Job 2 and 22 When Friends Fail July 24, 2022

Job 2 Verses 11 to 13, Job 22 Verses 5 to 6 and 9 to 11 When Friends Fail

July 24, 2022 Class Presentation Notes AAA

Background Scriptures: Romans 12:9-16

· Romans 12:9-16 (NASB) 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

Main Idea: Job refused to become bitter about his friends

Study Aim: To learn that sometimes your friends and family will fail you, but Jesus never will.

Create Interest:

Note an excerpt from someone who has “been there and done that” so to speak……………….

· The day my first wife died, we were planning to go to the beach, so I went on my own the next day. This may sound weird, but it seemed to make sense at the time, and when I got home, I was glad I had gone, because there were twelve messages on the phone from people who had come to bring me food or just to drop by or who wanted to express condolences, and I didn’t want to see anyone.

· People use up energy, and I didn’t have any energy. Other people sent messages on cards and e-mails, too, and at one level I appreciated their doing so, though the messages didn’t help me (except the ones that reminisced about Ann, which made me cry but did mean something).

· For me, I’m not sure that people coming by and saying nothing, like Job’s friends, would have been an improvement, but we will soon see that once these friends start opening their mouths, they never stop putting their feet in them, so in their case silence was better.

o But both silence and speech can be focused more on the ones who are speaking or being silent rather than on the person they are supposed to be comforting.[1]

Lesson in Historical Context:

· Fairly soon after all the calamities had happened to Job, he received a visit from three friends. These three men must have known Job fairly well, for they traveled a great distance to visit him, coming as soon as they heard and spending a huge sum of money in the process. Very little background information is given for them—only their names and where they were from. But who they were is not as important as what they had to say.

· In their attempts to comfort Job, they expressed beliefs about God and why people suffer. Although these beliefs were misguided and erroneous, they are beliefs that a great majority of people hold.

· It is the friends’ judgments about Job and why he suffered that provide the platform for all that the great book of Jobteaches.[2]

Bible Study:

Job 2:11-13 (NASB) 11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky. 13 Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.

· We have here an account of the kind visit which Job’s three friends paid him in his affliction. The news of his extraordinary troubles spread into all parts, Job being an eminent man both for greatness and goodness, and the circumstances of his troubles being very uncommon. Some, who were his enemies, triumphed in his calamities, ch. 16:10; 19:18; 30:1, etc. Perhaps they made ballads on him. But his friends concerned themselves for him, and endeavored to comfort him.

· A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Three of them are here named (v. 11), Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We shall afterwards meet with a fourth, who it should seem was present at the whole conference, namely, Elihu. Whether he came as a friend of Job or only as an auditor does not appear.

o These three were eminently wise and good men, as appears by their discourses. They were old men, very old, had a great reputation for knowledge, and much deference was paid to their judgment, Ch. 32:6. It is probable that they were men of figure in their country-princes, or heads of houses.[3]

· Vs. 11a: Job’s friends were evidently wealthy nobles, for they all wore the outer garments (me‘îl) customarily worn by the nobles or aristocrats of Job’s day. In addition, they had ample freedom and wealth to travel long distances and to spend what was probably weeks and perhaps months at Job’s side. Verse 11 gives the names and origins of Job’s friends.

o Eliphaz the Temanitewas apparently from Teman or Tema. The book of Genesis records that a son named Eliphaz was born to Esau and Adah (Ge. 36:4). Eliphaz in turn had a son named Teman, who would have been the grandson of Esau (Ge. 36:11). Later, Teman would become a prominent city located near Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea. There was also a place called Tema in Arabia, so Eliphaz might have come from either one of these regions.

o Bildad the Shuhite was from Shuah. The name Bildad appears nowhere else in Scripture, but Shuah is the name of one of Abraham’s sons (Ge. 25:2). If these two friends, Eliphaz and Bildad, were close descendants of the men mentioned in Genesis, this would place Job in the age of the patriarchs (or fathers) of Israel.

o Zophar the Naamathite was from Naamath or Namah. Some scholars point to a place called Namah in northern Arabia, but this is uncertain. The name Zophar, like Bildad, is found only in the book of Job.

· Vs. 11b: Their purpose in visiting Job: To sympathize and comfort him.

