"Your sin prompts your mouth, you adopt the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you..."

Eliphaz the Temanite's "words of comfort" as recorded in Job 15:5-6, NIV 

 

Now comes the hard part for Job. You would think that it would been enough for Job to have lost his family, his wealth and his health, but Satan had one more temptation for Job: His friends!

 

That's right, Job's three best "friends" heard of his plight and came to comfort him - at least that is what they claimed to be there for. Instead, they spent days harassing Job, trying to get him to admit to some awful sin that he must have committed to bring down such evil events upon his life. When Job let them know that he had committed no such sin, they ganged up on him.

 

Taking turns, first one speaking, then another, they laid out their case against Job. They let Job know that God would never allow a good man to be punished in such a way so Job must surely be a bad man. They wanted him to "fess up" as my good friend Barry put it when teaching on this very book. They wanted him to purge his soul and cleanse his evil conscience from the great wickedness that he just had to have committed.And, as Job's special friends, they were willing to take that confession.

 

After all, what are friends for, right?

 

As we will see at the end of this book, they are not for getting their friends to "fess up" so that they can then "beat them up".

 

No, a friend is someone who will let you talk when you need a kind ear to listen. A friend is someone who will let you cry on their shoulder and not complain about their wet arm afterwards. A friend is someone who is there to sincerely help, not someone who is there to sensationalize your grief. A friend is someone who can listen to a confidence a keep it confidential.

 

Of course, we know all of these things because we have had to "cull" a friend or two through the years who didn't prove themselves worthy of the title. 

 

God's word tells us that we can have many "companions" but it is the one who sticks by you in bad times and good that rates the title of "friend". When it came down to it, Job's three friends turned out to be nothing more than companions, and that at a time when he needed a friend more than anything else.

 

Which would you describe yourself as, a companion or a friend? More important, how would your friends describe you?

 

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24, NIV

 

Today is day 6 of the 30 day challenge to read through the books of wisdom, with Job 15-21 being the reading for today. You can visit our commonsenseChristian.com  website for all of the daily articles, or go by our 30dayBiblechallenge.com website for all of the 30 day challenges to date. May God richly bless your efforts as you continue to seek and do His will!