DON'T BE A MISERABLE COMFORTER (3 OF 5)
Scripture: Job 2:11-13, Job 3:1-26, Job 4:1-8
This content is part of a series.
Don't Be a Miserable Comforter (3 of 5)
Series: Why?
Jonathan McLeod
Job 2:11-4:8
''Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?'' (Job 4:7).
SCRIPTURE READING
Job is a book about suffering. When people suffer, they ask two questions: (1) Why has this happened to me?; (2) How do I get through this? If one of your friends was going through a time of suffering, and he or she asked you these two questions, how would you answer?
[Read Job 2:11-4:8.]
WHAT SHOULD WE DO OR SAY?
In this world, there is lots of suffering. Every second, one person dies in this world. [Talk about ways in which people suffer (e.g., loss of a job, a wayward child, death of a loved one).] When our friends suffer, we want to bring them comfort. This is what Job's three friends-Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar-wanted to do. They ''made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him'' (2:11).
But Job's friends didn't comfort Job. He eventually said to them, ''Miserable comforters are you all'' (6:2). We don't want to be miserable comforters like Job's friends. What should we say or do to bring comfort to suffering people?
JOB'S MISERABLE COMFORTERS
Job's suffering was so great that he wished he had never been born: ''Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man is conceived''' (3:3). Job needed comfort.
At first, Job's friends didn't say anything: ''They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him'' (2:13). But when they finally did speak, what they said didn't bring comfort to Job. Eliphaz was the first to counsel Job. He said, ''As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same'' (4:8).
Eliphaz believed that Job was reaping what he had sowed. But Eliphaz was wrong. The book of Job begins by telling us that Job was ''blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil'' (1:1). What Eliphaz said ...
Series: Why?
Jonathan McLeod
Job 2:11-4:8
''Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?'' (Job 4:7).
SCRIPTURE READING
Job is a book about suffering. When people suffer, they ask two questions: (1) Why has this happened to me?; (2) How do I get through this? If one of your friends was going through a time of suffering, and he or she asked you these two questions, how would you answer?
[Read Job 2:11-4:8.]
WHAT SHOULD WE DO OR SAY?
In this world, there is lots of suffering. Every second, one person dies in this world. [Talk about ways in which people suffer (e.g., loss of a job, a wayward child, death of a loved one).] When our friends suffer, we want to bring them comfort. This is what Job's three friends-Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar-wanted to do. They ''made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him'' (2:11).
But Job's friends didn't comfort Job. He eventually said to them, ''Miserable comforters are you all'' (6:2). We don't want to be miserable comforters like Job's friends. What should we say or do to bring comfort to suffering people?
JOB'S MISERABLE COMFORTERS
Job's suffering was so great that he wished he had never been born: ''Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man is conceived''' (3:3). Job needed comfort.
At first, Job's friends didn't say anything: ''They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him'' (2:13). But when they finally did speak, what they said didn't bring comfort to Job. Eliphaz was the first to counsel Job. He said, ''As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same'' (4:8).
Eliphaz believed that Job was reaping what he had sowed. But Eliphaz was wrong. The book of Job begins by telling us that Job was ''blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil'' (1:1). What Eliphaz said ...
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