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Introduction
Today is part 4 of our journey with Job. So far, we have seen the setup of the story in chapters 1-2, how everything was taken from Job even though he didn’t deserve it.
Last week, we looked at Job’s initial lament, which was filled with darkness and hopelessness. Job is not only mourning the loss of his children and livelihood, but he is confused about why this happened.
He believes that God is just and that his justice means he blesses the righteous and disciplines the unrighteous. Job is righteous and does not deserve this suffering. This is the great dilemma in the story of Job.
We come now to Job’s friends. In chapter 2 verse 11, it says that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came to “sympathize with him and comfort him.”
These two words, sympathy and comfort, are significant because they represent two different ways of caring for the suffering.
For the first seven days of their time with Job, they sympathized with him. They sat in silence, in the garbage heap, with torn robes and ashes on their heads. They entered into his suffering with him.
This is the nature of sympathy. It helps us get into the same space as others. This helps guide whatever words or actions we are preparing to offer them.
It is difficult to properly comfort someone if we lack sympathy. And it is difficult to have sympathy unless we enter into what someone is experiencing.
In this act of sitting with Job, the friends did well. They sympathized with his suffering. But now, they are about to enter into the comforting phase of their visit.
Most often, comforting someone takes the form of attempting to shift the suffering person’s perspective from hopelessness and darkness to hope and light.
Bringing comfort to someone is difficult because it’s delicate. One wrong word or deed can have the opposite effect. This often comes in the form of statements that begin with, “Well at least you have…” or, “God always has a purpose…”
These are attempts at shifting someone’s focus off of their grief and onto some form of hope. Unfortunately, these sort of platitudes have the opposite effect.
This is why many of us should simply stick to the sympathy part of caring for the suffering, particularly when we don’t know someone very well.
But, these are Job’s close companions. The idea of friendship in those days was much more significant than today. These friends are like family. They should know how to comfort Job well in his suffering.
Unfortunately, this is where the friends go wrong. Their comfort did not come from a place of sympathy but rather took the form of unhelpful advice-giving. They judged and condemned Job, assuming they knew what was really going on.
This is what we are entering into now. The largest section of Job is made up of a dialogue between the friends and Job as they wrestle with the reason for Job’s tragic loss.
The dialogue In chapters 4-27 is composed of three cycles. Each cycle has six speeches; each friend delivers a speech in turn and Job responds to each of them.
Today, we are looking at the first speech which is from Eliphaz, who starts out with some polite and kind words, flattering Job’s wisdom and care for others in the past, but it quickly turns to accusation.
Let’s look now at this speech in three parts. First is 4:1-11 where Eliphaz undermines Job’s integrity. Second is 4:12-21 where he reveals a vision. Third is 5:1-27 where he tells Job to seek God for restoration.
1. Eliphaz Undermines Job’s Integrity
Job 4:1–4 “Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.”
Eliphaz begins by highlighting the good that Job has done in the past. He has been a helpful presence for others. This speaks to his character and are kind and flattering words, but they are building up to an insensitive comment.
Job 4:5–6 “But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?”
Eliphaz seems to think that because Job has provided strength to the suffering in the past, that he should be able to stand strong in the time of his own suffering.
He almost sarcastically or mockingly points to Job’s righteousness as a source of strength. Perhaps there was jealousy on the part of Eliphaz because of how blessed Job was.
He would have had the view that his blessings came because of his devotion to God. And now that all those blessings were taken away, what did that mean for his devotion? Perhaps he wasn’t so righteous after all.
Eliphaz has taken a hard turn in favour of the challenger, Satan, in chapter 1. He is about to make a case for the principle that God rewards the righteous and punishes the evil.
Verses 7-11 describe the typical view in those days of the justice system of God. Those who plow evil and sow trouble reap it. God punishes them for their deeds.
The images of God’s breath and fiery anger recall the disasters by which Job lost his sheep, servants, and children. Eliphaz is clearly telling Job that he must have done evil to deserve this suffering.
We are often tempted to do the same when trouble comes our way, or we see others experience tragedy. We quickly equate suffering with punishment for wrongdoing.
We will see much later in the story that this is not the only explanation for suffering and is an unhelpful way of evaluating ourselves and each other. For now, let’s remain in this part of the story.
