With Friend's Like These

Well, all of us know that God has called us, He has drawn us to be a part of the Church of God. He has drawn us to be the disciples of Jesus Christ. See, if you're a Christian, you know, then we're a follower of Christ. And so we've been drawn to be disciples and to be learning, and we've covered some of that as far as the explanation of that.

Mr. Kubik has written about that some here in the recent past. And yet, I want to focus on something here in John 15 that Jesus said about His disciples, and of course He was very close to these disciples. He seemed to grow in His closeness to them. He had, I would think, with the help of the Father, drawn individuals, some of them fishermen, one of them at least a tax collector, others perhaps in different roles, and some from different areas. And yet He had drawn them together.

God had drawn them to Jesus, and He then would teach them. He would instruct them. He would live with them. He would walk. He would talk. He would share with them the truth of God. And He would share with them, and He would tell them, well, the Father is the one who has helped you understand who I am. That was what He told them, you know, because He even asked, well, who do people say I am?

And they said, oh, they said this, and they said that, and they don't really know. But He said, well, who do you say I am? And Peter answered, and He said, well, you're the son of the living God. And Jesus, of course, said, well, you know, flesh and blood is not revealed that to you. That's been revealed to you by the Father. And so they had a close working relationship with Jesus Christ.

And obviously, they were in the role of learning. They were in the role of growing to become like Jesus. And yet here in chapter 15 of John, He says something that would appear to be even a closer relationship. Verse 12, He says, this is my commandment that you love one another is I love you.

And so He had actually focused on that a little bit earlier. No man has greater love than this than to lay down his life for his friends. So He was talking to these disciples, and He was saying that the greatest sacrifice that I could give, or that any man would ever give, would be willing to lay down his life for who? For his friends.

And He says in verse 14, you are my friends. You're the friends of Jesus Christ if you do what I command you. And I don't call you just servants any longer, because the servant doesn't know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from the Father.

And so Jesus was, in essence, telling them, you know, I want you to have even a closer relationship than simply being my servants, being my disciples, being my followers. I want you to understand that I wish to be your friend, and I want you. And of course, you know, the church directly had not begun until after Jesus' death and resurrection, and then with the Day of Pentecost, the church began with these same disciples leading.

Peter, James, John, others of the disciples were leading the members of the church that God had drawn together. And so all of these, not just the original disciples, but all of these individuals that God would draw together, were to be brethren who would actually be friends of Jesus Christ. See, what do we have in common? We come to church at the same time. We have similar beliefs, and yet mostly what we have in common is that we have a common spiritual family, and we should be cultivating friendships. Friendships with one another, friendships that are a very strong binding together.

Now, I point this out in connection with what we talked about last weekend. You know, some of you were there. We didn't have everybody there last weekend, but we went through a sermon out of the Book of Job dealing with Eli Hugh.

And Eli Hugh was an individual that God used to begin to get Job headed in the right direction. Eli Hugh was used by God to, in a sense, correct Job. A man that God had said was incredibly upright and blameless, and yet he did have a flaw that he couldn't see. God began to show Job what that was. He began to show him that, well, it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter how upright you are as a human being, you have sinned, and every one of us needs a Redeemer.

So he wanted Job to understand that, but Eli Hugh would go ahead and say, as you see that, then you are willing to repent and know that I've not really received what I deserve, which would be death. If God really gave us what we deserve, then we would simply die, and we would not have hope of any future beyond that.

But he says you would repent, you would realize that God is certainly extending his grace and mercy to you, and then you will proclaim the message of God. You will proclaim the majesty and the goodness and the justice of the great God. That's what Eli Hugh explained. Now, we're not going to go over that today, but what I mentioned last week was that Eli Hugh was used by God in being able to approach Job and actually begin.

You see, Eli Hugh's instruction to Job leads right into God directly intervening and talking to Job out of the whirlwind. And yet, you see that Eli Hugh's approach was one that was able to be received by Job. He wasn't talking down to Job. He actually was a, you could say, you know, he was a subordinate of Job.

