And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Job 42:7

This verse is the key to understating nine of forty-two chapters of the book of Job. In these nine chapters, Job’s friends seek to “counsel” their hurting comrade. One of the great mistakes people make when reading Job is to figure, “Since it’s in the Bible, it must be true, right?” Kind of, but not precisely! What is recorded in the Bible is recorded accurately. In that sense it is true. But that doesn’t mean that everyone quoted or written about in the Bible does or say what is right!. The devil is written about and quoted—and he certainly is not right!

God warns us in Job 42:7 (albeit at the end of the book) that Job’s three friends did not speak what was right.

To make it more challenging, though some (certainly not all) of their observations were correct, they routinely arrived at false conclusions. Their conclusions are the conclusions of those who reason from a human “tit-for-tat” perspective. They say certain results always follow certain actions. They say the good will prosper and the bad will suffer. While that is ideally true, and sometimes is true, it certainly is not always true. The wicked often do prosper and the righteous often do suffer.

Their counsel, therefore, was basically that because Job was suffering, it had to be because of sin in his life. This of course was not true. (Read the first two chapters!)

When you read the parts of Job in which his friends are speaking—be discerning!

Now here is some great counsel regarding offering counsel: Do not make blanket statements telling people why things are the way they are, because you and I do not know. Are there exceptions? Yes, but they are exceptions, not the rule!