Next, Eliphaz claims special revelation from a mysterious vision.
2. Eliphaz Describes a Vision
Job 4:12“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.”
The people in that time commonly believed that the gods have obscured standards and hidden rules. The gods did not behave rationally, but did whatever they pleased.
They had arbitrary rules and expectations that were mostly unknown to people until something went wrong in their life, and then they examined what they might have done wrong. This led to all sorts of strange and obscure rituals among people who hoped to appease the gods.
Job 4:16b–17 “A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?”
The message of this vision is that Job probably did something wrong, even if he didn’t know it. The belief is that no one can really know what true righteousness is, so it is wrong for Job to assume he was righteous.
If only Job would examine himself, perhaps he would know what wrong he did.
Once again, this is a temptation of ours. When trouble comes, we might think to ourselves, maybe God is trying to teach me something. Or we see someone else suffering and think that God is trying to correct or discipline them.
While God does discipline those he loves, it is unhelpful to always associate our difficulty with God’s correction. This only leads to what the ancients did when they constantly shifted their behaviour, hoping to please the gods.
The God we believe in is not random or unknown. We do know what he wants from us because the Bible tells us what sort of God he is and what sort of people he intends for us to be.
He wants us to live in the humble, compassionate, and loving way of Jesus. But when we fail to do that, we do not need to fear punishment from God, for he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and forgiveness.
We also have the Holy Spirit, who teaches us and guides us. We do not need punishment as our rebuke because God’s very Spirit will speak to us. And we have the church, which is a source of accountability and strength.
The question is, are we listening or are we distracted and searching for guidance from the world? Do we embrace or avoid the vessels for his instruction, which are his Word, Spirit, and the church.
The final section of Eliphaz’s speech contains direct instruction for Job to turn to God. This may seem like good advice, but we will see why it wasn’t helpful.
3. Eliphaz Tells Job to Seek God
In the first seven verses, Eliphaz asks some rhetorical questions in order to show Job’s futility in seeking the divine counsel (holy ones) for justification. He says, call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn—this is in reference to the heavenly counsel.
He is basically saying in this section that Job has no one to blame but himself, and then moves on to urge Job to appeal directly to God himself.
Job 5:8–9 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.”
Job 5:17–19 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you.”
Then, he goes on to describe all the benefits of getting back in the Lord’s favour.
Eliphaz wants Job to seek God for understanding of what he has done wrong to deserve the suffering. His argument is in direct alignment with the challenger, who says, “Does Job fear God for nothing?”
The challenger believes that Job is only devoted to God in order to get stuff from him. God allows the testing of Job’s faith to show that this is not the case. Job loses everything and is still faithful to God, proving that his devotion is not dependant on what he gets from God.
Eliphaz comes along and tells Job to seek God so that he knows what he has done wrong to deserve the punishment. Then, once he knows what he has done wrong, he can repent and make atonement so that his blessings can be restored.
If Job were to do this, he would be proving that he is in it just for the goods. But, this is not what Job is going to do.
Instead, Job is going to continue to appeal to God not to know what he has done wrong, but for vindication because he has done nothing wrong. He is essentially taking God to court.
He has been charged guilty but he is innocent. If he were to plead guilty, he would be merely trying to appease whatever random expectation God has on his life so that he can get his stuff and family back.
Conclusion
In this speech, we have seen a poor attempt from Eliphaz to comfort Job. He tempts Job to think of faith and devotion to God as a formula: Do good, get good. Do bad, suffer. If you suffer, you must have done bad.
But Job’s story breaks that formula. It invites us into deeper wisdom: to trust God not because he blesses us but because he is worthy of our trust.
So, the question and challenge we can get from this first speech is, do I believe that my behaviour is what prompts God to bless me? Or, can I trust that God is good to me not based on my behaviour but based on his unconditional love for me?
As we sing the closing song, consider the words that say, when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say, blessed be the name of the Lord. Commit yourself to trusting God in the good and the bad times, in the darkness and the light, in the storms and the sunshine.
Benediction
May the God who is trustworthy be your hope as you face a life filled with both joy and sorrow. May the peace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit fill you in the week to come. Amen.