I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you! – Job 16:2

Today's Scripture Reading (July 14, 2021): Job 16

There is a difference between being a sympathetic ear and trying to teach a lesson, but it is a line that is notoriously easy to cross. Sometimes that is because we hold deeply ingrained beliefs that we can't see past, and we offer our wisdom as a way out of the trouble in which our friends find themselves. And it is hard not to place the blame where we believe the responsibility belongs. But our wisdom is often misplaced.

When a friend receives a lung cancer diagnosis, that is probably not the moment to bring up a lifelong smoking habit. They already know and blame themselves without you saying a word of well-intentioned advice. And that is true with most of our incriminating moments. We are not unaware that our behavior has consequences, although we know that sometimes those around us like to remind us of those consequences. Oops. It is a habit we all need to break. Often, all our friends want is someone who will listen to them, and not someone who will solve their problems, and they really don't need some tired proverbs that do more to make the adviser feel good than effectively address the pain of our friends.

All Job needed, all he wanted, was someone to listen and sit with him. It was something that his friends had done at first. It should have continued. But it didn't. At some point, Job's friends changed tactics. They started to give Job advice that he neither needed nor wanted. Most of it was misguided, and almost all of it was something that Job had already considered without being told. But the reality is that every piece of advice offered is something that Job had heard before and that he didn't need to hear again.

And so, Job tries to shame his friends. He calls them "miserable (amal) comforters." His word choice is not accidental. Eliphaz has just used the same word in the advice he has given Job about the company of the godless. The word that Eliphaz had used is "amal." Eliphaz told Job that "They conceive 'trouble' (misery, "amal") and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit" (Job 15:35). Job throws the word back at Eliphaz. Those in the company of the godless might conceive of misery (amal), but Job's friends are just as miserable (amal) in their attempts to offer comfort.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 17