Job's comforters

“Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?” Job 6:26
Most of the book of Job consists of several rounds of dialogue between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Job had been greatly afflicted by Satan (as allowed by God), and was voicing his despair: He had searched his heart and not found any known sin, and he wanted the opportunity to ask God why this was happening to him. Instead of bringing comfort, however, Job’s three friends started lecturing to him how righteousness in a person’s life brings blessing and wickedness brings trouble, therefore because Job was experiencing trouble, there must be some wickedness in him.
Job said, “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels” (Job 6:14-17). This is poetic language for saying, with his friends, it was all or nothing. A stream can provide relief through fresh water. A good friend is always there to comfort, no matter what. But these friends of Job were heavy-handed (overflowing, when it was not needed) or they were not there at all when the heat was on.
We need to be very careful not to do the same thing when our friends are hurting. For them, this isn’t a theological issue. They are suffering, and we need to stand by them. We don’t need to say anything at all to comfort them – just be there. We need to accept that many times we won’t understand ‘why’ something happens, until later, if at all. We don’t need to try and explain why things are the way they are – just to be there to help and comfort.