Job 16:4

Just let them change places, if that had been possible. Let those three friends be in Job's position. Let them lose their possessions and their families too, swept away in a way that looked like the effect of God's displeasure. Let their bodies suffer in a way as plain and as painful as Job's. Then even a careless onlooker would see the clear sign of some terrible dealing with them. Put them in that position, with Job as the friend who comes to speak with them. Could he not have used words and looks just as severe?

Patient as Job proved to be, he does not spare the stubbornness of his friends, who could not prove their uncharitable conclusions and would not take them back. So he begins his second reply to Eliphaz with a sharp complaint about their worn-out comments. There was no consolation in the words of any of them, only extreme trouble. So he longed for an end of words that weighed no more than the wind. If they must speak, it would be better to answer calmly, and not with the sharpness of irritation. If it were possible for them to stand in his place, he could say words at least as cutting, and shake his head just as painfully.

Eliphaz had claimed to be giving Job "the consolations of God," and this moves Job to reply bitterly, "Miserable comforters are you all!" Instead of comfort, they had given heartless accusations, which Job calls "words of wind." He says that if they were in his place, he could heap up words against them in the same cruel accusation, but he would not do so. He would use his words to strengthen and encourage them, to give them some relief. He longed for this himself, but they had nothing for him.

The friends had certainly opened themselves up to this rebuke. They had violated every God-given safeguard of friendship. They had contradicted all their former confidence in him. They treated Job as a stranger they knew nothing about, and guessed at his whole past from his present condition. It was an outrage against the name of friendship. We can well understand Job's disappointment and anger at such treatment.

Their ministry was one-sided. Instead of silencing Job, they only led him out into a discussion that seemed almost endless. He gives them word for word, and far more.

If we are walking with God, are we not aware how little we are able to help one another? It is painful to see how good we seem at finding each other's weak points. To tell a man he is at the bottom of a deep ditch is one thing; to be able, through grace, to lift him out of it is quite another. We must know the hand and heart of God, and His sustaining power, for ourselves. Then we can meet others in their varied circumstances. Like a skilled doctor, we will know what each medicine is worth and be ready to use it.