"I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. Sermons I. MISERABLE COMFORTERS FAIL FOR LACK OF SYMPATHY. This thought is continually recurring in the course of the dramatic dialogue. It is at the root of the whole controversy. All the elaborate argumentation of the three wise men is so much empty wind, because they lack the first condition of consolation. We can never be reminded too often that sympathy is the first and absolute condition of all mutual helpfulness. But how is it that well-meaning friends lack it? There can be but one answer. The enemy of sympathy is selfishness. While we think much of ourselves, our own opinions, position, conduct, we must fail in sympathy, and our attempts to help others must come to the ground without any good results. In visiting the poor, nursing the sick, raising the fallen, saving the lost, teaching children, sympathy is the primary requisite for success. Christ is the true Friend of the suffering, because Christ sympathizes profoundly with all sufferings. We make a mistake when, like Job's comforters, we try to console by offering advice. The sufferer wants not advice, but sympathy. Why should his misfortune give us a right to pose as his counsellors? He is more fitted to be our teacher, for he has been to the best of schools, the school of affliction. II. MISERABLE COMFORTERS ADD TO THE GRIEFS WHICH THEY VAINLY TRY TO ASSUAGE. Thus Rousseau writes, "Consolation indiscreetly pressed upon us, when we are suffering under affliction, only serves to increase our pain and to render our grief more poignant." The reasons for this are not difficult to discover. 1. Disappointment. We expect something better from a friend. He should give us his sympathy, and if he fails to do so we feel ourselves to be unkindly treated, or at least we miss a comfort for which we were looking. 2. Weariness. The sufferer wants quiet. The look and tear of sympathy may console him, but many words are wearying to him. He is too full of iris own sad thoughts to find room for the ill-judged observations of untimely advisers. 3. Injustice. You cannot be just to a man without sympathy, because you cannot understand him till you enter into his deeper feelings. But nothing is more distressing than unjust treatment. Much of Job's greatest trouble came from this source. III. WE NEED DIVINE GRACE TO HELP US TO BE TRUE COMFORTERS. Perhaps we shrink from the task, seeing its difficulties. We would avoid the house of mourning lest our bungling attempts at consolation should add to its sorrows. But this is not brotherly. The Christian duty is to "weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15). To be true sympathizers we need to have self conquered by the grace of Christ. Perhaps one reason why some of us have much trouble is that we may be able to understand the trouble of other people, and so may become true comforters. - W.F.A.
Not for any injustice in mine hands. In these words Job delivers us —1. The confidence of a godly man. 2. That kind of infirm anguish and indignation, that half-distemper, that expostulation with God, which sometimes comes to an excess even in good and godly men. 3. The foundation of his confidence, and his deliverance from this his infirmity. (John Donne.) My witness is in heaven and my record is on high. I. IN REFERENCE TO JOB.1. A declaration of his belief. 2. An avowal of his sincerity. 3. A proof of his devotion. II. IN REFERENCE TO OURSELVES. 1. In seasons of self-suspicion. 2. Under the assaults of calumny. 3. In the prospect of death. (G. Brooks.) People Job, RuffiansPlaces UzTopics Comforters, Ears, Frequently, Grievous, Miserable, Sorry, TroubleOutline 1. Job reproves his friends for unmercifulness17. He maintains his innocence Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 16:2 5805 comfort Library Epistle Xlv. To Theoctista, Patrician . To Theoctista, Patrician [153] . Gregory to Theoctista, &c. We ought to give great thanks to Almighty God, that our most pious and most benignant Emperors have near them kinsfolk of their race, whose life and conversation is such as to give us all great joy. Hence too we should continually pray for these our lords, that their life, with that of all who belong to them, may by the protection of heavenly grace be preserved through long and tranquil times. I have to inform you, however, that I have … Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great The Case of the Christian under the Hiding of God's Face. The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, The Birth of Jesus Proclaimed by Angels to the Shepherds. Mr. Bunyan's Last Sermon: Job Links Job 16:2 NIVJob 16:2 NLT Job 16:2 ESV Job 16:2 NASB Job 16:2 KJV Job 16:2 Bible Apps Job 16:2 Parallel Job 16:2 Biblia Paralela Job 16:2 Chinese Bible Job 16:2 French Bible Job 16:2 German Bible Job 16:2 Commentaries Bible Hub |