A COURSE ON COMFORTING

Job 26:1-4 (KJV)

But Job answered and said,

How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?

To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

I have been reading the book of Job in my personal devotions recently – reading them a bit differently than usual.

This time I am simply “skimming” the great speeches by Job’s friends and concentrating more on the things Job says.

After all:

• We know that in the end Job needed to pray for his friends
• We know that Job said they were “miserable comforters.”
• We know that Job was a just man who feared God and eschewed evil
• We also know that Job disputed with and did not agree with the words of his friends

It occurs to me then, that what his friends said was wrong.

And yet a huge portion of the preaching I have heard from this book are messages quoting his friends and claiming them to be right in doctrine (though probably wrong in their attitude).

In reading Job this way there have been several things come to the forefront for me. For instance, Job actually taught his friends how to be good comforters:

Job 19:21 (KJV)

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

Job offers what I think should be considered the right comfort. His friends would have been wonderful comforters if they had pitied him.

• If they had been kind
• If they had shown compassion 
• If they had prayed 

In another place Job, I believe, becomes a type of Jesus Christ:

Job 29:2-3 (KJV)

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

No one person in the Bible is a perfect type of Jesus Christ. We do, however, find types of Christ in a great many Old Testament characters such as Joseph, David, Solomon and, in this piece of his account, Job. 

He speaks of the glory of former days 

Job 29:2-3

Christ first setting is heavenly glory. He laid that down to identify with and become man but He always looked to the day of His restored glory. 

He did the work of deliverance 

Job 29:12-14

Through His own righteousness and person sacrifice many are delivered from sin and sing for joy. 

Job is a judge of the wicked and brings vengeance for the bereft. 

Job 29:17

The believer need never seek vengeance as he is assured God will make all things right. 

He prophesied his death

Job 29:18-20

It was the death burial and resurrection of Christ that purchased our liberty. 

Upon His Words hang the very souls of men

Job 29:21-22

The Word of God is the most important thing a man possesses in this life. 

It is for His Word we assemble and wait 

Job 29:23-24

This is church. We gather to hear His very Word. 

He gives us direction, leadership, weapons and comfort 

Job 29:25

All of it from His Word.

And then there is this passage. 

Bildad, one of Job’s miserable comforters had just completed his “attempt” to bless Job.

Chapter 26 is Job’s reply.

What I find here is a six part lesson in offering comfort.

I want to suggest to you that God allowed Job to suffer what he did, so that a godly man could teach us from the perspective of the sufferer, how to offer sweet comfort.

Job asks Bildad six questions we ought to use to analyze everything we would say as comfort and counsel.

Notice the questions Job urges Bildad to consider:

I. HOW HAST THOU HELPED HIM THAT IS WITHOUT POWER?

Job was powerless to change his circumstances. They were not of his own making

• He wasn’t being chastened from any sin he had committed
• He may have been tried for his own perfecting (though the Bible does not say that)
• He was certainly set up as an example of glorifying God in the midst of suffering, I think also
• He was teaching us how to respond to false (though godly sounding) accusations 

He was powerless to change his circumstances so he asks Bildad the question, how have your words been a help to me?

• What have you done to be a help?
• In what way do your words enable the one you speak to?

Would it not be wise of you to only speak after you have asked yourself how what you are about to say will help out in the situation?

Job moves on to a similar question,

II. HOW SAVEST THOU THE ARM THAT HATH NO STRENGTH?

The difference between the first question and this one are only slight but there is at least one distinction I believe is worth pointing out:

The word savest has to do with “deliverance”.

Most of us think of save and we think of being forgiven of sins and going to heaven.

That’s true

But to save in the basic sense is to “set free.”

I want to read a piece from Pastor Virl Stanaker’s book, “Lessons from War”. The chapter is titled,

Trip-flare in the night- 

“We spent most of our day trying to get back to our company as our platoon sergeant managed to get us lost in the jungle. When the platoon sergeant radioed for help, he told headquarters that we were not “lost", just "temporally disoriented"! But the truth was we were lost and had to shoot our rifles up in the air so that someone could come and get us back to where we needed to be. How embarrassing! We set up that night by a stream and set out trip-flairs on the trail in case the enemy should come upon us in the night. I settled in for the night. Our spot by the stream seemed to cool us off a little from the heat of the day and soon I drifted off to sleep. Suddenly in the darkest of the night, a flare went off, lighting up our area! I reached for my rifle and pulled it up slowly as to not create a sound or too much movement. Every eye was straining with all of our senses tense as we looked into the shadows for the enemy. The light of the flair seemed to dance between trees and wrap around the brush sending flashes of light and building shadows all around us. No one moved but everyone was ready with our fingers on the trigger and our hearts beating for fear of the attack. But no attack came, just a tense and awkward moment as the flair burnt out and all was dark again. 

The next morning the captain sent me and several others on a patrol to see who had tripped the flair. As I came near to the stream, I saw the burned out flair at the base of the tree where it was tied. Not far from there, something moved in the brush at the opposite end of the trail near the stream. There at the point where the trip wire had been tied was the biggest owl I had ever seen. It was all wrapped up in the wire as it seemed to have coiled around the frightened bird of prey. 