The Scripture states simply that Job’s three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—made an appointment to meet together to go to their dear friend Job. Their purpose was to sympathize with him, to comfort him.

o Job needed true friends at this time, probably more than at any other time in his life. Job had suffered such great loss and was afflicted with a severe, perhaps fatal, disease; thus, the presence of friends would be a tremendous comfort. In seeking to console Job, these men were acting as true friends. This is important to remember, as some unflattering things will be said about them later. But their friendship should never be discounted. As far as is known, these men may have been the only friends courageous enough to visit Job, and almost certainly the only ones who spent so much time at his side in an attempt to encourage him.[4]

· Vs. 12. The trouble is that whatever account they have been given of Job’s troubles has not prepared them for the sight of him sitting in his heap of ash. He is unrecognizable as the upstanding, noble figure he once was. It draws from them cries of pain and tears. They tear their coats apart, as Job had. They throw dirt into the air in such a way that it falls back on their heads; we don’t know the specific significance of this gesture, though it is presumably another expression of grief. And they sit with Job, saying nothing.

o There are hints in the account that Job’s friends’ failing him may start here, when they first arrive in Uz.

§ Why did they need to arrange to meet together before they came to see Job?

§ Was each of them afraid to face him alone?

§ Were they afraid to “catch” whatever affliction he had brought on himself?

§ Did they need to reassure one another that it was okay?

§ Did lifting up their voices and weeping count as “shaking” for him, or are they protesting on their own behalf?

o It’s frightening to witness someone else’s suffering. It raises questions about whether the same thing may happen to us. So why did they say nothing to him? Is that the action of a comforter?

§ In Judaism, it’s traditional for people closely related to a person who has died to “sit shivah,” sit at home for seven (sheva) days of mourning and prayer. Their neighbors and friends will visit them, but it is traditional practice for the visitors not to speak unless or until the mourners initiate conversation.

§ I don’t think we know what lies behind that practice, though it might be that it indicates a recognition that the mourners need to be in God’s company and that the visitors should not interrupt such communion.

§ Perhaps Job’s friends are following a custom like sitting shivah as they sit with him for seven days. But if they are, does this mean they are they relating to him as someone who is as good as dead? This would not be much comfort.[5]

Thoughts to soak on here

· The voice of the mourners (Job 2:11–13). The term “Job’s comforters” is a familiar phrase for describing people whose help only makes you feel worse. But these three men had some admirable qualities in spite of the way they persecuted Job.

o For one thing, they cared enough for Job to travel a long distance to visit him. And when they commiserated with him, they didn’t sit in a comfortable home or hospital room: they sat with him on the ash heap, surrounded by refuse. Because their grief was so great, they couldn’t speak for seven days. (Of course, they made up for their silence afterward.) In fact, their expression of grief was like mourning for the death of a great person (Gen. 50:10).

o The best way to help people who are hurting is just to be with them, saying little or nothing, and letting them know you care.

§ Don’t try to explain everything; explanations never heal a broken heart. If his friends had listened to him, accepted his feelings, and not argued with him, they would have helped him greatly; but they chose to be prosecuting attorneys instead of witnesses.

§ In the end, the Lord rebuked them; and they had to ask Job’s forgiveness (Job 42:7–10).[6]

· Their friendship was such as to bind them to Job even in his suffering and pain. But when they saw him, they could hardly recognize him. Words which are used in the second part of Isaiah to describe the Servant of the Lord do not seem out of place as a description of the friends’ reaction to Job:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised …

· So, the friends offered traditional gestures of grief: they began to weep aloud, tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then, amazingly, ‘they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No-one said a word to him, because they saw how great was his suffering.’ (2:13)

Let’s Pause for a moment here and consider “Silence”.

· Here is genuine friendship. Here is deep ministry. This is what Stanley Hauerwas, in a book of this title, calls ‘suffering presence’. Indeed, Hauerwas quotes this paragraph from Job as an introduction to one of his chapters in which he tells of his own ministry to a friend whose mother had just committed suicide:

o As often as I have reflected on what happened in that short space of time, I have also remembered how inept I was in helping Bob. I did not know what could or should be said. I did not know how to help him start sorting out such a horrible event so that he could go on. All I could do was be present. But time has helped me to realize that this is all he wanted, namely my presence. For as inept as I was, my willingness to be present was a sign that this was not an event so horrible that it drew us away from all other human contact. Life could go on …

o I now think that at that time God granted me that marvelous privilege of being a presence in the face of profound pain and suffering, even when I did not appreciate the significance of being present.

