Do You Torment those who suffer?
1 Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment me,
and break me in pieces with words?
Job 19:1-2 (RSV)
Job’s complaint is not with how his friends were treating his physical needs - and they probably were helping him get up, eat, dress, go to the toilet, etc. But his complaint was about their words.
Why their words?
Because their words did not provide comfort and healing.
Instead of addressing his heartache, they were addressing their heart break intellectually by accusing him. A broken heart who can mend? says the Proverb.
It reminds me of an incident at church recently.
Parishioners were asked if they wanted to be anointed for healing. Some stepped forward to be anointed.
One elder praying with them said, “And if he has sinned, help him to confess it.”
This elder was no better than one of Job’s comforters with his words.
Job’s comforters saw illness as the result of some sin or iniquity and told him to search his heart.
Now, sometimes this statement is true, but those who are ill and suffering have already been searching their hearts about sin and wrongdoing, so there is no need to ask them to confess it. They have already.
The result was this elder only piled on more guilt and suffering, even if their intentions were well meaning. It did not help. It only hindered.
This shows me how I must constantly be listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying to me for each encounter with those who are suffering.
In my health, I am seen as someone who can help someone, someone above that person who feels powerless in their time of suffering. I must not abuse that position of authority.
This whole chapter of Job gives warning to us about how we treat sufferers with our words. Listen to the last verses of this chapter where Job is speaking to his comforters.
Job 19:28-29 (RSV) If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’;
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”