As Job sits and contemplates the total destruction of his previously perfect life, he wishes he had never been born to witness such misery or that he could die now and end it, his life is now only a torment to him. His three friends come and sit with him, sharing his mourning until they feel compelled to speak.
The first comforter is Eliphaz the Temanite who reminds Job that he has often advised others to trust in the justice of God, he suggests that Job lays his case before God and accepts his correction humbly. Eliphaz has assumed that Job must have done something to deserve his suffering, that the reason for his state is hidden sin and that Job needs to uncover and repent of that sin in order to have the punishment lifted.
This is an attitude which is often hidden in prayer ministry, when healing does not happen or prayers are not answered, the question is hinted at – what secret sin is blocking God from blessing you? What did you do to bring this upon yourself? Is there an ancestral curse or sin for which you need to repent? There must be a reason for the prayers we have said to have no effect and the reason must lie with you.
This attitude is subtle and people probably don’t always know they are doing it, like the prayer team who asked me if I was stressed while pregnant with my daughter, who is disabled, the implication being that I had somehow caused her disability and that she would be changed if the root could be identified. The result is that people who don’t miraculously get healed are left feeling that the failure is theirs, their faith was not enough or they were holding out.
Eliphaz sees Job suffering, all his former blessings taken away and he assumes that Job has done something to deserve it, there must be a hidden sin for which Job is being punished. How often do we do the same? We are quick to judge and to offer simplistic solutions to the problems of others, perhaps we would be better to keep our counsel and just sit with them through their suffering as the friends of Job did to begin with.
Into the Word 