· The compassion of a silent presence is what we here see in Job’s friends. Theirs is a silence more eloquent than words, for there was nothing then to be said.

· Craig Dykstra has put it well:

o Presence is a service of vulnerability.

§ To be present to others is to put oneself in the position of being vulnerable to what they are vulnerable to, and of being vulnerable to them.

§ It means being willing to suffer what the other suffers, and to go with the sufferer in his or her own suffering. This is different from trying to become the sufferer. Presence does not involve taking another’s place. That would be demeaning.

📷 It would suggest, ‘I can take your suffering better than you can, so move aside; I will replace you.’

📷 Instead, presence involves exposing oneself to what the sufferer is exposed to and being with the other in that vulnerability.

· Bishop John V. Taylor closes The Go-Between God(his vivid description of the Holy Spirit) with these paragraphs:

o A colleague has recently described to me an occasion when a West Indian woman in a London flat was told of her husband’s death in a street accident. The shock of grief stunned her like a blow, she sank into a corner of the sofa and sat there rigid and unhearing. For a long time, her terrible tranced look continued to embarrass the family, friends and officials who came and went. Then the schoolteacher of one of her children, an Englishwoman, called, and seeing how things were, went and sat beside her. Without a word she threw an arm around the tight shoulders, clasping them with her full strength. The white cheek was thrust hard against the brown. Then as the unrelenting pain seeped through to her the newcomer’s tears began to flow, falling on their two hands linked in the woman’s lap

o For a long time that is all that was happening. And then at last the West Indian woman started to sob. Still not a word was spoken and after a little while the visitor got up and went, leaving her contribution to help the family meet its immediate needs.

§ That is the embrace of God, His kiss of life. That is the embrace of His mission and of our intercession. And the Holy Spirit is the force in the straining muscles of an arm, the film of sweat between pressed cheeks, the mingled wetness on the backs of clasped hands. He is as close and unobtrusive as that, and as irresistibly strong.

o Suffering presence is the powerful ministry of silent compassion.[7]

Job 22:1-6 (NASB) 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded, 2 "Can a vigorous man be of use to God, Or a wise man be useful to himself? 3 "Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, Or profit if you make your ways perfect? 4 "Is it because of your reverence that He reproves you, That He enters into judgment against you?

· This last cycle of speeches turns to speak specifically about “the sinfulness of Job.” What his friends had only hinted at before is now expressed openly. They begin to charge Job directly with sin.

· Eliphaz is the first to speak. He suggests that the cause of Job’s sufferings should not be sought in God or his treatment to men. After all it is no loss to God if a man sins, and it is no profit to God if he is righteous. The reason behind man’s suffering must be sought in man himself. It is inconceivable that God would punish a man because he is good, and so therefore a man’s suffering must be directly related to his own sin (22:1–4).[8]

o More specifically, Eliphaz begins not with an invitation but with an accusation. He says to Job in effect, “You have definitely sinned.” He goes on to say, “and don’t think God can’t see you,” along with a warning that God will most definitely punish sinners. Only then does he give his invitation to repent.

o This is an extraordinarily blunt section. In it Eliphaz explicitly charges Job with gross sin. He does it face-to-face, up close and personal. He begins with a doctrinal presupposition (vv. 1–4), continues with a general accusation (v. 5), and expands this with particular charges (vv. 6–9) before drawing his conclusions (vv. 10, 11).

· Vs. 2: Eliphaz shows that God is not increased by man’s goodness, nor is he decreased by his wickedness. God does not send prosperity or calamity for His own advantage. Neither man’s strength (implied in the word used for “man”) nor his wisdom render God any personal advantage. Eliphaz, believing that the cause for a man’s suffering must be found in the man himself (Luke 17:10; Acts 17:25), assumes Job’s calamities must arise from his guilt. unto himself—better, “unto him” meaning that a wise man cannot benefit God.[9].

