It was an off-handed comment made by my college professor of Old Testament, Dr. Song Nai Rhee at Northwest Christian College.  We were looking at the book of Job, specifically at the “pastoral malpractice” of Job’s three friends – Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite (Job 2:11).  Dr. Rhee contrasted the power of their initial silence (Job 2:13) with the foolishness of their subsequent “lectures” throughout the rest of the book.

Dr. Rhee related a story about a time that he went to visit the parents of a student who had tragically died in an accident.  A modest man, Dr. Rhee had arrived at the house of sadness without great fanfare, and sat quietly with the grieving parents for a while.  He didn’t say much.  He simply sat with them in their grief, and then he took his leave.  Weeks later he told us…

Paul’s real “thorn in the flesh” identified at last….