Be the Friend With Something Worthy To Say
The book of Job is a pretty cool book.
Some people say all kinds of woeful things about Job. They might even call him a “woe is me,” kind of guy. But there are 42 chapters to that book and Job goes through some phases of change in those 42 chapters. So, it can be hard to characterize Job by the end of it as a “woe is me,” kind of guy.
The “o” in Job, by the way, tends to be pronounced in American English as a long o, like the name Joe. And Job is the kind of story that can happen to a regular Joe too. In fact, it does, every day. There might be multiple times in your life, or anyone’s life, where everything goes to ruin, or at least feels like it goes to ruin.
And sometimes, at moments like those, we need friends to gather round and give us a hand. Sometimes those friends might even come when we do not call on them to come. Some people just seem to know how to rally around others in times of crisis.
Job had three respected friends who came together to sympathize with him and comfort him. But before those friends said a single word, they just sat down next to him and said nothing. Not for a few minutes, either. They sat down next to him for seven days, saying not a word.
At least that is what the book of Job seems to indicate.
I do not know what your life looks like, but in my calculus of how to spend time, I do not know how many people on this planet would get seven days of total silence from me.
Job’s friends gave him that gift.
After seven days of silence, with these respected men sitting right next to their friend in his suffering, Job spoke up.
Job spoke foolishness.
Utter foolishness.
Or at least he spoke words that his friends would describe as foolishness. They would even describe it as blasphemy. When they saw this foolish behavior, they understandably chided him. They pushed back on him. They refused to stay silent in the face of such nonsense. Mourning together they would do. But silence in the face of lies spoken by Job audibly? That they would not do. That was a step too far. They knew then as well as we know today that silence means compliance. Lovingly and with regard for the truth, they wanted their friend Job to just turn away from such foolish talk about God and His ways.
Those three friends at that point made a decision. They names were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They had to make a decision: Would the names Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar risk going down in history as mistaken and misled mockeries who got it all wrong?
That is a hard decision to face, but they had to.
You see, in the book of Job, the opinion of Job, to a degree, comes with the imprimatur of God, while the views of Job’s friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (and others) appear to come with divine condemnation. T
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