Job was a prominent man. He was a wealthy man. He was a maybe princely man of the East, it says. He was a great man. Eli Hugh was just a younger man. He says, I'm younger. I don't know that I have the wisdom that anyone older would have, but I have this message from God. I see something that you need. And it appears because Job didn't answer back, like he did, actually, his other friends. Job didn't answer back to Eli Hugh. Perhaps he just began to think about what Eli Hugh just said. He said, Job, you need to stand in awe of the goodness and justice and greatness, the majesty of the great creator God.

And see, that was something that Job needed to hear. Now, God was obviously going to be able to impress that on Job even more, but he started with this young man. He started with a person who could provide Job that direction. And yet, Eli Hugh, you know, he wasn't talking down. He wasn't judging or condemning. He wasn't speaking in a condescending way to Job at all. Now, that's something we're going to see a little bit about today, that some of the other friends didn't have this perspective. But you find that Eli Hugh was honest.

He was sincere. He truly wanted to help Job. It appears what he had to say was very heartfelt. It was, and he really just said, you know, I'm no different than you, Job. I need this as much as you do. I need a Redeemer. I need to be repentant. I need to stand in awe of the great God. That's, in essence, what Eli Hugh had to say.

In essence, I guess, the type of a friendship, or at least the way that Eli Hugh spoke to Job, would express a type of friendship that we ought to be, you know, growing in. Friends who are able to love and serve and care for one another, and nurture one another in the words of God. And yet, as I want to go through today, what about Job's other three friends? I'm going to assume all of us are somewhat familiar with the book of Job.

It's actually a long book, 42 chapters. We've covered some of that in just looking at what Job had to say, actually the terrible attitude that he had toward God, where, in essence, he was almost putting himself on on the same plane as God. And that wasn't, that wasn't ever going to work. You know, he could argue with God, he could complain about what God had allowed to happen, but that wasn't going to achieve anything.

That would be a benefit for Job or a benefit to us. But you see a big section about 30 chapters here in Job, and we're not going to read those 30 chapters today. We're going to cover a little bit of that information because, you know, these friends of Job, there were three friends who life has, Bill, Dad, and so far. They were considered to be the friends of Job. But it's obvious when we read how they didn't really help Job, you know, that they said something that was wrong. They were approaching Job in a way that wasn't helpful. Actually, you see Job in essence always coming back and saying, well, what about this?

What about that? And why is God allowing this? And of course, sometimes, and there's one section there in the middle part where Job is saying, well, why this and why that and why something else? Why would God let... See, that's a question we often come up with whenever we have difficulties. And Job did too. He said, why is God doing this?

And yet, often, we don't have the answer to that. And Job didn't have the answer to that as well. So I want to focus on this sermon today about Job's friends and actually think about how is it that we interact with one another as friends in the family of God? Are there some things that we ought to avoid if we're really going to help other people? How can we best cultivate our friendships and serve one another? The title that I would give this sermon so that Mr.

Welburn can easily get it, With Friends Like These. That's the title of the sermon. And, of course, as I said, it's going to talk about the three friends of Job. Now, we go back to Job chapter 2. Job chapter 2, of course, Job is a book that is in the writings section of the Old Testament. You know, there's Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. You know, all of these books are in a writings section. And here in chapter 2, as Job has been allowed to be afflicted by God.

God even brought him up to Satan. And I'm not reading all of this in chapter 1 and in chapter 2, but, you know, God allowed Job to go through these trials to help Job. And yet, it's interesting because Job's problem was self-righteousness, or at least one of his problems was self-righteousness.

