We spent the past three months preaching through the book of Job. Based upon feedback, many of us were encouraged by a deeper dive into a book that many have read but few have understood. Especially concerning the counsel of Job’s friends. What was wrong with it? God was not pleased with them, saying “You have not spoken of me what is right” (Job 42:7).
What should have Job’s friends said to their struggling friend? In one of our latter sermons (Job 32-37), I closed with a series of recommendations, drawn from lessons from previous chapters. Much of what was said that day follows:
Job’s friends have been given a lot of print in the book of Job. They said some good things. Overall, however, theirs was an immature theology. They understood some of the basics of Who God is and the way in which He governs His creation. But they served a ‘Small God,’ a manageable One. One that is understood in all that He does. But that is not Who God is.
So, let us ask the question. What should have Job’s believing friends said to him? How should they have ministered and counseled him?
Despite losing all his stuff and his children in chapter one, Job was handling his great loss well. Despite losing his health in chapter two, Job was handling that loss, too. But from chapter three onward, Job begins to slip.
His friends would have done well to remind him of several biblical truths, starting out with the fact that God is Sovereign. And following that up with the fact that God is good. And because He is both (all the time) He is to be trusted and obeyed, even when we do not understand what He is doing.
His friends could have encouraged him that the pain he was experiencing and the darkness that was dominating his life served a purpose. It was an opportunity to grow in his faith.
His friends could have said God may be knocking down his “house of cards” for a greater divine purpose. And that all the loss and pain he was experiencing may be necessary for God’s “bigger story.” One that has us playing roles we would not choose for ourselves.
His friends could have assured him that there is absolutely no evil or circumstance we encounter that does not contribute to God’s good. We do not know what He is doing in the present, but He is doing something intended to bring Him more glory.
His friends could have reminded their brother that God is less concerned with our ‘maximal creaturely happiness’ (something we are concerned with) and more concerned with our sanctification. That our little “cottage” is under construction. And that He is making more of us by constructing a “palace,’ something we cannot imagine or believe to be possible.
His friends could have counseled him that God, though He often works by cause and effect, is not limited to such. God is too immense and too incomprehensible for us to understand all that He is doing. Our simple understanding of God and His world must bow to the fact that God’s ways are beyond us.
His friends could have talked about his need, despite his heartache, to continue to fear God and to continue to flee evil. His situation had not erased what he already knew of God and what He wanted him to do. And that he must continue to face life by faith.
His friends could have chastised him (sometimes believing friends sometimes need to do) that God did not owe him better, that he did not know better than God, and that God is not fair, as we understand the word to mean, in treating everyone the same. Rather, God is just. And that by remembering that, he could trust God in the dark.
His friends could have reminded Job that God often teaches us through the things He does to us. And that two of His tools are affliction and adversity.
These are some of the truths Job would have benefited by hearing from his friends. They had a role to play in coming alongside their brother. They had a role to play in speaking life to their brother.
Lastly, they could have encouraged him to read C.S. Lewis’s book, The Problem of Pain. Never mind. That book had not been published yet 😊.
But we have it. In this portion, Lewis remarks that sometimes it appears God’s providence to be cruel. And that we are sometimes perplexed why such heartache can fall upon those who do not seem to deserve it. Often that is what we think concerning ourselves! What possibly can God be doing?
Lewis writes, ‘Let me implore the reader to try to believe, if only for the moment, that God, Who made these deserving people, may really be right when He thinks that their modest prosperity and the happiness of their children are not enough to make them blessed: that all this must fall from them in the end, and that if they have not learned to know Him they will be wretched.’
‘And therefore, He troubles them warning them in advance of an insufficiency that one day they will have to discover. [Their] life to themselves and their families stands between them and their recognition of their need; [Therefore], He makes that life less sweet to them.’
God makes life less sweet to us so we might know our need; for God, for salvation. And that our life is ultimately about Him!
All of this would have been good counsel for Job (and us) when we find ourselves hurting and perplexed, sitting on the “ash heap” of life.
God is always doing something in our life. We may not understand it. We may not comprehend it. We may not like it. But we must trust that our Sovereign God has His reasons. And that His reasons are always good.
So, take Him by the hand. Rather, have Him take you by the hand. He will take you on a glorious journey going forward. One that ends in Heaven. And that is where life will be truly lived!
Pastor Rich Hamlin
February 26, 2026