Homilist Job 6:14-30 To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; but he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.… It would be unfair to call the three men false friends. They were sincere, but being mistaken, they failed to discharge the high offices of true friendship. I. THERE ARE TIMES IN A MAN'S LIFE WHEN THE NEED OF FRIENDSHIP IS DEEPLY FELT. 1. Man was made for friendship. Deep and constant is his craving for the love of others, and equally deep and strong is his tendency to reciprocate the same. Without friendship his nature could no more be developed than could the acorn without the sunshine or the shower. Isolation would be man's death, solitary confinement has always been felt the most severe and intolerable of punishments. 2. Man requires friendship. Without the aid of friendship he would die in infancy; he requires friendship to nourish, to succour, and to train him. 3. Affliction intensifies the need of friendship. In times of suffering the need of friendship is specially felt. II. AT THESE TIMES PROFESSED FRIENDS ARE OFTEN TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTING. Job says in language of great poetic beauty and tenderness, that he was as much disappointed with his friends now as were the troop of Tema, and the companies of Sheba, who travelling over the hot sand, parched and wearied, came to a spot where they expected to find refreshing streams and found none. "My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook," etc. He does not mean perhaps that they were false, but that they deceived him not intentionally but by mistake. 1. Instead of pity they gave him unsympathetic talk. Had they wept and said nothing he would have been comforted; or had they spoken to the point and expressed sympathy he might have been comforted; or had they tenderly acknowledged the mystery of the Divine procedure in all, it might have soothed in some measure his anguished heart. But Eliphaz talked grandly and perhaps with a cold heart, he never touched the mark but by implication, charged him with being a great sinner because he was a great sufferer, and strongly reprobated his language of distress. 2. Instead of "pity" they gave him intrusive talk. "Did I say bring unto. me, or give a reward for me of your substance?" etc. "If a man applies to his friends for pecuniary aid, and that aid is refused him he may be disappointed, but he cannot at once condemn them and charge them with unkindness, as they may be under circumstances which render it perfectly impossible for them to comply with his request. But if he asks of them nothing but commiseration and sympathy, and even these are denied him, he cannot but consider such denial as a great piece of inhumanity and cruelty. Now this was precisely the case with Job." — Bernard. 3. Instead of "pity" they gave him irrelevant talk. "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing prove?" etc. In all this he evidently reproves Eliphaz for the irrelevancy of his talk. He seems to say, you have not taught me anything, you have not explained the true cause of my affliction. Nothing that you have said is applicable to me in my miserable condition. 4. Instead of "pity" they gave him ungenerous talk. Here the patriarch acknowledges that the extravagant language which, in the wildness of his anguish, he used in the fourth chapter was mere "wind." "Do you imagine to reprove words?" etc., and states that their carping at such utterances was as cruel as the overwhelming of the fatherless. Language spoken in certain moods of mind should be allowed to pass by, almost without notice. Anguish often maddens the mind, and causes the tongue to run riot. It is ungenerous in friends to notice language which, under the tide of strong emotions, may be forced from us. (1) He urges them to look upon him, and not at his words. (2) He assures them of the sincerity even of his language. I have an inner sense by which I can determine what is right or wrong in speech. Mistaken friendship is sometimes as pernicious and irritating as false friendship. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. |
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