The Patriarch: Job – father of many, helper of all, wise man of the village. Because he was the most righteous man alive, Satan asks God to let him prove that he can get Job to curse God. After gaining permission and unleashing his fury, Job is left a childless, unloved, ridiculed bag of scab-covered bones….but he never curses God!
The Fool: Job’s wife (who is not named), derides Job in his misery and tells him to “curse God and be done with it!” Job pulls no punches in his response: “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool!” Yeah, they had a 'special relationship'…
The Three Stooges: Job’s three....uh...‘friends'… The good news is, they did travel from distant countries to come and sit with Job in his distress… the bad news is after staring at each other for a week, they started tearing into Job like wolverines shredding a meat pinata.
To illustrate – his friends show up in Job chapter 2, and it starts out sounding like these guys really have his back:
Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering. (Job 2:13)
Unfortunately, it appears they were just waiting for Job to make the first move, before they moved in for the kill! After Job kicks off Chapter 3 wishing he was never born, he apparently becomes fair game. They lay into him hard, and for chapter after chapter, the verbal abuse continues from all three of Job’s so-called friends. Job rebuts them time and again, but they will not relent.
Then comes what has to be my favorite part. Introducing...
The Ringer! Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have abused Job eight different times with their word sledgehammers, but Job remains steadfast in his innocence. Then comes the ‘cocky young guy’ (that we didn’t even know was there), telling all the ‘old dudes’ that they are miserable failures for not being able to convince Job that he is a horrible sinner who deserves everything he got!
Into the scene steps Elihu:
Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became angry. He was angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and that God was right in punishing him. (Job 32:2)
Where did this guy come from, and why are we just now finding out about him? Young Elihu is seriously upset that Job didn’t admit to sins he never actually committed – you just can’t make this stuff up! When it’s all said and done, Elihu spends over 150 verses spewing vitriol at Job - calling him an arrogant, lying sinner (among other things). We may be reading about the first politician in history…
God finally steps in to break up the party. After the Lord straightens out Job, He turns to the three amigos (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar) and gives them what for… But, there is no mention at all of God even responding to young Elihu. This young whippersnapper jumped into this conversation between his four elders and is just completely given the hand… no response from Job – no response from the friends – no response from God.
Ouch.... that had to hurt!
#LoveMatters