Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost August 15-16, 2026
“Consider Job’s Friends” Job 2:11-13
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
It is easy being a friend. You hang out together. You go shopping even if you don’t buy a thing. You go to the bar and have a few drinks and talk about what’s on your mind. Some friends even go on vacation together. Camping. Cruises. Vegas. It is easy being a friend.
That is, until you are not. Life changes. You find out that the couple you love spending time with are no longer a couple. Or a tragedy has hit your family, and no one wants to come close to you or speak about the pain. Now all the conversation that was so free flowing is stifled or silent. Maybe you don’t sit at their table anymore. You find a reason not to return phone calls or texts.
Is it easy being a friend? Not always.
Job had three friends and their greatest moment was spoken about in our text:
When Job’s friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. So no one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. (Job 2:11-13)
Everyone needs a friend, especially when life is confusing, when questions outnumber answers, when knees are weak and the heart hurts all the way to the bone. You need a friend. I need a friend. And you know people who need a friend.
Job had three friends. They came from great distance to weep with him, encourage him, love him. Friends show up when you need them the most.
If you read Job the outline of the book is pretty simple. Chapters 1-2 – Job’s dilemma. Chapter 38-41 – God’s response to Job. Chapter 42 – Job’s repentance and God’s blessing. But in those in-between chapters, from chapter 3 till 37, there is a conversation between Job and his friends.
You know people whose life is hard and they have a difficult time finding their footing. Job’s friends started their care for suffering Job in a remarkable way. But it didn’t stay that way. Consider Job’s friends as you think about how to be a friend.
Too often we respond to the suffering of another in these three ways:
- A fixer
- A blamer
- Indifference
Many compassionate people are fixers. They simply want the pain of others to go away. They don’t want you to hurt anymore. Eliphaz had some fixing words for his friend Job, “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands can also heal.” (Job 5:17-18) Eliphaz would also say, “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored.” (Job 22:21-23)
But fixers aren’t always good listeners. They can be impatient. They don’t want you to hurt, but more importantly they don’t want to hear your bellyaching anymore. “Get over it” may not be the best word to speak or to hear.
Then Job’s friends became blamers. They told him that he bore the responsibility for all the grief he was in. Chapter after chapter, word after word, they pointed the finger at Job. “Who being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” (Job 4:7-8) Later his supposed sins were enumerated, “Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless? You demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry…you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.” (Job 22:5-7,9)
“Job, you are getting what you deserve. You lost your possessions, your kids, your health. God knows how evil you are. Come clean. Tell us why God is squishing you.” His friends became harsh and vindictive.
You ran into this in the New Testament too. In John 9 we read, “As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.” (Verses 1-2)
Are you a blamer? Do you know right away why someone’s life is hard? Do you point at them and tell them, “I think I warned you and you wouldn’t listen.”
Some people are fixers. They have every solution to any problem. But they are not necessarily a friend. Some people are blamers. They don’t care about being a friend. But some are worse than that. They don’t care. They are indifferent. They are apathetic. The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 tells us about the man who was beaten, bloodied and left for dead by the side of the road. The priest and the Levite “happened to be going down the same road, and when he (they) saw the man, he (they) passed by on the other side.” (Luke 10:32) “Poor guy, but that’s not my problem.”
How Job needed a friend through all this misery. But his friends failed in their role. Job says of them, “All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.” (Job 19:19) With a snarky voice Job speaks to his accusing friends, “I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God. You, however smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.” (Job 13:3-5)
Last week I said we had to look at Job’s suffering. It was painful and it was real. And God is always right in the midst of suffering. Today I want you to consider Job’s friends. I hope you shake your head and learn something about how you can be a friend to someone who is suffering. There is a better way than being a fixer or a blamer or one who has stopped caring. God wants you to be a friend to those who are broken.
I live just a few miles from Deer Creek Church near Chatfield and Pierce in Littleton. I drive by it often, so I decided to go there on a Sunday during my leave. They offer this description of their church, “This is a church for those who are not perfect nor pretend to be.” It sounds like a real church. I like that.
Job needed to be surrounded by real people. Not a fixer. Not a blamer. Not one who was indifferent. And Job needed that from the God who made him. In the midst of his living hell Job makes this request, “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend, as my ears pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. (Job 16:19-21)
Divine help. Divine friend. An advocate. An intercessor. If you are ever going to be a friend, a true friend to another, you first must know the friendship of God. Jesus is this friend. He is the one who stands up for you. He is the one who takes your side. Even though none of us deserves such a gift from God, God freely gives it to us. When you seek God, He doesn’t turn His back. He doesn’t send you away. Jesus was known as the “friend of sinners”. (Luke 7:34) The Bible assures us, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) The matter of our failures, our sins, is taken care of by Jesus. That same chapter in Romans begins with the word of God’s hope in the cleansing work of Jesus by His death and the power of His resurrection, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
Those who are loved by God love others. Those who are the most humble receivers become the most generous givers. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” In the last chapter of the book of Job, chapter 42, God speaks to Job’s friends. In speaking to Eliphaz, the most vocal critic of Job, God says, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Verse 7) Job does the most amazing thing for those who had become his enemy. He prays for them. God says, “My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.” (Job 42:8)
Is it easy being a friend? No. It takes grace, forgiveness, patience, empathy, wisdom. Sometimes you just sit quietly and show love by your presence. And sometimes, if you are God’s own Son, You come to this earth and are mistreated and broken and You give Yourself for the sins and failures of Your friends. You give Your life for the sake of the world. And Your friends will live forever with You in Your house. Amen!!
