Perhaps
And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
Job 2:12-13
Job 2:12-13
It is hard to see a good friend go through a trial. Job, a man who did things right, was amid some confusing trial. When his friends looked at him, they had to wonder.
They had to wonder what Job "did" to cause God to unleash such terror. They had to wonder what God was like, what He was doing, and why. They had to wonder what secret past Job had, and they were probably devastated at the thought of what might have happened behind closed doors.
These were good friends. Yet, it seemed they were so focused on this life that there was no room for what was going on behind closed doors in the universe. They seemed to have a skewed or limited understanding of God, how He interacts with man, and why. They seem focused on man instead of God.
They were good friends, but they were clueless. They were good friends, yet they were wrong. They were good friends, yet they could offer no absolute comfort, for they seemed not to understand the basics of life.
They might have thought that their collective wisdom and understanding were useful to Job. They were not.
Perhaps that is why God pointed out Job to Satan and not them.
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