Friday is here and I hope everyone has had a productive week. I have enjoyed my time in the Word and I pray God is speaking to you as you read also. I was reading Job 11 yesterday and then 12 ad even the first part of 13 because I was fascinated by Zophar and Job's conversation. You can hear Zophar's pious response to Job's situation. He is espousing all of these attributes of God and how wrong Job is for talking to God in such a way. Zophar has not experienced any of the pain or heartache of Job and he stands on the outside judging Job for the way he is handling it. Job fires back in chapter 12 and 13 to Zophar's reasonings. Basically Job says listen, everything you have said is things I already know and in a greater and deeper way than you. You guys are no help at all. Then, in verse 5 of chapter 13 Job says, "If only you would shut up and let that be your wisdom."
For us what Job was saying is that the "Sunday School" answer is not always what is needed. What Zophar needed to do was not regurgitate all of his knowledge to Job, he needed to get down and feel Job's pain and empathize with a hurting friend. Zophar had no idea of the depth of pain and emotion Job was dealing with and his piousness was no good for Job. How often do we callously deal with others who are going through difficult times without ever trying to get a sense of where they are or what they are going through. Many times in painful situations a friend might need us to bind their wounds and ease their pain much more than they need our advice.