Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
that you turn your spirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth?
Job is in such a bad state. He has lost almost everything of earthly significance to him. He has lost property and prestige. He has lost children and the respect from his spouse. He has lost, as the above passage indicates, the comfort of the three friends who came to him to comfort him. The above passage is spoken by Job’s friend, Eliphaz the Temanite. All three of Job’s friends have taken a round of dialogue to “comfort” him. This is why they came to Job:
Job 2:11 (ESV)
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
In this chapter they begin round two of their comfort. The first round did little to help Job. To put it mildly, they not only didn’t understand the suffering and trauma of an innocent man (innocent, as stated by God in the opening verses of the book), but they also made accusations and formed assumptions based upon their own bias. There was NO inquire with Job concerning this trauma. There were only words of judgmental commentary. In the above lines, specifically, we read Eliphaz’s judgment that Job is failing to hear his three friends comforting words in the spirit they think they are giving the comfort. He is claiming that Job is being dismissive and counting them as “small.” This is so bogus. In the first round they did nothing at all that could be affiliated with comfort. They condemned Job for his sins, in their opinion, the cause of his trauma. They had no room in their mind that Satan had done this to Job. Eliphaz not only falsely accuses Job of rejecting all their, (anything but) “comfort,” he condemns him for his lashing out about his trauma. Think about this, Eliphaz is UPSET that Job is UPSET about losing his property, power, children and respect. That is Eliphaz’s new complaint toward Job. This is the counselor telling (yelling at) the counselee, “you are NOT handling this situation correctly.” Job is upset. He is speaking his rage toward God. That would be somewhat of a healthy thing to do. The prophet Habakkuk’s utterances take on a similar tone when he is upset that God is using a wicked nation (Babylon) to discipline God’s children (Judah). Jesus cried out the His father, “Why have you forsaken me.” The expression of grief and dismay during a time of grief and dismay is healthy. Eliphaz is condemning Job and wants him to act “differently”. He has no room in his ears (or heart) to hear Job complain of his pain. Job does, of course, have much to learn. God will eventually teach him the lessons He wants Job to learn. But these three friends have failed. They are not comforters. They are confronters. They are not trying to console Job, they are trying to control Job. When coming along side those who are traveling a road less desired, these lessons should be learned by all of us. The more we press others to act like we want during their time of difficulty, the more they will expose the need for us to change are actions.
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