Job's Friends Are Not Helpful

After sitting quietly for seven days, Job started talking. And what he said was very, very sad.

'I wish I had never been born!' Job said. 'Why didn't I just die when I was a baby? I don't want to live anymore. Everything hurts. Everything is terrible. I just want the pain to stop.'

Job was SO sad. He didn't say bad things about God, but he was honest that he was hurting really, really badly.

Then Job's friend Eliphaz started talking. At first he sounded nice, but then he said something not very nice: 'Job, think about it. Good people don't suffer like this. Only people who do bad things suffer this much. So you must have done something wrong!'

Then Job's friend Bildad spoke up. 'God is always fair,' he said. 'Maybe your children did something bad, and that's why they died. And if you're suffering this much, you must need to say sorry to God for something!'

Then the third friend, Zophar, said something even meaner: 'I think you actually deserve to suffer MORE than this! You must have done something really, really bad that we don't know about!'

Job's friends all believed the same thing: If something bad happens to you, it's because you did something bad. If something good happens, it's because you were good.

But that's not always true! Sometimes bad things happen to good people. And Job KNEW he hadn't done the terrible things his friends were accusing him of!

Job said, 'I know I'm not perfect, but I didn't do anything to deserve THIS! Why won't you believe me? You're supposed to be my friends, but you're making me feel worse!'

Job's friends kept arguing with him. They talked and talked, round and round, always saying the same thing: 'You must have sinned! Just admit it!'

But Job kept saying, 'I didn't! I want to talk to GOD about this!'

Job's friends thought they were helping by giving him answers. But sometimes when people are hurting, they don't need answers. They just need someone to sit with them, listen to them, and love them. Job's friends forgot that.