In an unexpected way, the grim waves of words crashing against Job drove him into the arms of God.
“Listen carefully to my speech, and let this be your consolation [Heb, tanhûm, meaning “comfort” or “solace”]” (Job 21:2). Thus begins Job’s sixth speech. The sentence is brimming with irony. Aren’t these “friends” there to comfort him? Instead, he finds their comments accompanied by an entirely different purpose. “Bear with me that I may speak, and after I have spoken, keep mocking.” Comfort is kind-spirited and intended to relieve pain; mocking is mean-spirited and meant to inflict pain. It’s evident, as we just saw from Zophar’s speech, that he selected his words to maximize the damage. Job isn’t just “wicked,” but a “hypocrite” as well (20:5). And he’s haughty, too (v 6). In fact, he uses cobra venom in his conversations (vv 14, 16). How’s that for being thoughtful! So in this one way, true comfort is similar to mocking, because it’s not simply the unfeeling repeating of trite platitudes. Zophar certainly puts thought into what he says. In a similar but dramatically different way, one must contemplate the sufferer’s situation to provide appropriate comfort. We may feel ill-equipped to have the right words for the circumstances, but often less is more, and sometimes the best comfort you can give is just to be there. Silence is certainly better than rambling, or misjudging (as Job’s “miserable comforters” did), or being superficial, or acting like we understand when we don’t. But the fact remains: while we don’t know what a person needs to hear, the Lord does. He has called us to “comfort one another” (1 Thess 4:18), and specifically with the words of Scripture. Ideally, we should “comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor 1:4).