It's interesting that Satan had no clue at all as to what Job's problem was. He had no idea! Well, what's wrong with Job? There's nothing wrong with him. He does everything right. See, he didn't understand what Job's problem was because Satan is the most self-righteous individual in the universe. He thinks he could overthrow God. He thinks he knows better than God. He thinks that he could defy the living creator God. And he did, but it didn't work. He was rejected. His rebellion is quite well known. And yet, here in chapter 2, starting in verse 11, you know, we see as Job has now been afflicted after losing his property, losing his family, losing his health.

Job says in verse 7, he afflicted Job with loathsome boils. This was Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and inflicted loathsome fours on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And Job took a potcher with which to scrape himself and sat him on ashes.

That doesn't really seem like terribly helpful thing to do to me to be scraping yourself with a, you know, potcher and sitting in a bunch of dirt. But I think, you know, he was trying to, in any way he could, try to get some relief, trying to get, you know, any kind of a relief. And it says even at the very last section here of verse 10, in all of this, Job did not sin with his lips.

So, you know, what Job had said up to that point, you know, apparently was acceptable. But in verse 11, we start seeing about Job's friends. Now, when Job's three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, they all set out from their home, and they appear to be from different places. He life as the Temanite, so he must have been from the land of Teman, Bildad, the Shooite, and so far the Neamathite. See, again, from different, either tribes or different lands. And it says they met together to go out and console and comfort Job.

Now, if we just stop there, you know, we could say, well, they they did the right thing. You know, they realized that Job was in a huge mess. Apparently, they heard about it throughout the land. And so they want to go help. They want to go and see if they can console Job. They want to go and see if they are able to provide him some comfort. So when they saw him from a distance, they couldn't recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud. They tore their robes and threw dust in the air. They simply sat with Job on the ground for a whole week.

And no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. Now, in essence, you know, they started off with great intentions. And once they got there and they saw how bad this is, you know, they had nothing to say. They were just silent. Maybe that was the best thing they could have done. But, of course, you know, when Job starts talking, then they all have to chime in, and they all have to offer their own opinion. But here you see, and in essence, I guess we could say, well, you know, if a friend of ours is hurting, is in need, then we often want to reach out to them. We often want to see if we could console or see if we could comfort them. And that would be right. And yet, what we find is that these three friends, as you know, we have chapters, I think there's about nine chapters here, of their discussing with Job what they think the problem is that Job needs to know.

Now, the fact is, they really couldn't directly identify what sin Job had committed, and yet they were sure that this calamity had come upon him because of his sin. See, that's something that is consistent through all of their speaking to it. They could see, well, you know, we're not really sure what you did, but you did something to bring this upon you.

Now, I want us to look at a couple of verses that kind of verify this. Or actually, these verses, chapter 32, as Elihu actually is coming on the scene after Job's friends are done, and Job has made his final plea to God. He says, God, you're not just. You're not right. You're doing this to me, and I don't deserve it. That was about all he was going to be able to say. That was pretty much the end of the line for Job. But in chapter 32, you see Elihu coming onto the scene. And in verse 2, it says, Elihu, the buzzite of the family of Ram, he became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God. So he was, in essence, self-righteous and righteous in his own eyes, as it says in verse 1. But in verse 3, he was angry with Job's three friends, because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong. Elihu could come on the scene, and he could say, well, you guys have talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked. And Job has talked back, and then you've talked some more, but nobody knows anything from what you've had to offer. Over in chapter 42, you see another indictment against these friends of Job in verse 7.

After the Lord has spoken these words to Job, this is actually after Job had come to see himself, and maybe even more than that, he had come to see God. He said, I've heard of you by the hearing of my ears, but now my eye sees you. That's what Job says up in verse 5. But it says, after the Lord had spoken this to Job, the Lord said to a life as, my wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. And so what I want you to do is to take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourself a burnt offering, and my servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept his prayer, not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. And so obviously they did this, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. So he had achieved a success in Job's life where Job had come to understand his need for God. He had come to understand, I'm not just touting myself and feeling that I'm being mistreated. He came to see, you know, it's just fine. The justice of God is just fine, whatever it is, because he always does things correctly. Job had to admit that, but here it's very clear that the the friends of Job were in a sense condemned by God for not doing the right thing. And ultimately, Job would be praying for them, and God would accept that prayer, that they would not be dealt with according to their folly.