· Verse 3 takes this and applies it specifically to human virtue: however righteous (v. 3a) or “blameless” (v. 3b) we may be, we cannot give any gift to God in a way that means he owes us one.

o The thought is that God is dispassionate; He reacts to human virtue or wickedness with entire consistency. He is not affected by our piety or our sin.

· Vs. 4: It therefore follows that the reason for the blessing or suffering we experience must lie entirely with us. If we are blessed, it is because we are virtuous; if we are cursed, it is because we are sinful. It is unthinkable that God would be punishing Job because of, or in spite of, his piety (“your fear of him”).

· So runs Eliphaz’s logic. It seems very orthodox. The problem is that we—the readers—know that in some strange, deep, and wonderful way the glory of God is dependent upon Job’s continuing piety. If Job is shown to be wicked, or only superficially pious, a man who worships God only for what he can get out of God, then the honor of God is questioned. The perseverance of this saint will bring glory to God!

o But Eliphaz does not know this, and so he continues to follow his logic to its terrible conclusion.[10]

Thoughts to Soak On

· Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you: Eliphaz pressed the point home to Job. Surely, the catastrophe that came upon Job (which Eliphaz lightly called “correction”), did not come because Job feared God; it came because Job’s wickedness was great and his iniquitywas without end.

o “He no longer believed that Job was basically a God-fearing man. Job’s troubles were God’s rebuke. That they were great testified to the extent of his sin. So Eliphaz felt free, perhaps obligated, to expound on the possible nature of those sins.” (Smick)

o What Eliphaz did not, and seemingly could not consider, was that Job’s crisis had nothing to do with correction; it had nothing to do with the Almighty entering into judgment with Job. Because he could not see the heavenly drama that took place in Job chapters 1 and 2, Eliphaz simply could not conceive of other reasons.[11]

· God is laid under no obligation by his devotion/holiness. “Can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise is profitable to himself?

o God is under no obligation to treat men better than He does. God is no man’s debtor. A secret feeling lies at the bottom of men’s complaint against His providential dealings, as if they were wronged by Him and had a right to expect better treatment. On the contrary, all are treated infinitely better than they deserve. All good in men is from God, not themselves. Men come infinitely short of rendering to God what He has a right to as their Creator, Preserver, and constant Benefactor.

o God’s glory and happiness is independent of man’s conduct. God is no loser by men’s want of religion, nor gainer by their practice of it (Ps. 16:2). God reproves men not from fear of them, but from love to them (Rev. 3:19). Men are never too bad for Him to love them, nor too great for Him to fear them.

o God neither rebukes the good from unkindness, nor the great from fear. Still true—

§ That men may, through grace, promote God’s glory and advance His kingdom in the world.

§ That He has pleasure in holy men and in their holy lives (Ps. 147:11; Prov. 11:20).

§ That men have it in their power to render to God His rightful claim, or to rob Him of what is His (Mal. 3:8).

§ This the grievous sin is not only of the Jews, but of men in general (Matt. 21:34, 41).

o True wisdom is always profitable to the possessor of it. That wisdom the is fear of God and a life of godliness. That wisdom, is the knowledge, choice, and pursuit of the best end by the best means.

§ Here wisdom is equivalent to being “righteous,” or “making one’s ways perfect” or upright.

§ Wisdom is profitable in regard both to body and soul, time and eternity.

§ Godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Tim. 6:6).

§ The gains of religion are infinitely greater than its losses.

§ Wisdom’s ways are pleasantness and peace.

§ Length of days are in her right hand, in her left are riches and honor.

§ Godliness is profitableness unto all things (1 Tim. 4:8). No good which is not gained by it; nothing lost by it which we are not the better by losing.[12]

Before Moving on I feel it necessary to lighten the air with the following thoughts😊 to answer Eliphaz’s rhetorical questions about Job?

· In this chapter, Eliphaz wrongly continues to blame the woes of Job on his wickedness. He accused Job of being a corrupt man and was getting what he deserved. Eliphaz, however, asked a question, in effect, at the beginning of his discourse that we want to address in this message, “Can a man be profitable unto God?”

