Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, M Div

I don't ever remember being very critical of Job’s three friends. I can't imagine not making the same mistake myself.
I mean, if you read the book of Job they were not ignorant of God and said some pretty marvelous and true things about God. And they were very good friends to Job. Scripture records that they sat with Job for a week without speaking a word (Job 2:11). I love the way the Living Bible puts it, “for they saw his suffering was too great for words.”
I guess they crossed the line when they put themselves in God’s place, later accusing Job for being punished for sin. They also relied on their own experience to make such judgments concerning the root cause of Job’s calamity (Job 4:9, 27).
One of the lessons to me is even that even with good intentions I need to be cautious in “advising” those I love about what they are going through and even slower to pretend I understand and know all that God is doing.
“This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts higher than yours.” (Isaiah 55:8, 9 TLB)