You also find, if we back up to chapter 16, chapter 16, you find Job pointing out something. Actually, let me back up to chapter 13, then we'll go to chapter 16.

In chapter 13, Job is speaking here, and he is lamenting how condemned he feels and how disadvantaged he feels, because he is simply, he's at a loss for words. He doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know where to turn. He doesn't know where God is. He keeps saying, why doesn't God answer me? Why doesn't God help? And, of course, his friends, you know, they couldn't help him.

Verse 2, or excuse me, verse 3. Well, let's back up, I guess, to the first of it, in verse 1, chapter 13. Look, my eye has seen all of this. My ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know. I'm not inferior to you. You know, he was, in a sense, saying, well, you know, everything you're telling me, I already know. And in verse 3, I would speak to the Almighty, and I would desire to argue my case with God. So that kind of tells you the attitude Job was in. You know, he didn't right have the correct awe of God that he needed, but he says in verse 4, as for you, you whitewash with lies, and all of you are simply worthless physicians. What Job thought was that what you're offering me is simply not helping. It's not providing comfort. It's not providing relief. It's not providing healing. He says you're all worthless physicians. And in chapter 16, you see that Job would say, in verse 1, again, Job is, he's now talking back again to a life as. Job answers, says in verse 2, I have heard many such things, miserable comforters are all of you.

Have windy words, no limit? What provokes you that you keep on talking? See, actually, you know, Eli, he wasn't impressed with these friends. Obviously, God wasn't impressed with these friends, and Job could see these are not providing consolation and comfort and care. You know, he says you are miserable comforters. He said in verse 4, I could talk like you do. If you were in my place, I could join words together against you and shake my head against you. That's what he felt was coming from them. You know, that they're shaking their finger at him and telling him how wrong he is. But he said, that's, I could do that too. In verse 5, he says, I could encourage you with my mouth and the solips of my lips would dissuade your pain. He actually said Job had such a confident approach toward things. He said, I'd be a lot better comforter than you are because what you're doing is just making matters worse.

Now, the second thing I want to cover, I mean, I think it's obvious that the friends didn't do a very good job. From every standpoint, they didn't do a good job, but why? The second thing that I want to mention is why they did a bad job simply because these friends spoke from their own wrong perception of Job's problem.

Now, who knew what Job's problem was? Well, it seems like only God. Satan certainly didn't. Even Elihu, who was going to be used by God to give him some information, correct information, you know, he didn't speak until much later. But see, these friends, they all looked at it from their perspective, from what they had experienced. And actually, I think you find that each one of these friends, they all said different things, but somewhat similar. Coming from the traditional wisdom, and this is what they were familiar with at the time, traditional wisdom was that, well, punishment comes to the wicked, and blessings come to the righteous. Now, you can make a case for that if you read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, and God talks about it even to Israel. It says, if you obey, I'll bless you. If you disobey, then this will be happening, these curses. See, that's exactly what these three friends had in mind. They had in mind Job has got to have done something wrong. He has got to be a sinner, even though we can't tell exactly what's wrong with him. And so he's being punished. And as we know, reading the first couple of chapters, Job wasn't being punished. Job was being taught. Job was being, in a sense, qualified to be a servant of God, not only for the remainder of his life, which you see in the last few verses of chapter 42, but I would think even into the world to come. Job was being worked with by God, but see, these friends, you know, they were simply operating from what seemed right to them. Now, I want to go back Elipheas. The first time you see Elipheas interacting with Job here in chapter 4 and 5. And then, of course, Job is usually talking back. And you see in chapter 4 and 5, and then later in chapter 15, and in chapter 22. Those are chapters that are all Elipheas speaking.

