When we are completely broken from life’s circumstances, what is needed most? 

When we are devasted by an attack on our integrity and faith with unfair accusations accompanied with slander, who do we need most?

When we still believe in God; but we do not feel or see God at work, what is the truth we need most?

Here’s what we do not need: pious, unsympathetic, judgmental, fixers. 

We need listeners who care enough to stand in the gap with us to console and comfort us in our hour of need as if they were going through it with us.  Most times, these listeners do not need words—only a touch of the hand on ours will do.

Job’s friends still had not identified with his situation; they did not feel his agony or understand his perplexity. Job had already called them “the streams of the brooks that pass away” (6:15) and “worthless physicians” (13:4), but now he calls them “miserable comforters” (16:2). All of their attempts to comfort him only made him more miserable!  Maybe we can learn what NOT to say and do from Job’s friends?

Job’s response in the next two chapters expresses three heartfelt requests:

1. A plea to his friends for sympathy (16:1–14)
2. A plea to God for justice (16:15–22)
3. And a plea to God to end his life and relieve him of suffering (17:1–16).

Job 16

Then Job replied:

² “I have heard many things like these;
    you are miserable comforters, all of you!
³ Will your long-winded speeches never end?
    What ails you that you keep on arguing?
⁴ I also could speak like you,
    if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
    and shake my head at you.
⁵ But my mouth would encourage you;
    comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

⁶ “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
    and if I refrain, it does not go away.
⁷ Surely, God, you have worn me out;
    you have devastated my entire household.
⁸ You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
    my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
⁹ God assails me and tears me in his anger
    and gnashes his teeth at me;
    my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
¹⁰ People open their mouths to jeer at me;
    they strike my cheek in scorn
    and unite together against me.
¹¹ God has turned me over to the ungodly
    and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
¹² All was well with me, but he shattered me;
    he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;
¹³     his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
    and spills my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ Again and again he bursts upon me;
    he rushes at me like a warrior.

¹⁵ “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
    and buried my brow in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
    dark shadows ring my eyes;
¹⁷ yet my hands have been free of violence
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “Earth, do not cover my blood;
    may my cry never be laid to rest!
¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven;
    my advocate is on high.
²⁰ My intercessor is my friend
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
²¹ on behalf of a man he pleads with God
    as one pleads for a friend.

²² “Only a few years will pass
    before I take the path of no return.

Job 17

My spirit is broken,
    my days are cut short,
    the grave awaits me.
² Surely mockers surround me;
    my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

³ “Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
    Who else will put up security for me?
⁴ You have closed their minds to understanding;
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ If anyone denounces their friends for reward,
    the eyes of their children will fail.

⁶ “God has made me a byword to everyone,
    a man in whose face people spit.
⁷ My eyes have grown dim with grief;
    my whole frame is but a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this;
    the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
⁹ Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
    and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

¹⁰ “But come on, all of you, try again!
    I will not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days have passed, my plans are shattered.
    Yet the desires of my heart
¹² turn night into day;
    in the face of the darkness light is near.
¹³ If the only home I hope for is the grave,
    if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope—
    who can see any hope for me?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of death?
    Will we descend together into the dust?”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

As we read about Job’s quest to be truly comforted by his friends, I am reminded of what Paul said to the church at Corinth about comforting others along with what Jesus preached on the Mountain.

Where is God when it hurts? This might be our first thought when we comforted from calamity.  Maybe you’re feeling this right now His presence seems out of reach. Our pain often overrides our thoughts of God’s nearness.  But here’s Truth to cling to in times of challenging heartbreak; God is closer to us than we are to our own selves. 

Jesus taught, “Blessed (or happy) are those who mourn …”  This only makes sense when we open our hearts to receive the comfort God offers. Sorrow is indiscriminate and all will be touched by it. Heartbreak and pain will visit every one of us at some time or another. When it does, we have a choice to make. We can either receive God’s comfort or resist it. Our sorrows will either make us bitter or better. If we run from God, our grief can bury us. But if we run to God, pour out our sorrows before Him, (honestly like Job) we will experience the sweetness of His presence comforting us with peace that passes understanding, a peace not as the world gives, says Jesus, but My peace.

The Psalmist declared in Psalm 30:5 (NKV) that “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” This is one of my favorite verses when I’m needing comfort for it tells us that trials are temporary. A new Day will dawn with a Light cascading over us that turns the darkness to light. In a sense, “joy comes in the mourning.”  Just ask James, who was inspired by God to write;

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 

In others words, run to God in trying times and let God finish His work in us by using what happens to us to build our faith in Him —“not lacking anything” else!

Our God is an awesome, forever faithful, loving, and compassionate God.  Our tears are precious to God, so precious that Psalm 56:8 (NLT) says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”

It’s okay to cry out to the Lord. Then listen and embrace the comfort of the Holy Spirit, for His very name means “Comforter.”  Yes, God’s Holy Spirit is our Divine Comforter. This is His part of His work as He guides Jesus’ followers.  In fact, the entire Godhead comforts us, God the Father is called “… the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. …” in 2 Corinthians 1:3 (NIV). Then in verse five, the Bible says, “… our comfort abounds through Christ, (God the Son).” And in John 14, as Jesus prepared His disciples for their hour of sorrow, He told them, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Comforter, and He will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit. …” John 14:16-17a (TLB)

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” –Paul, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

God also uses us to comfort each other as well!  Don’t know what to say?  No worries, God’s Holy Spirit promises to give us the words or His wisdom to say or He will tell us to remain close in silence without words.  I have learned through the ministry of comfort that most times, silence and standing close with a listening ear, a heart of compassion, demonstrating the love of God in us are the keys to comforting others in ways that are of most help to them.  It’s not about us; it’s about God in us comforting those we love.

The ministry of comfort is one of receiving the comfort of God and the other in offering that comfort to others.

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25

Be generous with kind and gracious words of comfort as God leads us as we respond to people suffering through hard times.  We all suffer. We must also embrace the words and deeds of those who speak the words of God to us with the love of God in them.

Lord,

Thank you for the comfort and counseling you give us daily through Your Holy Spirit. Thank you for people who have come when you called them to comfort me. Thank you for prompting us by Your Spirit to comfort others.  Thank you for the opportunity to give to others what you have so freely given to us—relentless love, unending mercies, and beautiful amazing grace.

In Jesus Name, Amen