· We know that God is all-powerful and does not need our help. He is not dependent upon us for anything because He can do anything He wants to do. Can a person, however, be profitable to the Lord? We are going to answer that question. We will start by defining this word “profitable?” It is derived from the Hebrew word cakan {saw-kan′} which means “to be of use, to be of service, to be of benefit or useful, to know intimately.”

o So, can a person be useful to the Lord?

o Can he/she be of service to God?

o Can his/her life be beneficial in the service of the Savior?

o Can a person know the Lord intimately?

· The answer is “You bet he/she can!” Look through the Bible and you find a list of profitable people that God used for His glory.

o Moses was profitable as he was used of God to lead Israel out of Egypt.

o The three Hebrew men were profitable as they took their stand for God against idolatry. Their devotion to the Lord was used to educate a pagan king about the identity of the true God of the universe.

o God used the courage of Joshua to lead Israel into the Promised Land and to conquer the land.

o The courage of Esther was used of God to deliver the Jewish people from annihilation by the Persian government.

§ God used these people to work His will because they obeyed Him and were surrendered to His commands.

· God wants all of us to be useful or profitable in our service to Him. He does not desire that we throw away our lives. Let me note here that as we look at the this word cakan {saw-kan′} we are reminded of an important truth that God is not only concerned about what we do but what we are.

· Being useful to the Lord rests not only in our actions, but our attitude toward Him and His Word. Being what He wants us to be is just as important as doing what He wants us to do. If we get our “being” right, then we will get the “doing” right and be profitable or useful in serving the Savior.

· We need to remember that God has chosen to do His will by working through the lives of men and women who are yielded to Him. Because He has chosen this course of action, we are challenged, reminded, and urged repeatedly to be profitable to the Lord by serving him, walking with Him, and doing His will. If a person could not be profitable to the Lord, if this was not an important issue, then we would not be constantly challenged in the Scriptures to be useful in serving Him.

o Joshua 24:15—And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

o 1 Samuel 12:20—And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;[13]

Now moving on as you are getting tired of reading this long lesson

Job 22:5-10 (NASB) 5 "Is not your wickedness great, And your iniquities without end? 6 "For you have taken pledges of your brothers without cause, And stripped men naked. 7 "To the weary you have given no water to drink, And from the hungry you have withheld bread. 8 "But the earth belongs to the mighty man, And the honorable man dwells in it. 9 "You have sent widows away empty, And the strength of the orphans has been crushed. 10 "Therefore snares surround you, And sudden dread terrifies you,

· The worst here affirmed against Job is that he has overborne the righteous claims of widows and orphans. Bildad and Zophar made a mistake in alleging that he had been a robber and a freebooter. Yet is it less unfriendly to give ear to the cruel slanders of those who, in Job’s day of prosperity, had not obtained from him all they desired and are now ready with their complaints?

· No doubt the offences specified are such as might have been committed by a man in Job’s position and excused as within his right. To take a pledge for debt was no uncommon thing. When water was scarce, to withhold it even from the weary was no extraordinary baseness.

· Vambéry tells us that on the grasslands he has seen father and son fighting almost to the death for the dregs of a skin of water.

o Eliphaz, however, a good man, counts it no more than duty to share this necessary of life with any fainting traveler, even if the wells are dry and the skins are nearly empty.

o He also makes it a crime to keep back corn in the year of famine. He says truly that the man of might, doing such things, acts disgracefully.

§ But there was no proof that Job had been guilty of this kind of inhumanity, and the gross perversion of justice to which Eliphaz condescends recoils on himself.

§ It does not always happen so within our knowledge. Pious slander gathered up and retailed frequently succeeds. And Eliphaz endeavors to make good his opinion by showing providence to be for it; he keeps the ear open to any report that will confirm what is already believed; and the circulating of such a report may destroy the usefulness of a life, the usefulness which is denied.

· Take a broader view of the same controversy. Is there no exaggeration in the charges thundered sometimes against poor human nature?

o Is it not often thought a pious duty to extort confession of sins men never dreamed of committing, so that they may be driven to a repentance that shakes life to its center and almost unhinges the reason?

o With conviction of error, unbelief, and disobedience the new life must begin. Yet religion is made unreal by the attempt to force on the conscience and to extort from the lips an acknowledgment of crimes which were never intended and are perhaps far apart from the whole drift of the character.