And the summary of what we could say about what Elihu has to say, or excuse me, not Elipheas, is simply, again, with the mindset that, well, you've got to have done something. See, now we might digress here a little bit. What did Jesus' disciples think in John chapter 9 with the man who had been blind from birth?

That had to be caused by sin. Now, he asked Jesus, was this the sin of the parents, or was this the sin of the man? And here he is blind, and of course, Jesus' answer was neither. There was no sin involved here. This has actually occurred in order to show the power of God. And, of course, he was going to heal this blind man and use that as an analogy about spiritual blindness, and how that God's the only one that can take that away as well. But see, this traditional wisdom was that, you know, if you obey God, then everything goes well. If you disobey, then you have these problems. And clearly Job had these problems. I think a summary of what he life has to say could be that Job is a good man, but somehow he's gone astray. See, that has to be what you could summarize life as, is overview. If we look to chapter 4, let's see, chapter 4 and chapter 5, you actually see a life as speaking to Job, claiming that, well, Job has to have sinned somehow.

He says in verse 8 of chapter 4, as I have seen those who plow iniquity, and so troubled, they reap the same. See, this was why I say, you know, that was the traditional wisdom. That was what they commonly thought, that, well, if things went wrong, then you had to do something. You must have sinned somehow. And he elaborates on that even more.

He says in chapter 5, you know, Job, what you ought to do is pray about it. Now, that would be, you know, certainly something that'd be a good idea, but see, rarely is that going to be a good advice to give somebody a friend. Here in chapter 5, verse 8, he says, as for me, what I would do, I would seek God. And to God, I would commit my cause. He says, Job, I know you're wrong. I know you're sinner. I don't know exactly what happened, but I know that you've got this major problem, and it's really a major problem. We can't even look at you, and that's all come because of your sin. So what you need to do is take it to God.

If we jump over to chapter 15, chapter 15, he says in verse 2, this is the life as, again, should the wise answer with windy knowledge and fill themselves with the east wind? See, he was claiming that, well, Job can talk and talk and talk, and he can plead, and he can argue about God, all of which he did, and we're not reading that. But he says, should they argue in verse 3, in unprofitable talk or in words with which they can do no good? But in verse 4, you are doing away with the fear of God, and you are hindering meditation before God. In verse 6, your own mouth condemns you, your own lips testify against you.

Now, again, in contrast to the way Elihu approached Job, Elihu said, you know, I'm just like you, Job. I've got the same problems, and yet he could tell him what God had helped him understand. Here, Eliphaz is simply just saying, well, I think Job's a good man. He's always been a good man. He's been a friend of mine for a long time, but somehow he's really messed up. He has gone astray, and he is being punished. That's a summary of what Eliphaz has to say. Let's see in chapter 22. Chapter 22.

He says in verse 12, chapter 22, verse 12, is not God high in the heavens? You can see the highest star. See how lofty they are? And yet you say in verse 13, therefore you say, what does God know? See, he was pointing out that, well, Job's got to have in some way messed up in order to get this type of punishment. And actually, he appeals to him here in verse 21, agree with God, and be at peace. Now, clearly, Job did have something to learn, but he wasn't going to learn it from these friends, who didn't turn out to be very good friends, didn't turn out to have any care or love or concern for Job like we see that Elihu did later on.

Now, let's go back to Bildad. See what Bildad had to say. That's in chapter 8, and chapter 18, and chapter 25.

