for anyone. No doubt the friends meant well, but their lack of mercy for the sake of what they knew was absolute became their downfall. Consequently, they knew neither truth nor compassion.
Imagine Job’s frustration at the suggestion that he just needed to repent and everything would be better (Job 8:1-7). Today, we might hear similar types of admonitions. “All you need is more faith.” “You just need to pray more.” Mental and emotional issues are sometimes reduced to faith problems rather than recognizing nuances and our own ignorance of how minds function.
Let’s be clear. We do suffer emotionally and mentally because of sin. Perhaps we need to pray more (I do). Perhaps our sins are creating emotional pain and repentance is necessary. Let’s not dismiss that possibility. Affliction can lead us to seek God more deeply (cf. Psa 119:67, 71). We are to turn our anxieties over to God in prayer (Phil 4:6-7; 1 Pet 5:7). We need to seek God with every fiber of our being. Yet, like Job’s friends, it is possible that while we think we know a solution to the problem of suffering, we might be making assumptions and sweeping generalizations based in ignorance. There can be more going on than what we can see or know and we need to leave these matters in the hands of God (cf. Deut 29:29).
When Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake (1 Tim 5:23), he wasn’t implying that Timothy’s faith needed to be more robust or that Timothy should have prayed more. Nor was he implying that if Timothy felt better by taking a medicine for his infirmities then somehow that would show a lack of trust in God. Let’s not create a faulty dilemma of “either God or medical treatment.” God can use medical advances to help treat those who need it and we can still recognize this as God’s hand. It all belongs to and glorifies Him.
The caution is that good things can be abused. We need to be careful that our default isn’t just running to pills or putting ourselves in a position that leads down a path of addiction and heartache. Like anything else, we can abuse what would otherwise be a blessing; but that doesn’t negate the blessing when properly used!
Who are we to judge matters for which we have no knowledge? We can see what Scripture teaches and should never want to compromise truth. What we don’t know is the internal and individual struggles that people go through and for which they may need additional help. Maybe people need to correct some sin in their lives, but not all personal ailments exist because of a lack of faith, biblical meditation, or prayer. We don’t want to become like Job’s friends and unjustly presume a bad spiritual condition for those who suffer. When we do that, we heap pain upon pain, and we become the ones who need to repent. As God said of the friends, “you have not spoken of me what is right…” (Job 42:7). We will never “out-know” God.
Love believes when our brothers and sisters confess deep struggles. Love supports and seeks to strengthen. Love recognizes that “judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy” and that “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). Let us, then, be careful and wise, seeking God in His word always, and being thankful for what He has made available for blessings in this corrupted world. Our goal is to glorify God in whatever we do.
