Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was great.

These guys are actually pretty good friends. I suppose my thoughts of them from reading the book before are generally not positive, as with their words they aren't supportive of Job but believe he brought punishment on himself somehow. But these guys show real compassion. They enter into Job's world for a little while, and sit in the ashes with him for seven days and nights with torn robes and dust on their heads! If your friend lost their job and family and was suffering, would you take an entire week out of your life to spend with them in silence? I might take a day, even two, but I wouldn't take a week, and I wouldn't sit in silence! I guess they couldn't exactly invite him over as he was covered in sores which might be considered unclean. Their only option might have been to go to him. Still, the silence is weird.

Where are they from? Temanite apparently suggests Edom [1], so perhaps from the south. Shuhite might suggest a descendent of Shuah, a son of Abraham, who might have come from the East as in Genesis it is written:

Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastwards to the east country.

And Naamathite is even less clear, but might be from Arabia, or Uz, the same place as Job. These guys names could be plays on words or something too, but I don't know Hebrew, so that doesn't help. If they aren't plays on words, it's interesting that Job had fairly diverse friends, and outside his family. I don't know whether that was common in those days, but it does suggest that Job was particularly influential and knew a lot of people. The language does suggest also that they came some distance since they had to make an appointment and come 'each from his own place'.

The action of the friends is reminiscent of Jesus's actions towards us. I am reminded of my friend Paul Duffin's Sunday school lesson a few days ago where he taught on the incarnation of Christ, where Christ came into the world out of heaven in order to save us. He entered into our world, laying down his glorious position and the comforts of the heavens in the presence of God to be in our miserable fallen world, all for us, to save us from our fallen sinful selves who don't deserve it but who he loves nontheless because we are his children. Job's friends really do enter Job's world by covering themselves with ashes and tearing their clothes and sitting in silence, suffering for him. In the same way we should to enter into other's worlds who need us, perhaps in their poverty, loneliness, sinfulness or whatever other condition they are in, coming to them where they are, and meeting their needs, simply out of an understanding of what Christ has done for us.

It's easy to speak in a very cliche way about Christianity, which I would like to avoid if possible, simply in order to provide a refreshing new look. I'll attempt to do that if possible.

One more comment before I retire for the night. The bible is a layered book. It is full of stories of redemption. There is one main story, that is THE story of all the world, which it covers from beginning to end. Then there are sub-stories, that are little pictures of the main story, all over the place. And even within these stories, sometimes there are even smaller stories with individual characters or snippets of what the whole world is about. This story of Job's friends is just a tiny hint of what the whole thing is about. Job as a book is a bigger story, that is another snapshot in the grand scheme. And Jesus is THE story, where he redeems the entire human race through his mysterious sacrifice.

All scripture quotations are from the ESV.