Notice that Job's friends have no place for a dynamic relationship with God. Indeed, they effectively have no place for a relationship with God full stop, because there is no such thing as a static relationship. One of the main themes of the book of Job, is the rightful place of dialogue with the Lord. Indeed, God invites us to interact with him, to cry out to him- even to complain to him! Job's friends cannot cope with Job's dark lament and anguished questions. To them, Job is being disrespectful- even blasphemous.

We can so easily fall into this way of thinking. In Job 6:4, Job cries out "The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshalled against me". In other words, "God- why are you attacking me?" What do we do with this? These kinds of accusations against God are all through Job's speeches (read Job 16:6-14).

The main difficulty we have when faced with this kind of language of raw hurt and anguish is that we think that God is not big enough to handle this kind of talk. We make God a delicate, sensitive being who has to be cotton-wooled so as not to have his fragile and easily offended nature shaken by our words. And yet, the God we find in the Bible is anything but fragile (of course we know that when we think even a moment about it!). Jacob wrestles with God and refuses to let God go until he receives a blessing (Genesis 32:24-26). Jeremiah accuses God of tricking him into his mission (Jeremiah 20:7). We can read the complaints of the Psalmist (such as Psalm 64:1; Psalm 142:1-2).

Listen to Robert Fyall in his book 'How Does God Treat His Friends?':

"Job's friends don't realise that it is possible to have a developing, at times even angry, relationship with God. This is true in human relationships. When a relationship goes sour, the way to put it right is not by pretending that nothing has gone wrong. It is usually by hot and angry words that the quarrels of lovers are settled. Pretending that everything is all right creates a tense, unreal situation which results in a worse break-up of the relationship."

I am not suggesting that it is desirable to maintain this kind of relationship with God- of course this is not the way it should be. Yet there are times when this is our reality and we need to know that God can handle it! We need to always keep in mind the words at the end of the book where God speaks to Eliphaz saying "“I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has". Clearly, God was able to take Job's laments and hear his complaints- even though Job was ultimately mistaken.