“How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove?” (Job 6:25). Good question!
Excu-u-se me? says Job. Do you think I’ve overstated my case? Have I no reason to be upset? Sorry if “my words have been rash” (Job 6:3), but I still have “the arrows of the Almighty…within me” (v 4), and they’re poison arrows, too! If you tried to weigh “my grief… and my calamity” (v 2), they would greatly overload the scales. I don’t know about you, but my wit (what little I might have) seems to fire on all cylinders when I’m upset. And Job, though in such distress, drives home his point, taking two examples from the barnyard and two from the kitchen. “Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass, or does the ox low over its fodder? Can flavorless food be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?” (vv 5-6). Men, like animals, don’t complain when they’re looked after. And when life has lost its zest, like bland food, it’s hard to stomach. Job then expresses how he wished God would respond (vv 8-13), and how he wished his friends would respond (vv 14-30). Like a wounded animal, he asks “That it would please God to crush me” (v 9) and finish the job. But sometimes the best thing God does is refuse to answer such prayers! Job would certainly think so by the end of the story. And yet, unlike some who abandon God in the dark, he’s still ready to hear the Lord: “I have not concealed the words of the Holy One” (v 10). And what of his friends? Could he not expect a little understanding, even if his faith falters (v 14)? Imagine friends being like a cold, dark brook in winter, but dry in the torrid summer. I don’t want handouts, he says (vv 19-23). And I don’t need arguments (vv 24-30). Rather, “To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend” (v 14). Something to think about!