Day Five – Chapter 5

“ Call now, is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn” (5:1)

Eliphaz is not finished with his tirade against Job. The entirety of chapter five constitutes his rationale for why Job must be guilty of some offense to suffer in the manner he is suffering. Most everything he has to say points to some inevitable error of which Job must be guilty because God is just and would not inflict such suffering for no reason. He advises Job to seek God and place his case before him (v. 8), and even chides Job to change his attitude toward his suffering. In verse seventeen he posits, “Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”

Eliphaz’s reasoning is accusatory, one-sided and just plain wrong, but in it there are contained many truths we can affirm. First, in verse seven he says, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.” This is a consistent word throughout scripture that even Job himself affirms in the fourteenth chapter, “Man, who is born of a woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil” (14:1). Jesus himself taught, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John16:33). We should not be surprised, therefore, when we encounter trials of all kinds because trouble is a part of life.

Second, he affirms the awesome nature of God (vs. 9-16). He tells Job, what I am certain Job already knows, that God “does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number” (v. 9). Clearly he understands the awesome might and authority, which is God’s, but his application is misguided. He emphatically declares how awesome and unsearchable God is, but them endeavors to explain what he does.

Third, he suggests that in the midst of God’s discipline one should be happy rather than grieved (v. 17). It is another powerful statement that we can and should affirm as it relates to the sovereignty of God. The author of the Book of Hebrews writes echoing these words from the Book of Job, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him” (Hebrews 12:5), but his conclusion of the matter is vastly different from that of Eliphaz. In the very next verse we read these words, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6).

Eliphaz, on the one hand, is saying all the right things but his application is flawed because it is based on a completely false premise. God, even in this story, is not the author of horrific things that happen in our lives. God may have allowed Satan to afflict Job but He did not Himself do it. God, also, does not arbitrarily use the horrific events of our lives to discipline us for our evil deeds and if He does discipline His children in this fashion it is never a surprise because He tells us what the consequences of our actions will be. So, today stop blaming God for your trouble. See it for what it is and from where it has come, confess if you need to and move forward.

Dear Lord, help me to take responsibility today for whatever I have done that may have contributed to the situation in which I find myself. Help me, too, walk in the authority You have given to bind and loose in Your name. Give me courage to directly face my challenges while trusting You to perform your perfect will in my life. Amen.