Job 26:3 Commentary and Bible Study

The friends have presumed to speak, but what have they said of any value? It is better for a man to remain silent than to say ill thought-out words that do more harm than good. This is especially so when the one they are addressing has a particularly difficult condition. We want the best and the most skilful surgeons to carry out operation of great complexity, and certainly would not let a novice step in. What is called for above all in giving counsel to one who is deeply troubled is wisdom. Job is saying that they have not just failed on this occasion but there is no evidence that they have been of assistance to anyone in need of advice. The ignorant, when they are willing to learn, look to the best teachers they can find. Wise words, spoken to one who is in trouble, will do more to help than anything else. The sufferer realises he is in the hands of a skilled counsellor and so he listens carefully, and opens a trusting heart to the words being imparted. Those words will enter his mind and replace and rebuild damaged ideas so that he can begin again to process the affairs of life. To whom have you uttered words, Job asks. Who has heard your words and been able to escape from confusion or received some vital missing truth? Whose spirit has come from you, that is, who has been crushed by their burdens and their spirit ready to expire, and then, on hearing your words, has revived and come again into a state of joy and peace, so that under the providence of God they owe their healed state of mind and their understand of God’s ways to you?