Enduring With Job: 7 Days Of Hopeনমুনা

The stories of Job’s troubles have circulated around and reached three of his friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. As soon as they hear their friend is in trouble they go to him.

What they find is even worse than they could have imagined. Job is unrecognizable, a shell of his former self. Once a man of honor, he is now bloody and bruised, sitting in his sorrow. The friends are broken by what they see and mourn for him as they would for someone who has died.

Then, in a powerful act of comfort, the three friends take up by his side and stay there in complete silence for the next seven days. They see that his pain is beyond words and give the only thing they can: their presence.

This is one of the most powerful lessons on how to approach someone who is suffering. Personally, I find it hard to comfort someone who has gone through an extreme loss. What can we say or do to help the situation or lessen the pain?

The answer is shown in what the three friends did. As the book continues, they will offer their ideas and words of comfort, even argue with their friend at times. But initially all they did was wait. Job’s friends did not try to fix him or the situation. They simply sat with him in the pain and mourned with him in silence.

Two things. First, when we are moved to comfort someone who is in pain, remember the example of Job’s friends in these verses. Often our presence can do much more than any phrase or gift or act of service. To suffer with someone can be the hardest and most helpful thing we can do.

Second, when we suffer, our tendency is to shrink away from the world. We want to hide our misfortune for one reason or another. Don’t. The quickest way to healing is not to try and heal alone, but rather, like letting a wound breathe, to seek out people we trust who will simply be in our pain with us.

Takeaway: The presence of others is a gift from God.

Prayer: Father, I do not want to suffer or be around suffering. Still, use me to help those in pain. And when I hurt, soften my heart to let others in as well.