SATAN had been defeated, but still Job had not learned the lesson which God had for him. What the storm Satan had brought against him failed to do, is brought about through the appearance of Job’s three friends. His uprightness, and even his patience, had been manifested, and Satan had no more to say. But God alone can search out what the heart really is before Him. This He did with Job, at the same time revealing that He acts in grace for the good of the one He loves.
Job had three devoted friends who lived at a distance. Having heard, of his affliction, and being much concerned for their friend, they made an appointment to visit him. Their desire was to comfort him, but finding his condition so shocking and so much worse than they at first thought, they did not know him, and all they could do was to rend their clothes, sprinkle dust on their heads, and weep. “So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.”
The presence of his friends, who were well acquainted with his former greatness, their seeing him in such a sad plight, was more than Job could bear. Their inability to say anything arouses his feelings and reveals that there had been with Job a self-satisfaction in his former state and manner of life. What follows throughout the book indicates, we believe, that while Job had a new nature, he did not know what was in his heart and had never really been in the presence of God. He had never learned to say, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.”
But if such was the case with Job, his three friends knew far less of God’s ways in His dealings with man than he. They all believed that God acted in government in this world, but theirs was such a cold reasoning on the matter, for they inferred that what befell men here could be taken as an exact outline of God’s ways with man. As they gazed upon the terribleness of Job’s sufferings, they began to allow in their hearts the thought that he must be guilty of something terrible, which was not the case at all. Therefore they accuse him wrongfully of many things, which we shall see as we proceed through this book.
The lack of pity, the absence of any consolation from those from whom Job had expected sympathy, was too much for his spirit. One might bear grief and suffering alone and bow under it, but if others from whom he expects sympathy come and withhold it and perhaps distrust him, it often brings but a different spirit. In Job’s case it caused him to break out, mourning over his terrible lot in having to come into such suffering. He had refused to curse God, but he does curse the day he was born. He wishes he had never been born or that he had been born dead. In death, he says, he would have been with the small and great, where those were who had caused trouble for the oppressed, but could do so no more. It must be remembered that in Job, as in all the Old Testament, the truth of what takes place after death is not revealed. This comes out only in the New Testament. Life and incorruptibility have been brought to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:1010But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10)).
Job then reveals that he had harbored a secret fear that all his wealth and position could be swept away from him, and now it had come to pass. He had not been in safety nor in quietness, nor at peace. He had not the confidence in God Abraham had while he walked in faith before Him.
ML-01/31/1960