Job 2:12

As they saw the ash heap and the miserable figure on it, they did not know him. The suffering and the disease had so disfigured and twisted him that they failed to recognise him. They had known him in the days of his great prosperity. Back then young men stood in awe of him, old men rose to honour him, princes stopped talking and nobles kept quiet (29:7-10).

Job's trouble must clearly have gone on for a long time. We should not suppose that his trial was measured by a few days. God set its limits, but that does not mean it was short. His friends lived far apart, so they had to arrange to come together, and that alone means time had passed. What Job says later in his complaints fits with this and confirms it.

On arrival they were deeply affected in seeing Job's condition, they wept and tore their garments, sprinkling dust on their heads in token of humbly feeling their compassion for him (v.12).

Anyone who denies that they truly loved Job does them wrong: their failure lies somewhere else entirely. To think their feelings were shallow, or that they had little love for their friend, is to miss the whole point and teaching of the book.

The story of his losses and the horror of his physical state moved them to tears. It shook them so much that for a whole week they sat with him without a word. The reality was far worse than anything they had heard. It must have been dreadful to leave them speechless like this. The words of sympathy they meant to say froze on their lips.

They burst into tears, tear their robes and sit down with him. This is very touching and fitting, and the seven days of silence underline how real their sympathy was. They wept with the man who was weeping. They could not help with words, so their silence showed how deeply they felt it.

But their presence clearly stirred up feelings and thoughts in his heart and mind that had been sleeping until then. He had quietly accepted the loss of his children, his property and his health. He had dismissed Satan and refused his wife's advice. Yet the presence of his friends made Job break down completely.

God used godly friends to bring to the surface what the adversary had completely failed to reach or even see. Their very presence drew impatience out of Job, patient as he was. It is exactly where we are strongest that God shows our weakness.

They might have been useful if his had been an ordinary case. But here a deeply righteous man had lost every possession he owned in a way no one had ever seen, and their tongues were silent. They did not understand God's ways with His own people at all. Their false and unworthy suggestions only made Job feel how unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself.

Neither side suspected that God was allowing them to hurt one another. He was bringing out what would otherwise have stayed hidden, and humbling them all before Him.