Now, again, all of these men seem to be coming from the traditional wisdom of, you know, whenever you have some kind of problem, it's got to be from some type of sin. But you could say about Bildad, and again, there's three different sections here that you could read through chapter 8, chapter 18, and chapter 25. Essentially, Bildad just has to say, well, Job's, he's gotten what he deserves. He's gotten payback for his sins, and certainly everybody knows he must be a bigger sinner than us, because look at him. Look how broken he is. Look how much loss he has experienced. He's lost everything. He's lost his family. He's lost his wealth. He no longer is a prominent individual. Job will even say that. He says, oh, they used to pay attention to me. They used to listen to what I had to say, but not anymore. You know, nobody even listens. No one even wants to know what I have to say. See, Job realized, you know, that he had lost everything, and then, of course, his health as well. But here in chapter 8, Bildad says in verse 6, if you're pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore you to your rightful place. Talking about God. Now, if you really are upright, well, then clearly God would change this. He wouldn't let it go on. But in essence, he's saying, well, Job, you just really, you have gotten what you deserve. Verse 1, he says, see, God will not reject a blameless person and nor take the hand of an evil doer. See, again, these men were missing the point. They certainly had very little concern. They had very little, you know, real love for Job. And yet, I would say that not only is this in here for us to study, it's in here for us to learn how, you know, we should be friends with one another. Because many of us endure a certain level of affliction, a certain level of suffering, whether it's health or whether it's other things that happen in our lives. And we need to learn to be more like a like you and less like these friends who didn't really have Job's best interest at heart. They were looking down on him. They were condemning him. They were saying, well, surely, you know, you have to be wrong. But essentially, Bildad was saying, well, you're just getting what you deserve. We jump over to chapter 18.

Chapter 18, Bildad says in verse 1, how long will you keep talking? Job continues to keep coming back and answering them and telling them how they're wrong. He says, how long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we'll speak. Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?

You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken because of you or rock be removed out of place?

Surely the light of the wicked is put out. See, that was his conclusion. Verse 21, the very last verse in chapter 18. Surely, such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place for those who do not know God. So his conclusion is, Job, you know, you're just getting what you deserve. You obviously have faked all of us out. You obviously are able to look good to others, but God knows. And apparently, you don't know God. Now, that obviously wasn't very comforting, wasn't very encouraging. Let's go on to Zophar. There's only two chapters for Zophar, so that'll be a little bit easier. But here in chapter 11, again, you could summarize what Zophar had to say, kind of in the similar vein of the traditional wisdom, you know, you're punished for wickedness and you're blessed for obedience. Zophar's approach seems to be Job is guilty and he ought to repent. You know, he's a little more blatant, actually, with some of his statements. Actually, since Zophar seems to be the third one to get to speak, you know, we'll even see that he's starting to get upset with Job. He's starting to get angry with the fact that Job, you know, doesn't seem to respond like he wants. He says in verse 4, chapter 11, verse 4, you say, and so Zophar is telling Job, what you've said, Job, is that my conduct is pure and I am clean in God's sight. But oh, that God would speak and open his mouth to you and he would tell you the secrets of wisdom, for wisdom is many-sided. No, then, that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. He says you need to acknowledge your guilt, you need to repent, you just need to change, Job. And again, obviously, Job was to learn something, but it wasn't about the fact that these calamities had come upon him for any sin that he directly had committed. And this is what these men wanted to continue to try to tell Job and what God would actually say, that they are just wrong. They didn't know what they were talking about. They were not very good friends. In chapter 11, verse 13, Zophar says, if you direct your heart rightly, then you will stretch out your hands toward God. And yet, if iniquity is in your hand, put it away from you. Do not let wickedness reside in your tents. Again, he had to say, you know, I know you're sinning somehow. I just don't know what it is. And in chapter 20, it almost seems that he's starting to get exasperated. Chapter 20, verse 1, Zophar says, pay attention, Job. In verse 2, my thoughts urge me to answer because of the agitation within me. Now, he was getting mad at Job.

He goes ahead and says, down in the last part of this chapter, this is the portion, verse 29, this is a portion of the wicked from God, the heritage decreed for them by God. He says, you're getting what you deserve. You're guilty. You need to repent. See how we haven't read through all the stuff that these guys say, and you could read that on your own, and I have to say it's a little bit laborious to go through all of the things that they say, and then what Job says back, and he's quite content to argue. He's quite a good arguer. He's not only going to argue with these friends, but he wants to argue with God. He wants to plead his case before God. He says, I... oh, chapter 31 is just alarming to me. When you read how Job wants to come before God and says, I'm the one who will win, and you know, that wasn't going to happen either.

