Day Four – Chapter 4

“Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed” (4:7)?

Having been introduced to the first of Job’s friends we are confronted with two important questions. The questions are important because they reveal an attitude and mentality that was prevalent in Lot’s day. This attitude and mentality contended very simply that those who are innocent do not suffer. Such was Eliphaz’s contention as he delicately tried to make sense out of Job’s predicament. The supposition suggests that for Job to have experienced all the tragedy that he did there must have been some wrong doing on his part. Of course we know the truth. Job got caught in the middle of a cosmic contest and so it would seem that his experience is not all that germane or is it?

While we know that there is not always a connection between personal suffering and something we may have done wrong, it does not stop us from second guessing ourselves and wondering what we did or did not do to warrant whatever it is we are going through. Who among us has not asked of ourselves the same types of questions or has made similar statements to that which Eliphaz makes? We ask the questions because we want desperately to understand our situation and because we want to transfer responsibility to someone or something else.

Here is good news for someone: God does not generally behave punitively toward His people. That is not to say that there are no consequences for whatever we do, but God is fundamentally just (see chapter 5). His justice does not countenance taking out his wrath upon his people in retributive payment for some glaring fault. While Eliphaz’s critique seems overblown to us, he made it because he had no other information to go on and he was tired of seeing his friend suffering with no end in sight.

Remember today that trouble and trial are part of life. There is no one immune from it or who will escape its clutches. Even Jesus declared that “we would have tribulation in this life.” But then came the good news that we could “be of good cheer because He had overcome the world” (John 16:33). For as much as we would like to make sense out of our suffering most of the time it just makes none. We rest, however, in the knowledge that God’s grace is sufficient for us, that because God is for us there is none who can be against us, and that if Jesus can overcome the world then our present suffering cannot compare to His glory or His deliverance.

Dear Lord, I struggle to make sense of the horrific events of my life. I hunt for reasons why things have happened the way they have instead of the way I had hoped and/or planned. I have even blamed myself by seeing actions I have taken to be the source of my suffering. I want so desperately to understand my predicament that I find myself ready to betray my faith just so as to know the cause(s) of my trouble. Help me today to take my hands off my trouble and allow You to address them in the way You and You alone see fit. Give me enough peace and confidence to let things go that I have been holding onto and have become weights and obstacles. As I rest in You turn around my fortunes and help me find an oasis of hope. In Jesus’ matchless name I pray. Amen.