“Job - Part 2” Job 3: 1-10, 4: 1-9, 7: 11-21

Have you ever been like Job, in a place of just unimaginable pain? Have you ever had someone come and accompany you in that pain? If so, what was that experience like? What did folks say or do that brought you comfort? And what do you wish would have been left unsaid?

Job has come before God in an attitude of prayer. He refused to curse God, even in the midst of losing what looked like almost everything.  All that was experienced by Job in chapter 1 and 2 was leading to this moment - Job Chapter 3. Job refused to curse God, as Satan wanted him to and as his wife had suggested. But he did curse that he was born. He would rather have never found life then go through what he is going through now. 

Up until this point Job has friends who had been sitting with him in silence. They were simply being a comforting presence. But as soon as Job makes this statement they feel like all of sudden Job is attacking God and so they jump to God’s defense. Was that actually what Job was doing? No. But the foundation of his faith life had been shook. He thought that all of the suffering he experienced would lead to something. Would mean something. But here he is, several days later and there is no resolution. So all of those old things that his faith had been built upon had to be stripped away. 

The problem is that his friends still had that old foundation. And they try to talk to him out of it. Or rather, Eliphaz, going first because he was the oldest of the friends, starts off by trying to gently remind Job that God makes the wicked suffer. Which is very much how the society around Job thought - those who were blessed must be close to the heart of God, and those who suffered must have some unconfessed sin in their lives that they need to bring before God in order to be restored. 

Here is Job, who has been sitting in silence for days, reflecting on what he has been going through. Silently praying to God. Trying to figure out what is going on. And he realized that this wasn’t the old system of justice theology at work. It wasn’t that the good guys would get ahead. Because Job knows his heart and know that he is upright and blameless and faithful. So he cries out to God that he would rather not have been born because he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why this was happening. And that justice theology he had built his life upon is gone. 

Job openly expressing himself to God and Job’s friends response wasn’t to continue to just sit with him in silence. Or even to offer words of comfort. They set out to help Job realize the error of his ways, and gently nudge Job into a different perspective and direction. Don’t you know Job… its only the wicked who suffer, ergo you must have some wickedness in you. Why don’t you pay attention to that? Then their arguments get more and more defensive as they jump to uphold what they believe about God, about who God is and how God acts. 

The problem is we are all too often like Job’s friends. We don’t know what to say in times  of pain so we just start to say anything that comes to mind. I was recently talking with someone about funerals - what we want for our funeral. And what we don’t want at all. Only someone who didn’t know us walked in on the middle of the conversation just as we were expressing that we didn’t want anyone to look at us in a casket and say how nice we look. This person stopped dead in their tracks and said, “do people really say that?”

It’s one of many things that we say to fill the silence, when really just being there is the best gift we could ever offer. When someone is in sustained pain like Job is, we all too often want to try to give a theological explanation for what they are going through instead of just letting them be and being there with them. 

Job is trying to express his anguish to God - and that’s okay! But instead of getting the support he was hoping he would receive from his friends, they turn on him, just when they needed him the most. 

And let’s be honest, even if they truly believed that Job had his theology wrong - was then really the time to say it outloud and so vehemently? Of course not!

Yet, have we ever done that? Probably. We search for words of comfort, but all that does sometimes to drive someone in pain further from God. 

When I was in college I was studying abroad for my final semester and I was having a really hard time. A dear friend also was with me that semester and he didn’t know all of the struggles but he knew that I was in pain. And he would let me get it out. Or rather, he would leave me space to have silence when I just needed to be. 

But there was another classmate on that trip who didn’t understand what I was going through. And so, one day when I had been silent for a long time she decided to come up and scold me about how it wasn’t living into the idea of Christian community. 

Now in her defense, she didn’t know what was going on inside of me. But was that helpful to me? Not at all. It just made me feel worse. 

Job turns to God in desperation, but he never says that God is not holy or powerful. He never curses God. But he is wrestling with and expressing his faith in a way that made those around him uncomfortable. 

I think Job made them uncomfortable, because as long as Job admitted that he was wicked then they could distance themselves from his experience. Surely they were better than Job so they could never experience all that he is going through. But as soon as they believe that what Job was saying was true, that he wasn’t wicked, that there wasn’t a bigger reason behind this suffering, than they would have to admit that this could happen to them as well. And that would rock their faith world. 

This section of Job is hard. It’s hard to read. It’s hard to reflect on. Because there is just so much pain presence. But underneath all of that is the question - is our faith adequate for times of trouble? How would we respond if we had pain in our lives that just wouldn’t go away? How do we pray to God in times of a crisis?

Because if you’ve been there you know that such times change you. They strip away your faith of all meaningless platitudes, traditions that don’t stand the pressure of pain, and theological beliefs that are not true, but that we’ve always just assumed. And all that is left is you and God. Which can be a beautiful thing. But it is also hard for folks to understand if they haven’t been there. 

Friends, if you are going through a time like Job right now, know that I am praying for you. I am praying that God sustain you. I am praying that God sends folks just to be with you. I am praying that you experience the presence of God. And if you aren’t going through something like Job, but you know someone who is, I am praying for you as well. Praying that you have the courage to simply be a silent presence. Praying that you have a heart of compassion. Praying that you show love in a way that connects with someone in need. 

Friends, let us pray….