But I want to go to the third thing here that we need to keep in mind, and you see this revealed.

These friends of Job miss the point. They miss the point. They were operating from their own understanding, their own perception, their own misguided thought, and ultimately, you know, what we can learn about what perhaps would be successful for us is something that we see Job reveal here in chapter 6.

Job, here in chapter 6, just, he has to complain. I mean, he's in such misery. He's in such suffering. He has to complain. He says in verse 2, Ode to my vexation were ways and all my calamities laid in the balance. For in verse 4, the arrows of the Almighty are in me. Verse 7, my appetite refuses to touch them. They're like food that's loathsome to me. See, he says, I'm in pain. I don't want to eat. Verse 8, oh, that I might find my request and that God would grant my desire. See, what he had actually appealed to God, forgive me some relief and let me plead my case. Now, that's what he says over in one of the latter chapters.

But here, in verse 14, we have a key verse in the book of Job. Chapter 6, verse 14, gives us some instruction. It gives us instruction on what would really work. What actually should these friends have done? Actually, let's drop down to verse 24. Job says, teach me and I'll be silent. Make me understand how I've gone wrong, how forceful are honest words, but your reproof, what does it reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words as if the speech of the desperate were winned? See, here Job is saying, you know, all you have to do, or all you're doing, is giving out more and more advice, more and more instruction. That's what each one of them would give him. They would all give him advice that seemed right to them. And, of course, be mindful that God says, you know, they have not spoken the words that Job needed to hear. But if we jump up to verse 14, here is a key from the book of Job about how friends could be helpful to one another. He says in verse 14, those who withhold kindness from a friend forsake the fear of the Almighty. He says, you've been very free with your advice. See, many times that's the way we are. We're always glad to give our advice, what we think. What we think will work. What we even hope will work, maybe. But he says, you know, what you're doing is you're not extending kindness. You're not doing it out of a sincere love or concern. And what you actually need to do is to extend more holding and less scolding. That was really what Job was saying. You need to be more sympathetic. You need to seek to understand. You need to seek to listen. You need to have more sympathy than advice.

He says withholding kindness, as he was experiencing this, you know, that isn't really helping me. You know, we need, and I think if we're going to be good friends, if we are going to learn to be friendly toward one another and be able to have love for one another, then we're going to need to do more holding and less scolding. And that, of course, is in a sense of the description that you find here of what Job thought about how these men could have been more helpful.

More sympathy, more compassion, less instruction. See, many times if we find any of us in need from whatever, whether it's some type of a physical ailment, because often we struggle with different health issues, and of course we get prayer requests every week for different people in dire circumstances many times, or if there are losses in other ways. Now, perhaps we ought to be listening more. Perhaps we ought to be trying to understand more, trying to express support and sorrow and caring, and not so much, you know, giving advice on what to do. Being willing to listen, being available while allowing space for others to process whatever it is they're going through. See, sometimes this would deal with even, you know, the loss of a maid or a family member or others that we're close to. You know, we want to learn to have more holding and less scolding. And I think another aspect of this would be a good friend would avoid speculating, as these friends did of Job, about all the possible reasons why God might have allowed this. Because, you know, do we know the answer to that question? See, we just simply don't answer or know the answer. Even here in chapter 7, Job is, he's lamenting the fact that we're just people. You know, we're pretty limited. He was miserable at this point. This was even early on. Chapter 7 says in verse 17, what are human beings? That you make so much of them. You set your mind on them and you visit them every morning. You test them every moment. You know, this was actually going to be explained back in Hebrews about God's concern for man and what he really has in store for man. But Job is thinking about, boy, you know, this this is terrible. You know, why do we have to go through, you know, these problems and these trials? He says in verse 19, will you not look away from me for a while? Let me alone until I swallow my spit. Verse 20, if I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? Why? Why don't you just pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? But now I'm simply just lying in the dirt and you seek me but I shall not be. See, Job was lamenting over why did this happen? And yet, you know, if his friends had been able to understand, which I hope all of us can understand, the type of friends that we want to become are described here in verse 14, filled with kindness, filled with interest, filled with concern, but understanding that I don't have all the answers either. I don't have all advice to give to everybody. Or, you know, well, when I went through this, now we might share that at times, but there need to be an appropriate time for that. So, you know, to comfort those who may be suffering, as clearly Job was, you know, we have to learn the value of kindness and sympathy and compassion and not so much of giving advice. Now, there are a few other verses here that we might read in conclusion here. In Proverbs, you have a number of verses in Proverbs that talk about friends, and, you know, there's certainly a great deal of wisdom that God reveals here in the book of Proverbs. And yet, I'll just tie these together with the fact that all of us, you know, want to be not only friends of Jesus Christ, but we want to be friends of each other. We want to be friends who have concern and compassion and caring here in chapter 17 of Proverbs. Chapter 17, verse 17 says, a friend loves at all times. 10 folk are born to share adversity.

