What Job’s Friends Got Right

When January rolled around this year I didn’t have a plan. That is super unusual for me because I am a planning girl! Don’t get me wrong, I have a daily, weekly, and general idea of what I’m doing, but as for reading through the Bible or where to read in the Bible, I didn’t have a clue. 

A few months after you are “supposed” to have a plan, I decided to read through the Bible chronologically. That means that I am now in the Book of Job. 

The Book of Job isn’t always my first choice in up-lifting books to read. Moving past the action section where Job suffers terribly, I settled into the conversation part between Job and his friends. The back and forth makes it interesting as it feels as if we are overhearing a deeply personal confession from Job but then the friends try to “encourage” Job as well. 

Job’s friends have always gotten a bad rap. They are criticized for their lack of compassion and inability to really help Job. As I read through, however, I took these words that the friends spoke and kept telling myself: “This is God’s Word.” Although the words of the friends weren’t helpful for Job, they are supposed to be helpful for us. (2 Timothy 3:15-17 ) 

If those words, the words spoken by Job’s friends, were inspired by God’s Spirit and for our benefit, there has to be something for you and me in there. I read the chapters slower and began to see that many of Job’s friends spoke the truth!

What Job’s Friends Got Right

The way they describe God, His actions, and His character were all true. Here are some truths spoken by Job’s friends: 

“ Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker? -Job 4:17

“As for me, I would seek God,
and to God would I commit my cause,
who does great things and unsearchable,
marvelous things without number:
he gives rain on the earth
and sends waters on the fields;” -Job 5:8-10

“Can you find out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
It is higher than heaven—what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?” -Job 11:7-8

“Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!” -Job 22:12

“Dominion and fear are with God;
He makes peace in his high heaven.
Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does his light not arise?” -Job 25:2-3

All of those things they shared are 100% true about God! Over and over the friends also tell Job that the wicked will be punished. This is also true. So, where did they go wrong? They went wrong because they only saw part of the picture. As humans, we naturally see what Job’s friends saw. 

But Job’s Friends Missed the Rest of the Story

The world we live in and the natural way of man can reveal some of these truths about God, but what Job and his friends missed was the rest of the story. God ultimately condemns Job’s friends at the end of the book of Job. He says that if Job doesn’t make sacrifices for them, they would be punished for claiming to be speaking for God. They felt the need to defend God to Job. 

God doesn’t need anyone to defend Him. He can defend Himself, as He did at the end of Job. Another aspect that Job’s friends failed to see is one that Job did see:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

-Job 19:25

What Job Understood that His Friends Didn’t

Job understood that one day, God would redeem humanity. And that Redeemer has stood on the earth—Jesus Christ. God provided for us through Jesus, but Job’s friends didn’t see this.

Job’s friends failed to see several things about God. One more thing they failed to see was that God is bigger than the suffering in our stories.

God is Almighty, wise, and powerful. But we also might forget (especially in the middle of our suffering) that God sees us, has rescued us, and suffering will ultimately not be the final word. 

Job’s friends got some things right, but they failed to see God wholly as He is. The beautiful truth we can hold onto is that God has fully revealed Himself to us through His completed Word. We don’t have to stumble around trying to make sense of our heartache.

We can turn to the Bible and see how everything—even suffering—is redeemed by God.