· The truthfulness of John the Baptist’s preaching was very marked. He did not deal with imaginary sins. And when our Lord spoke of the duties and errors of men either in discourse or parable, He never exaggerated.

o The sins He condemned were all intelligible to the reason of those addressed, such as the conscience was bound to own, must recognize as evil things, dishonoring to the Almighty.

· Having declared Job’s imaginary crimes, Eliphaz exclaims, “Therefore snares are round about thee and sudden fear troubled thee.”

o With the whole weight of assumed moral superiority he bears down upon the sufferer.

o He takes upon him to interpret providence, and every word is false.

o Job has clung to God as his Friend.

o Eliphaz denies him the right, cuts him off as a rebel from the grace of the King.

§ Truly, it may be said, religion is never in greater danger than when it is upheld by hard and ignorant zeal like this.[14]

Job 22:11 (NASB) 11 Or darkness, so that you cannot see, And an abundance of water covers you.

· Ver. 11.—Or darkness, that thou canst not see. Job had complained of the “darkness” that was “set in his paths” (Ch. 19:8), meaning probably his inability to discover the cause of his afflictions. And abundance of waters cover thee. The comparison of severe affliction to an overwhelming flood is very common in Scripture (see Ps. 42:7; 69:1–3, 14, 15; 124:4, 5; Lam. 3:54, etc.). So Shakespeare speaks of “a sea of troubles.”

· Ostensibly proved. Eliphaz could point to Job’s calamities as evidence that what he had alleged was true. That calamity had been (1) sudden in its coming, it had caught him like a snare; it was (2) terrifying in its effects, filling the mind of Job with inward fears; (3) unavoidable in its endurance—out of the darkness that encompassed him no way of escape could be detected; (4) overwhelming in its measure, being likened to a multitude of waters; and it would be (5) fatal in its end, there being no hope of other issue, so far as Eliphaz could see, but that Job should be submerged in the sea of trouble that surged around him. It was useless, then, to say that proof was wanting. Yet was the charge of Eliphaz: 5.

· Wholly imagined. It was purely a creation of the Arabian seer’s fancy. Not only did Job declare it untrue, but Eliphaz himself must have known it to be baseless (cf. Ch. 4:3, 4). Either Eliphaz had allowed his excited and wrathful imagination to beguile his judgment, which was not like a seer, or he had taken up a slanderous report against Job, in spite of his better knowledge, which was not like a saint.

o But passion can disperse piety and confound reason, while malice will constrain even good people to believe lies.

§ Envying and strife are the parents of confusion and every evil work (Jas. 3:16)[15]

I pray that the tapestry of thoughts woven together to bring light to you from this Book of Job will give you pause to remember when life calls you to the side of a friend in crisis. Soak on the good the friends did before they opened their mouths and inserted their feet. Contemplate the good of being present and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the ministry by your presence.

Dr. Phil Lineberger taught me this lesson years ago…What a blessing it has been!

[1] John Goldingay, Job for Everyone, 1st ed., Old Testament for Everyone (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2013), 22–23. [2]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Job, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2010), 21. [3]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 660. [4]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Job, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2010), 22. [5] John Goldingay, Job for Everyone, 1st ed., Old Testament for Everyone (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2013), 23–24. [6]Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Patient, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 21. [7]David Atkinson, The Message of Job: Suffering and Grace, ed. J. A. Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 29–31. [8]Russell H. Dilday Jr., “Job,” in The Teacher’s Bible Commentary, ed. H. Franklin Paschall and Herschel H. Hobbs (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1972), 282. [9] J. D. Douglas, ed., New Commentary on the Whole Bible: Old Testament (Tyndale House Publishers, 1990), Job 22:2. [10]Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 237–238. [11]David Guzik, Job, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2007), Job 22:4–11. [12]Thomas Robinson, Job, The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary (New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1892), 134. [13] Rod Mattoon, Treasures from Job, vol. 2, Treasures from Scripture Series (Springfield, IL: Rod Mattoon, 2013), 138–139. [14]Robert A. Watson, “The Book of Job,” in The Expositor’s Bible: Samuel to Job, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, vol. 2, Expositor’s Bible (Hartford, CT: S.S. Scranton Co., 1903), 758–759. [15] H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Job, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 375–376.