This week we’ll be back in the Book of Job, chapters 4-7, part of our sermon series on “A Man Called Job.”  Job has grieving for seven days.  Job’s friends have now shown up.  Three friends … Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar … have joined him, but so far have said nothing.  There are times when words fail.  There are times when silence is the best therapy.  But, as we saw last week, Job opened his mouth and sung a loud, long lament.  And apparently, that shook up his friends pretty good.  And, based on the emails I got this week, it shook up a few of you as well.

So they decide to talk to Job.  Perhaps they can talk some sense into him.  Sometimes it’s great to have friends there when you’re hurting.  Sometimes it’s not.  Especially when they say dumb things, hurtful things, or even true things … which bring no comfort.  When we’re really hurting, being given reasons for the pain doesn’t usually help a whole lot.  And that’s the situation we have here.

And Job fails to appreciate them, or their words, which just annoys them all the more.  As we will see, and as many of you have experienced, sometimes the attempt to comfort someone else goes bad … and sometimes it goes better.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between bad and better comfort.  And sometimes it’s hard to know how to respond when you’re the one being comforted.  Especially when you know the best comfort has yet to arrive.  It takes an enduring, resilient faith to put up with comforters who aren’t really comforting.  So, let’s learn what to say and what not to say when we’re doing the comforting.  And let’s learn what to listen to and what not to listen to when we’re the ones being comforted.  And what does Jesus have to do with all this?  Come Sunday to find out.  See you then.  Dr. Dave