Over the last few months, while a man in our congregation was dying of cancer, I developed a burden to equip the church to minister to those mourning. Job's friends set a great example in Job 2:11-13. Read on to learn six ways to provide biblical comfort for those who mourn.

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Learn six ways to provide biblical comfort for those who mourn. In Job 2:11-13, Job's friends set a great example at first.

Table of contentsFirst, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Being Like Job’s Friends (at the Beginning)Comforting without Saying Anything?Second, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Taking the InitiativeThird, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Dealing with Silence WiselyFourth, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Being EmpatheticDistinguishing Between Sympathy and EmpathyBeing Empathetic Is Incredibly DifficultFifth, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Recognizing Some Can Comfort Better than UsChildren Comforting ChildrenThose with Similar Experiences Comforting Each OtherA Woman Who Also Lost Her Brother to a Drug OverdoseThe Bauskas Comforting the OrdwaysFeeling Inadequate ComfortingWhy Everyone Must Be Involved in ComfortingSixth, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Making Yourself UncomfortableWedding, Births, and DeathsPerfect Comfort Is Not Until the Next Life

The previous post, Learning to Weep With Those Who Weep, was about what we should not do when what we shouldn’t do when comforting those who mourn. This post is about what we should do. Here are six ways to provide biblical comfort for those who mourn.

First, Provide Biblical Comfort for Those Who Mourn By Being Like Job’s Friends (at the Beginning)

I know Job’s friends are the proverbial bad friends. When you want to tell people they are bad friends, you tell them they are like Job’s friends. So you might look at this lesson and wonder if I made a mistake. But Job’s friends started off well. Look at Job 2:11:

Job 2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

Notice three things about Job's friends:

Each man came from his own separate place. They didn’t live near each other.

They made an appointment to meet to travel to see Job. This is the ancient world before people had cell phones or cars to drive. I don’t know how far they lived from each other and then how far it was to travel to Job, but I’m sure this was no small thing.

They wanted to do two things. First, they wanted to show him sympathy, and second, they wanted to comfort him. We’ll talk about sympathy later. For now, let’s see how they comforted him:

Job 2:12 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.

They wept with him. Romans 12:15 says, "Weep with those who weep." Job’s friends are a great example of this. First Corinthians 12:26 says, "If one member suffers, all suffer together." They suffered with him as well:

Job 2:13 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’s friends continue to impress! We tend to read verses quickly, but think about what this says because it is incredible: they sat on the ground for seven days and seven nights and didn’t say a word!

Comforting without Saying Anything?

Verse eleven says they were going to comfort him. If we were asked what it means to comfort someone, wouldn’t we think it involves saying something? But they comforted him without saying anything, and we’re told the reason why: because they saw that his suffering was great.