Job chapter 6 reminds me that people in physical, emotional or spiritual pain cannot be expected to act as if they are not suffering. In a way, it is a lecture to those who care for someone in despair. Like words written in a diary, Job’s reaction is raw and unrestrained, but he is reacting to his friend’s accusations. Job begins, “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas no wonder my words have been impetuous“. Remember, Job was not dealing with just physical pain, but the loss of his children and nearly all that he owned. Men have a difficult time expressing emotion. Instead he uses word-pictured to describe the way he feels. “The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me“. He believes he is under fierce attack, but does not know why. Job then tells his friend, “You have nothing to complain about”. “Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?” Job’s rebuttal makes it clear that when we are ministering to someone, we can’t just dismiss their very real pain with bumper sticker religious slogans. Real compassion takes time. It listens and sometimes gets our hands dirty.
Next Job says something I am sure many chronically ill have said out loud or to themselves. “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off!“. Job is not sure he wants to continue living with the pain. “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?” Basically, he is asking, “why should I go on?”. In manly terms, Job confesses that he is not impervious to feeling hopeless. “Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?” Tough guys and athletes are told to “Tape it up and walk it off”, or “Push through the pain”, but that philosophy does not translate well to emotional trauma. Again Job teaches how to help someone under duress, “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Proverbs 17:17 says it this way, “A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity“. Perhaps the only thing worse than being alone is also having a friend turn against us in a time of need.
For the rest of the chapter Job lashes out with sarcasm. “But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams…swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season… you too have proved to be of no help“. Basically, Job asks, “Why did you bother to come here?”. Have I asked you to “Give something on my behalf“? “Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong“. As we read Job’s reaction, he simply wants to be treated like a human being. I have been told by people that don’t look “normal”, that people just look past you, as if you don’t exist. Job says, “But now be so kind as to look at me“. He adds that his self-righteous friends “treat the words of a despairing man as wind“. Job’s final plea to his friends is, “reconsider, for my integrity is at stake“. We can change lives by simply standing beside a friend in need. Remember what happened when Jesus stood with the woman caught in adultery? He refused to fuel the fire. After a time He asked, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go andsin no more” (John 8:10-11).