Job 4 & 5

**When Job’s friends speak, I have a hard time sifting out the truth from their limited understanding. I keep reminding myself that they didn’t know the whole story, that they were not aware of God’s purpose in all of Job’s suffering. I try to imagine myself in their shoes. The following is a conversation I would have with Eliphaz, the first of Job’s friends to speak into his suffering. My personal journal is filled with comments at Job’s friends like these. I’m annoyed by their glib comfort and harsh judgement. And, I’m ashamed that my own attitude towards suffering in others looks like Eliphaz’s sometimes, lacking compassion, full of self-righteous piety. I’m also surprised by their occasional wisdom. It’s a mixed bag. God grant us all the wisdom to understand, and the humility to be convicted as needed.**

Every time you speak, Eliphaz, I find myself taking issue with your words. Will anyone answer the child of God who calls on God? Yes. God will answer! What is this question, Eliphaz? Smoke in the wind. A puffed up, know-it-all question. Where is your love?

“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?”

Job 5:1

Perhaps you mean to be encouraging and motivating in your questions, Eliphaz. Perhaps it’s just your delivery…terrible bed-side manner and all that. I see how you walk it back a little:

“As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.”

Job 5:8

Is this you offering sound advice at last, Eliphaz, or is this you just saying, “If I was you, and I’m not…I’d talk to God about all this.” I can’t tell, Eliphaz. See, my own sarcasm and cynicism keep getting in the way as I read your comments. I see my own self-righteousness blasting through your phrasing. I think I get you – I understand where you’re coming from, Eliphaz, and that brings a guilt level that feels pretty awful.

You have some messed up ideas, Eliphaz. Your view of God is missing key pieces. You say that man is born for trouble, but you forget that man is born to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. You claim that the wicked get their due, but that’s not my experience, or the experience of most people on this planet. In fact, I’ve seen some righteous people in some really hard times, and it’s made me wonder about the goodness of God. If we’re being honest, here, Eliphaz, which I’m not sure you are, we would say that humanity is born into trouble and that humanity is trouble, but that God is good…even when it doesn’t look like that. Your ideas twist my brain around until I’m not certain what is up or down.

“For affliction doesn’t come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.”

Job 5:6-7

I’ve read it over again, Eliphaz, and it still doesn’t ring true. Man is not born to trouble. I know that humanity is born for glory! We are born to glorify God and enjoy Him. We are made close to the angelic beings…see, here is proof:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet, you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Psalm 8:3-5

Eliphaz, are you ignorant of this when you tell Job that humanity is born for trouble? Are you unaware of the place you hold in the universe, crowned with glory and honor? Are you confused about suffering as I am, thinking it can’t be gloriously remade into something beautiful? Do you, like me, question the goodness of God, and so you question the motives of your friend? Does it terrify you that you could do all the right things and still face the suffering of Job? We are more alike than I want to admit then. I thank God for His WORD in front of me that reveals the truth of who He is. Without it, I would be singing your song, Eliphaz, the song that says God might not be good, or loving, or kind. The song that begins and ends with man in trouble up to his neck and no way out.

“…who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number: he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields; he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.”

Job 5:9-11

I see that you remembered some truths and tacked them on at the end of your long speech, Eliphaz. I see that God reminded you of His great majesty, power, and holiness. Did you notice the stars that night, or the sun coming up again in the morning? Did the rain fall on you as you sat in the dirt with your dear friend? Did God break your stubborn heart with His beauty and majesty in creation? I’ve been there, Eliphaz. I’ve driven that road, when the radio is playing a song of praise, and all nature, flying by my driver side window, is shouting that God is big, and He is real, and He is good, even as the tears fall over something truly painful. I’ve preached to my own soul in dark nights.

“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.”

Job 5:17-18

This is the nugget of gold in your little speech, Eliphaz. This is the good stuff. This is a rock I can cling to in a storm. You nailed this one. I feel a glimmer of hope, friend. This truth is repeated in other Scriptures:

“For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.”

Jeremiah 3:31-33

“My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”

Proverbs 3:11-12

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”

Hebrews 12:7

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Hebrews 12:11

Dear Eliphaz, I see that you still couldn’t help yourself at the end; you just had to turn it into a reprimand for Job. Sigh.

“Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.”

Job 5:27

I’m not even mad at you, Eliphaz, it’s just that I see my own judgmental face in your words, my own look of disappointment towards others. I see my lack of compassion mixed with piety. This has been a good reminder to me, friend.