Job's Friends: Comfort or Condemnation?

How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers? —Job 21:34

I have always been puzzled by the behavior of Job's friends. Did they come to comfort or to cause more pain? They accused Job of sins he had never committed, despite the fact that God Himself testified about Job, calling him "a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." Job was right—his friends' comfort was empty.

When someone is sick and you don't have the right medicine, it is better to give nothing than to offer the wrong remedy, which not only fails to help but can also cause harm. This is what Job's friends did. How could their comfort be genuine when there was falsehood in their answers?

Instead of empathizing with Job’s suffering, they approached him with the biased belief that the righteous should never face hardship and the wicked will never prosper. True comfort comes from being inspired by the Word of God and speaking it with conviction. A comforter must believe the words they offer, not just recite Scripture without faith. Job's friends, in this sense, were false comforters.

From my diary,

September 29, 2024