About five years ago, I wrote the manuscript for a book that is a radical reinterpretation of what I believe is the central message of the Book of Job. I called it Pray for Your Friends because that was the final instruction that God gave to Job – to pray for his “friends” – the ones who had throughout the story been accusing him of having brought his troubles upon himself through his own past evils.
From beginning to end, Job’s lament was all about himself. He never once mentions the loss of his children and servants – or his wife, who was also the victim of those losses. It was all about me, poor me. And when God told him to pray for his friends, the implicit message was to stop playing the victim and feeling sorry for himself, but instead to reach out to others.