Homilist Job 2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come on him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite… I. IT WAS DEEPENED BY ADVERSITY. The effect on their minds of the overwhelming calamities which overtook Job was not to drive them from him, but to draw them to him. Adversity is one of the best tests for friendship. The Germans have a proverb, "Let the guests go before the storm bursts." False friends forsake in adversity. When the tree is gay in summer beauty, and rich in aroma, bees will crowd around it and make music amongst its branches; but when the flower has fallen, and the honey has been exhausted, they will pass it by, and avoid it in their aerial journeys. When your house is covered with sunshine, birds will chirp at your windows, but in the cloud and the storm their notes are not heard — such bees and birds are types of false friends. Not so with true friendship; it comes to you when your tree of prosperity has withered; when your house is shadowed by the cloud and beaten by the storm. "True friends," says an old writer, "visit us in prosperity only when invited, but in adversity they come to us without invitation." In this respect, Christ is the highest manifestation of genuine friendship. He came down from His own bright heavens because of our adversity. "He came to seek and to save the lost," etc. II. IT WAS PROMPTED TO RELIEVING LABOUR. The friendship of these men was not a passing sentiment, an evanescent emotion, it was a working force; it set them to — 1. A self-denying work. They bit their homes and directed their footsteps to the scene of their afflicted friend. Travelling in those days meant something more than it does in these times, when means of transit are so accessible, agreeable, and swift. And then, no doubt, it required not a little self-denying effort to break away from their homes, their numerous associations, and the avocations of their daily life. Their friendship meant self-denying effort. This is always a characteristic of genuine friendship — spurious friendship abounds in talk and evaporates in sighs and tears; it has no work in it. 2. A self-denying work in order to relieve. They "came to mourn with him and to comfort him." Man can comfort man. The expressions of true sympathy are balm to a wounded heart, and courage to a fainting soul. In this feature of genuine friendship Christ was again transcendent. "He came to preach deliverance to the captive — to open the prison door to them that are bound — to bind up the broken-hearted," etc. III. IT WAS VICARIOUSLY AFFLICTED. "And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent everyone his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven." If this language means anything, it means soul suffering. The very sight of their friend's over whelming afflictions harrowed their hearts. We are so constituted that the personal sufferings of our friend can bring sufferings to our heart as great, and often greater. IV. IT WAS TENDERLY RETICENT. Why were they silent? We are sometimes silent with amazement; sometimes because we know not what words to utter on the occasion; sometimes because the tide of our emotion rises and chokes the utterance. Why were these men silent? For any of these reasons? Perhaps for all. Anyhow, in their silence there was wisdom — silence on that occasion was better than speech. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. |
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