Job 4-7
Job 4-7
The book of Job is a simple arrangement of complex ideas. The issue of a righteous sufferer presses our theology to its limitations. Job 4-7 records the first interaction between Job and one of his companions, Eliphaz; this pattern of dialogue continues through the remainder of the book, and Job will endure three rounds of confrontation from Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. These scenes can be best understood if viewed as taking place in a courtroom. Job’s three friends act as prosecuting attorneys against their friend—who continually maintains that his suffering is not the result of his unrighteousness. All the while Job longs to stand as a prosecuting attorney, cross-examining God Almighty for allowing the devastation to continue. In the end, Job received his court-date with God—but he ended up once again in the role of the defendant, and God the prosecution (chs 38.1-42.6). In that position of utter helplessness Job confessed that God’s goodness and his righteous-suffering were not at odds; this is the lesson of Job. In the meantime though, Eliphaz and his cohort pressed their tit-for-tat moral theology against Job, nearly squeezing the life out of the righteous suffer.
The first speech of Eliphaz (chs 4-5) characterizes what he and his friends posited to Job throughout the book. In this first cross-examination Eliphaz got right to the heart of the matter: “Consider: who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed?” (4.7). In Eliphaz’s paradigm of spiritual reality, the suffering one was simply reaping the reward of their sin; in the end, “They perish at a single blast from God and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils” (4.9). In Eliphaz’s mind then, it is entirely likely that the wind which destroyed Job’s family (cf. 1.18-19), was the consequence God administered upon Job; how great his sin must have been! In the end, Eliphaz exhorted Job to seek God—the one who “frustrates the schemes of the crafty” (5.12), and makes happy the one He corrects (5.17). If God is in fact the one who blesses the righteous with protection and prosperity (5.8-26), then Job should repent before Him and receive His favor again. Before Eliphaz sat down at the prosecutors’ table, he exhorted Job on behalf of his fellow attorneys: “We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself” (5.27).
What could Job say to such encouragement? He first replied to Eliphaz, and then cried out to God (chs 6-7):
- In his reply to Eliphaz (ch 6), perhaps in the hearing of Bildad and Zophar, Job first recounted the depth of his suffering (vv. 1-13). As far as Job was concerned the words of his friend had been of little help in such a moment of need. He turned straightway against Eliphaz, saying: “A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty” (v. 14). When Eliphaz opened his mouth to speak, perhaps Job expected words of comfort and encouragement, but the suffering one received just the opposite. Job likened Eliphaz to a stream—sometimes dry, sometimes frozen, and unreliable in the moment of need. In the presence of his friend Job was as frustrated as a traveler looking to a stream for refreshment—only to find it dried up. In light of Eliphaz’s harshness Job proposed that he was not far from one who would sell off a fatherless child, or barter over the price of a friend (v. 28)! In Job’s mind, the issue of the day was yet his righteousness—which he yet claimed—even in the face of Eliphaz’ unrighteous and deceptive words
- In his lament to God, Job longed only for death (ch 7; cf. 6.8-9). Since his life was a constant cycle of suffering—but only the span of a breath to God (vv. 7, 16)—why would God not simply grant his request of termination? Indeed, Job could say, “I prefer strangling death rather than life in this body” (v. 15), because he could not understand why he had been consigned to such suffering even though he had not rebelled against his God (v. 20)
Job’s concern was with the justice of God; how could the Righteous One allow a righteous one to suffer so greatly? In the midst of his physical torment, Job also had to endure castigation from Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Chs 4-7 record Job’s first go-round with Eliphaz; what can one learn from the justice of God here? Eliphaz’ accusation and Job’s reply don’t provide a very good lesson. While the issue of God’s justice is set forth in the book of Job, it is clarified further as the storyline of Scripture progresses, especially in the New Testament book of Romans. There the apostle Paul wrote that all men are sinful (cf. Rom 3.9-18), made righteous only through Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. Rom 3.21-4.25). Yet, even in this justified stance, their lives are marked by suffering; why? Paul said that the justified are led by God’s Spirit, and “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom 8.16-17).
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