When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
Job is answering his friend Eliphaz. He turns from his own pain to the men sitting in front of him, and compares them to a desert stream that fails at the worst possible moment.
A Brook That Is Not a Brook
The word behind "brook" here does not mean a steady stream. One reference work explains the Hebrew term and why it carries a sting:
Morrish Bible Dictionarynachal, Genesis 32:23, etc., a mountain torrent often dry in summer, and thus often disappointing, as in Job 6:15. Such are numerous in Palestine. The same is called in the New Testament χείμαρρος, "winter flowing," John 18:1. Its Eastern name is wady.
Verses 16 and 17 trace the short life of such a stream, from ice to nothing:
Leslie M. GrantThe winter streams, swollen by snow and ice, promise blessing and refreshment. But they soon dry up, leaving nothing of blessing behind. Travellers may come expecting water, only to find nothing. The disappointment leaves them confused.
The Cruelty of Bad Timing
The point of the picture is when the water is there and when it is gone. One writer walks through the same desert twice to show it:
William KellyHe compares it to the desert. He knew the desert well, as they all did. It is a very different thing to cross the desert in winter and to cross the same desert in summer. In winter people do not want the refreshment of water so much. In the heat of summer they feel the great need of even a drop of water to cool their tongue. Then those brooks that cross the desert for a time — the "wadies", as they call them — are completely sucked up by the sand or drawn off by the power of the sun. That is what he compares this to.
What Job Had Asked For
One writer sets Job's need beside the size of what he asked for:
Samuel RidoutAt the time of his dire need they showed themselves utterly unfit to be friends. The "brother born for adversity" they are not. These "brethren" are like a summer stream, swollen by melting snow and ice in winter. It promises a lasting supply for the thirsty. But when the crowds of travellers come, they find only the dry stones to mock them. Yet he had asked nothing unreasonable of them — no money, no rescue from an enemy, only a little sympathy.
They were not silent, and that was part of the trouble. One writer names what was missing: "there was not one word of true pity. Every word they spoke was shallow, because of the bad judgment, the misjudgment, that lay underneath it" (William Kelly).
Where the Dried-Up Brook Leaves the Soul
Job lost more than his friends' comfort. One writer says that in this same speech his "faith is almost completely eclipsed for the time" (Samuel Ridout). The warning that follows is direct:
Samuel RidoutEliphaz might speak in lofty language about the greatness and faithfulness of God. But what about himself? Was he acting the part of a true friend? Job might say of them, "Lover and friend You have put far from me." And when these failed, he could not add, "You are with me." Paul's experience was different: "At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me… But the Lord stood by me" (2 Timothy 4:16-17). Let us learn from Job's failure not to put the dearest earthly friend between us and God.
The Stream That Never Freezes or Fails
Verse 17 shows water that the weather destroys. One writer describes a supply that frost and heat cannot touch:
G. V. WigramOne should hold this clearly before the soul: in anything we are doing, we are just going through it with Christ. And the waters will flow freely. No frost ever freezes them. No heat ever dries them up. You may have sorrow, temptation, and everything to try you, but nothing can touch those living waters. And why? Because we are loved with an everlasting love, and it is Christ the fountain of living water who leads us.
Another writer applies it. The thing we lean on "may even be some favourite preacher, some religious service, something that may be right in its place. But it is not the fountain, and it will run dry and disappoint. The fountain is inexhaustible, it is Christ" (J. T. Mawson).
Summary
- Winter water. A desert brook runs full when nobody is thirsty. It disappears when everyone is. That is Job's whole charge against his friends.
- Promise first. The brook does not just fail. It promises first. Hope raised and then withdrawn is what makes the disappointment bitter.
- A small ask, refused. Job wanted no money and no rescue — only sympathy, and even that was withheld.
- The lesson underneath. Do not put the dearest earthly friend between yourself and God. When the friend fails, you must still be able to say, "You are with me."
- The one stream left. Christ is the fountain no frost freezes and no heat dries — the only supply that is fullest in the summer of need.