The Weight of Grief

Job 6:1-3

Job’s Friends Are No Help

Then Job answered,

“Oh that my grief were actually weighed

And laid in the balances together with my calamity!

“For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;

Therefore my words have been rash.

Job response to his friends was that they could not see his grief. They could see the calamity but they could not see his grief; therefore, he gave a description that they might quantify his grief and calamity together. Job’s grief was heavier than the sand of the seas. This is a grief that cannot be quantified because no one can weigh the sands of the seas. There is no scale by which a man could weigh the sand of the seas; therefore, Job’s friends could not know Job’s grief.

I understand loss and grief but I cannot see or quantify the grief of another. My personal grief is very deep and I have much sorrow within. How can I help another with their grief when I cannot see their sorrow or know what they are going through. We can see that someone is sad but we cannot see the depth of their sorrow. We can see the effects that grief may have on a person but we cannot weigh another’s grief.

Advice in times of sorrow and great grief is like a being beat with a stick. Love and companionship is what the grieving need but the grieving and depressed man is not going to ask for companionship but will often withdrawal. The man of sorrow does not need advice but needs others at his side.

Michael Peek

Your Servant for Jesus’ Sake