See, now, there's there are a lot of different Proverbs that, you know, you can read when you read through the whole book. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, that are written here. And this one just says that a friend is going to be available. They're going to be trying to help. They're going to be trying to listen. Another proverb that we could also look at would be here in chapter chapter 27. Proverbs chapter 27. Here it says, chapter 27 verse 5, this is not directly saying it's dealing with a friend. I guess it is in chapter 27 verse 6. But in verse 5 it says, better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Now, that could be misunderstood, I think, by saying, oh well, you know, we ought to be like Job's friend. Just tell him what's wrong. Well, they didn't know what was wrong, and they didn't seem to have much care for him. But this proverb, you know, just says honest, and this is actually how he like he was, honest, sincere, clear, loving, helpful, encouraging words are better, you know, than just knowing that I love and care for someone. And then it goes on in verse 6. Well meant are the wounds or the words that a friend may inflict, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy. See, if a friend is able to help us, if they're able to reach out to us, withholding, with caring, with love, and honestly and sincerely share with us things that can be helpful or encouraging, that's what we want to see. And I think, you know, that we could say that, and let's back up to chapter 3. There's another verse that ties together. This is Proverbs chapter 3.

Chapter 3, and again, I'm not going through near all of these. There are a number of Proverbs you could look up and find about friendship and the way friends should be. But it says here in chapter 3 in verse 27, Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. See, how have there been any times when we may have had the ability or the opportunity or even the privilege of helping someone, and we miss that opportunity. We miss that blessing of being able to do that. It says, Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. See, that's what we want to be as friends with one another. And so if we go back to our, in a sense, title, which is actually directed at the Friends of Job with friends like these, you know, what type of friends should we be? We should be friends that are holding and encouraging and sincerely trying to help and applying how that godly friends speak to build up one another in love. That's clearly what we're told here in Ephesians, and I'll conclude with that. Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4, is about the type of unity and the type of closeness that the Spirit of God, the bond that the Spirit of God is, enables us to have. It talks about how it is that the Church is established by God and directed by Christ to be able to build up each other. It says, verse 13, "'Til we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to maturity it says.

And it says, verse 15, "'But speak the truth in love, we must grow up in every way unto him who is the head, unto Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.'" See, that's what good friends, good brethren with one another are going to be doing. We're going to be building each other up in love. And so, whenever we think with friends like these, it ought to be in a positive sense as opposed to what we find in the book of Job where, you know, the friends were really off base. But, you know, we can learn from what Job had to say, and we can certainly learn from the other directives that we have here in the in the remainder of the Bible about how God wants us to be friends of one another. And I guess the best way to do that would be truly a close friend to Jesus Christ.