Bible Stories: Job’s Friends

Job had three friends who had heard of the things that had happened to him. They planned to come and comfort him. They met together and came to his house. When they first saw him they did not know him for he was so changed. They saw that he was very sad, and they wept because they were so sorry for him. Then they sat down on the ground with him.

For seven days and seven nights no one said anything. Finally Job spoke to them and told them how sad he was: That he trusted God but could not understand why these things were happening to him. Then each of the friends spoke to him for a long time. They told Job that he must have done something very wicked or these things would not have happened to him.

Of course, they did not know what conversations had taken place in Heaven either. They thought themselves very wise and able to explain to Job the reason for his suffering. Job answered each of them and said, “No, I have not sinned. I have lived a good life. I have worshiped God. I have been kind to the poor. The things you say about God are not true, and the things you say about me are not true either.”

Finally a younger man came, and he talked for a long time too. What he said was better and more comforting than what the other three had said, though he believed also that these things had happened to Job because he had sinned.

Then God spoke out of the whirlwind. He reminded Job and his friends that He had made the earth and everything in it, that He guided the stars and kept them in place. Before God spoke to him, Job felt that he was a good man and had not sinned. But when he heard God’s voice speaking to him out of the whirlwind and saw how holy and wonderful He was, Job saw that he was a sinner.

He said to God, “I have heard You in my ears, but now I have seen you and I hate myself. I know that I am a sinner and I am sorry.” Job knew that in God’s sight he was not good, and was not able to stand before God/ He knew too, that God had a right to do with him just as He wished.

Then God spoke to Job’s friends and told them that they had sinned in talking as they did and that they must offer a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for them. Job prayed for his friends, and they offered a sacrifice as God said they should. Then Job was healed of the boils.

All his brothers and sisters as well as friends came to see him again. Each one brought him a gift and they had a feast. Then the Lord blessed Job and gave him twice as much as he had before. He then had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 donkeys. Again Job was the greatest man in the east. And best of all God gave him seven sons and three daughters.

All the angels who had been watching, as well as Satan and his evil angles, knew that Job loved and trusted God and that God loved and cared for him. He lived to be a very old man, and then God took him to Heaven.