Job 3:11-26, Job Needed Better “Listeners”

I have, for years, thought that the book of Job would be an excellent manual for Counselors, in a negative way.  As you read through the book and hear his “friends,” you may come to that conclusion we often express this way: “with friends like that, who needs enemies.” 

With that in mind, for the next several posts, let’s examine several issues in counseling as we see them in Job: the issues of listening, authority, hope and the righteousness of God.  I am not saying I have the ability to set you all straight on how to be competent counselors.  What I am hoping is that you will give consideration as we see these issues at work in the story of Job and his friends.

Being better listeners.

In our previous post we talked about the three friends and their differences.  One thing they seemed to have in common is that none of them were very good listeners.  It seems they had their minds made up, by which I mean, in the several rounds of speeches, they essentially kept repeating themselves.  All they could say was, “Job, you must confess your sin and get right with God so this trial can end.”

As you hear Job, he asks a lot of questions.  And his questions often needed to be thought about to get at Job’s actual problem.  I want to list a few of these questions and ask you to consider what underlies the question.  We will share some of our thoughts in the next post.

·       3:11-12: Why was I born? 

·       3:20-23: Why can’t I die now?

·       7:20: Why have You made me Your target?

·       7:21: Why don’t You pardon and forgive me?

·       10:18: Why was I born if You were just going to afflict me?

·       13:24: Why do You hide Your face from me?

·       19:22: Why do you friends persecute me as God does?

·       21:7: Why do the wicked live on?

·       24:1: Why does God not set a judgment time (when I can argue my case with Him)?

Why? Why? Why?  These are the kinds of questions that increase our agony when we are already in a time of trial.  We have an advantage over Job’s friends (and Job) because we have read Job 1-2.  We know what actually happened in heaven.  Having said that, I still want to note how Eliphaz answered Job after he raised the questions of Ch. 3 (why was I born? why can’t I die now?)  Read Eliphaz’s words in 4:6: “Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your ways your hope?”  In other words, a life of integrity or reverence gives you good standing and you won’t suffer.  In fact, as we know, it was Job’s “life of integrity” that got him into this situation.  God asked Satan if he had noticed Job, the blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. 

Let’s consider the underlying themes of these questions in our next post.