What had happened during the night became clear. Sometime in the night, the owl came swooping down the trail heading for its prey when it encountered our trip wire, setting off the flair, and becoming entangled. He was wrapped up tightly and unable to free himself, though he struggled to do so as we approached. His large yellow eyes looked up at me and his sharp beak seemed ready to take me on as I got closer. The others with me wanted to kill him but I saw no need for that. There was no sign of blood or an injury to the large bird so I had the others watch for the enemy as I moved in to see if I could rescue him. The owl was a killer and so was I, but this day would be different for both of us. I began to talk to him as I got closer and I told him (as if he could understand) that the others wanted to kill him but I wanted to free him. "If you'll let me, I'll get you out of this but if you attack, I'll have no choice but to defend myself, so be still"! Good soldiers don't live to kill. They learn that sometimes killing is not needed to live. 

He watched me as I slowly reached down and picked up the end of the trip wire and then, ever so slowly, began to go around and around. My hand was just over his head and his sharp beak followed my hand around with each turn. I warned him, "don't you snap at me, I'm only trying to help, you'll be fine in just a few more turns. The Asian owl kept his eye on me and it seemed like his head did a complete circle as he turned. I learned later that the Asian owl has one extra bone in his neck which is more than the great horned owl of America enabling him to turn his head a little further around. Finally, he could feel things loosening up and with one quick jerk, he was free! He skipped across some stones in the shallow stream and then into the thick under-brush where I could still see him. He took his beak and seemed to be fluffing his feathers, then testing his wings, he stepped out of the brush and slipped into the air and up out of our sight. What a moment it was to see him "free"! Psalms 124:6-7 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 

The next time to draw a breath to speak, ask yourself, will these words kill, or set free?

Job’s third question was

III. HOW HAST THOU COUNSELED HIM THAT HATH NO WISDOM?

What piece of wisdom can you give right now?

Before you stands a person:

• Who is hurt
• Who is grieving
• Who is embarrassed or ashamed

• It may be a person who has carelessly gotten themselves into a quagmire of hopelessness.
• Maybe it is someone who is ill and is tired of fighting for his or her life.
• It might be that the person has been drawn in to a vortex of circumstances beyond their control.

It’s really easy to think you have the answers before you have ever had to work out the solution for yourself.

Do you really have wisdom you can impart?

Question number four,

IV. HOW HAST THOU PLENTIFULLY DECLARED THE THING AS IT IS?

The thing that struck me as I read this question is that I wanted to read the question wrongly.

I wanted to read it, “the thing [that] is…”

The actual question is “the thing as it is…”

I think the question before us has to do with truth

• Perceived truth vs
• Actual truth

Job’s friends believed they knew the truth about Job and about God. The fact was, all they had was what they thought was true, not what was truthfully true.

You are about to speak; do you know for sure that you will speak the thing, “as it is”?

Job’s fifth question is,

V. TO WHOM HAST THOU UTTERED WORDS?

Job’s friends appear to have misunderstood the man to whom they had uttered their words.

• They viewed him as self righteous
• They accused him of hidden sins
• They thought of him as haughty

In fact, they spoke to Job about his situation with fully understanding Job or his situation.

A good question to ask yourself before you give out your counsel and comfort would be, “Am I sure I know this person and his or her situation well enough to warrant my words?”

Then Job’s final question was

VI. WHOSE SPIRIT CAME FROM THEE?

The Bible tells us in 1 John 4:1 to try the spirits whether they be of God. 

Job does that very thing in this passage. 

His reply to Bildad was simply, "…whose spirit came from thee?" It obviously wasn't God's. 

There are five spirits that can influence our words and our actions:

A. The self spirit

You possess a spirit of your own.

It died in Adam when he sinned in the Garden of Eden and is quickened or made alive the moment you get saved.

• Your spirit, once quickened, communicates with God 
• Your spirit is also the only sure way to know that you are saved.

Romans 8:16 (KJV)

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Your spirit is by no means an evil spirit.

But you need to be aware of your spirit.

B. The mob spirit

It was a mob spirit that crucified Jesus Christ. 

One day the crowd in Jerusalem was throwing palm branches on the ground in front of Jesus crying “…Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”

Just one week later the crowd in Jerusalem, presumably many of them were the same people, cried, “…away with Him, crucify Him… We have no king but Caesar.” 

Sometimes we are moved to speak the way the crowd speaks.

C. The world’s spirit

The world has a spirit of it’s own, one that rejects the authority of God over people.

• This spirit is appalled at suggestions that God would judge the world through natural disasters.
• This spirit also denies any authority of the Word of God.

D. The devil’s spirit or the spirit of Antichrist

The devil cannot possess a Christian but he sure can influence a Christian’s thinking.

It is to this spirit the Bible warns us to try the spirits whether they be of God.

Job asks Bildad, “…whose spirit came from thee?”

We would be wise not only to try the spirits that we hear but the spirit that comes from us.

E. The Holy Spirit

Romans 5:5 (KJV)

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

When the Holy Spirit comes from us:

• There will be hope
• There will be love and
• Neither I or the one I speak to will be ashamed

Conclusion

I would rather not be called a miserable comforter, especially by someone with the character of Job.

Job teaches us how to be better comforters if we will ask ourselves these questions before we speak:

• How hast thou helped?
• How savest thou the arm?
• How hast thou counseled?
• How hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
• To whom hast thou uttered words?
• Whose spirit came from thee?