My Confessions: My reflections on Job 4-5

 

I continue my reflections on Job.

Synopsis

After hearing the lament of Job in Job 3, Job's friend Eliphaz spoke.

Firstly, he accused Job of being a hypocrite (Job 4:4-5):

Your words have supported those who stumbled;
    you have strengthened faltering knees.
But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
 it strikes you, and you are dismayed.

Then, he told Job about the righteous judgement of God (Job 4:7-8):

Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
  Where were the upright ever destroyed?
As I have observed, those who plow evil
    and those who sow trouble reap it.

Next, Eliphaz spoke of the divine message he received. He exhorts that God is the most righteous and just (Job 4: 16 - 19):

It stopped,
   but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
    and I heard a hushed voice:
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
    Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
 If God places no trust in his servants,
    if he charges his angels with error,
 how much more those who live in houses of clay,
    whose foundations are in the dust,
    who are crushed more readily than a moth!

Eliphaz concludes his observations that woe is the natural state of man (Job 5:7):

Yet man is born to trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.

Eliphaz continues with his solution, encouraging Job to appeal to God (Job 5: 8- 11): 

But if I were you, I would appeal to God;
    I would lay my cause before him.
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
    miracles that cannot be counted.
 He provides rain for the earth;
    he sends water on the countryside.
The lowly he sets on high,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

Eliphaz also points out that God may us tough times as a form of discipline. (Job 5: 17-19):

 Blessed is the one whom God corrects;
    so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
 For he wounds, but he also binds up;
    he injures, but his hands also heal.
From six calamities he will rescue you;
    in seven no harm will touch you.

Eliphaz concludes (Job 5:27):

“We have examined this, and it is true.
So hear it and apply it to yourself.”

My reflections

Eliphaz was probably well-meaning, as he attempted to give Job practical advice. He sees Job's suffering as a consequence of Job's sin, as (A) God is just (and therefore does not allowed unjustified suffering) and (B) God is a disciplinarian (as Job is still alive and has the opportunity to repent).

Note that Eliphaz's interpretation is wrong (as revealed in Job 42:7). While Eliphaz's idea of suffering as a form of disclipine was correct in some circumstances (eg: 2 Samuel 12: 13-14), he was wrong in assuming it was true for Job also.

But ascribing a supernatural reason to Job's physical suffering without reason, Eliphaz was being superstitious. However, I understand Eliphaz's position. It is much simpler and more practical to reduce the existence of suffering to a simple equation of sin and discipline, and therefore to repent, just in case.

But being practical does not mean being true.