Reading Job

This book is perhaps the most puzzling for me. In fact, I find all the prophecy books hard to get through, or hard to understand. The reason is you can't pick up the meaning of the book simply by reading it; you have to really research the content as well. Without that research, gleaning a complete understanding of the book is nearly impossible.

The biggest area that I focused my research on this time around was what each friend of Job was trying to say, or what the purposes of their speeches were. Bad things do happen to people, even to the best of people, and I think it is interesting to read what reasons these three gave for Job's situation. When bad things do happen, we do tend to search for answers. These three provide some common answers, but as we see from a fourth bystander and the Lord Himself, they are false.

The first friend Eliphaz states that Job brought this upon himself. He believes that Job knowingly committed some evil. Eliphaz states that Job's sin equals instant punishment. Essentially God gets mad with the person's sin and right away acts.

The second friend Bildad backs that theory up. He also states that Job must be punished because of his sin. Bildad assumes that everything bad that happens is a direct result of sin. The difference with Bildad is that he doesn't claim Job had to intentionally commit evil.

The third friend Zophar correctly states that people can repent, and they need to repent. However, he makes a mistake in assuming that Job needed to repent. He denies that Job could possibly be innocent.

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What the three friends should have done is mourn with Job. We are to mourn with those that mourn, be sad with those who are sad, and be merry with those who are merry. As friends, these three should have recognized what Job needed most in that situation, which was support and not criticism. Job needed love, understanding, and teaching, not rebuking, questioning, and harsh words.