JOB 4 - Eliphaz

NOTES BY VERSE

Note: each ** comment in this document is listed in numerical order according to the verse(s) from this chapter

** Recognize another’s situation and emotions when they are suffering; do not simply launch into a theological statement that may address the issue

• Eliphaz was unable to respond to the powerful emotions Job had shared but, rather, brought up a point of theology  <R1795>

• No doubt, Job would have loved to know someone cared about he was going through

• Empathizing with others is part of the ministry Christians can offer, including confronting evil and offering God-inspired direction

Job 4:4-6 NIV

[4] Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. [5] But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. [6] Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?

** Eliphaz, friend of Job, assumed he was suffering because of some grievous sin  <M130>

• Eliphaz thought a moral order was at play, oversimplifying God’s pattern of retribution with simple logic

• The simple axiom ‘the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer’ does not always hold up in the human experience

• Eliphaz was partially right but not everything we reap in life is the result of something we have sown

Job 4:5-8 NIV

[5] But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. [6] Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope? [7] “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? [8] As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.

Galatians 6:7-9 NIV

[7] Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. [8] Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. [9] Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

1 Peter 3:12 NIV

[12] For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NIV

[7] or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. [8] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. [9] But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. [10] That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

John 9:1-3 NIV

[1] As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. [2] His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [3] “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

** From reason and experience, Eliphaz revealed a vision and revelation he had from God showing the purity and holiness of God together with the frailty, weakness, folly, and sinfulness of men; it appeared that men cannot be just in the sight of God, therefore, it must be wrong in Job to insist upon his innocence and integrity  <B296>

Job 4:12-17 NIV

[12] “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. [13] Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, [14] fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. [15] A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. [16] It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: [17] 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?

** Get a proper understanding of the infinite distance between you and God, and you will take your proper place at His footstool

• You will receive whatever He shall speak in His blessed Word, with humility and confidence

• You will trust Him for acting with unerring wisdom and goodness, even when His dispensations are most dark and mysterious

• You will be submissive to His chastisements

• You will be obedient to His will as revealed in His Word

• Your insignificance as creatures will constrain you to bow before Him  <S179>

1 Samuel 3:18b NIV

[18] He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.

Job 4:17-19 NIV

[17] 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? [18] If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, [19] how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!

Job 7:17-18 NIV

[17] “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, [18] that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?