Articles
Friends & Folly
I noticed something the other day as I was reading through the book of Job. You remember the story. A righteous man endures suffering and maintains his faith in God. In the story, Satan tests Job's faith by causing him to lose his wealth, children, and health. Job's friends start off trying to comfort him, but quickly turn on him, accusing him of sin that led to his misfortune. Job argues that he is innocent and then begins to question why the righteous suffer. At this point God responds by asking Job to answer his questions: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" (38:4); "Have you ever commanded the morning light?" (38:12); "Who determined the measurements of the earth?" & "Who stretched the line upon it?" (38:5); "Who laid its cornerstone?" (38:6). After God reveals His omnipotence to Job, he acknowledges God's power and humbly admits his own limitations. God restores Job’s health, family, and wealth.
The book of Job examines the nature of suffering and the nature of God, but one thing in particular struck me as I was reading that had never really occurred to me before. When we refer to Job’s friends, we call them foolish. God condemned their reasoning and advice to Job as “folly” in Job 42, making them offer sacrifices and having Job pray for them. It’s easy for us to ignore the arguments those “bad friends” made because we know the whole story. We know that this all started with Satan wanting to create a problem for Job and for God. We know that God was not punishing Job for sinful behavior. We know that the arguments made by Job’s friends are flawed with the power of hindsight, but imagine you were hearing their arguments without the benefit of hindsight and the behind-the-scenes insight. When you read the arguments made by Job’s friends objectively, the way Job heard them in real time, they don’t seem quite as foolish to human ears.
Eliphaz starts his discourse in chapter 4 with the same kind of words that we might offer to someone we cared about if we felt that we needed to lovingly rebuke them. He wasn’t trying to upset Job – He spoke with concern for his friend. He offers the phrase, “Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the same”. It sounds like something you would read in Proverbs, not from one of the “foolish friends” who counseled Job with folly. Ironically, Proverbs 22:8 says something very similar “He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow”. Eliphaz goes on to offer many arguments that he sees as valid evidence. In Job 5:17, Eliphaz says, “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.” Here is another nugget of wisdom that sounds a lot like other passages in Proverbs. Proverbs 3:11-12 – “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects.” Eliphaz doesn’t look so foolish now, does he? So, what’s the difference? Why are Solomon’s words wise and perfect while the words of Eliphaz are folly? Aren’t they essentially the same?
True words are true even when they are misapplied, and that is what Job’s friends were guilty of. They misunderstood and misapplied some bits and pieces of truth and ended with the wrong conclusion, all while feeling confident in their arguments and being very convincing. Their arguments are so compelling in fact that I respect Job all the more for not being convinced. I might have succumbed to this level of unintentional gaslighting. Job was certain that he had not sinned in the way they accused him, and was therefore able to withstand their arguments.
There are a few lessons that I believe we can draw from this. First of all, the most compelling lies contain mostly truth. One of the easiest ways to deceive or to be deceived is to allow only the evidence and arguments that point in the direction you want to believe to take you in that direction even if it is not true. It appears that Job’s friends may have drawn their conclusions about him and then offered evidence to support that case. Can we be guilty of the same? Can we decide what we want the truth to be and then mine for evidence that supports that conclusion? Isn’t that precisely what we see in many of our misguided friends and family who believe that they are faithfully serving God with a clear conscience while embracing false doctrine?
The other lesson that struck me from this examination was the power that competence and confidence have when mixed with evidence (flawed or not). When you hear from people with genius level IQs, with many advanced and prestigious degrees and honors, who speak with supreme confidence that the universe was not created by an all-powerful God, sadly many will take that as fact. When you hear from someone who possesses multiple advanced degrees in theology, who is able to read and understand ancient languages, who uses scripture to make their argument (albeit out of context and in conflict with other scriptures) it may be intimidating for some to say, “You are wrong, Dr. Soandso”.
Job’s friends were not lacking intelligence. They were not God deniers or knowingly rebellious against almighty God. On the contrary, they were men who knew quite a bit about God. They just came to the wrong conclusion. They were men who genuinely believed in God and thought that their friend needed to repent. They were flawed humans like the rest of us, who deceived themselves and tried to deceive their friend because of an unwise and arrogant approach to a situation they didn’t fully understand.
My level of confidence does not ensure that I am right, but neither do the credentials, persuasive arguments, or confidence of others make them correct. So let us humbly approach the word of God and be careful and humble in approaching it. Let us carefully evaluate ourselves and others, realizing that we don’t have all of the answers – He does.
Romans 12:3 – “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
Proverbs 8:13 – “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.”
