Read Job 4–5
Questions from the Scripture text: Who speaks in these two chapters (Job 4:1)? What does he accuse Job of trusting in (Job 4:5-6)? What does he conclude to be the truth about Job (Job 4:7-8)? Based upon what, in Job’s circumstances (Job 4:9)? What is he calling Job in Job 4:10-11? What does he claim as the source of his knowledge (Job 4:12-16)? How does he accuse Job of thinking (Job 4:17)? What is his point about the deservedness of what has happened to Job (Job 4:18-21)? What does he say that Job should not expect (Job 5:1)? What sort of man does he say Job must be (Job 5:2-3)? On what basis (Job 5:4-5)? By what reasoning (Job 5:6)? About whom does he assert this to be true (Job 5:7)? What does he assume that Job hasn’t done, and now give him counsel to do (Job 5:8)? What does he suggest that Job can expect if he changes (Job 5:9-11, Job 5:15-26)? What does he suggest that Job can expect if he does not change (Job 5:12-14)?
What is the danger in being half right? Job 4–5 prepares us for the opening part of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these forty-eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we may be half right, yet all wrong.
In reply to Job, Eliphaz tells many truths. God is marvelous. And He does raise up the lowly and humble the proud. Eliphaz is half right. But he’s all wrong about Job.
He accuses Job of trusting in his own godliness (Job 4:6), when Job’s trust is in the Lord, and His provided sacrifice (cf. Job 1:5). He concludes against Job’s innocence, based upon what he has suffered (Job 4:7), accusing him of being a fierce lion (Job 4:10).
We must watch against the idea that we are privy to special knowledge about others (Job 4:11-16). It sounds spiritual, especially when combined with some truth (Job 4:17-21).
But Job has not at all thought in the manner accused in Job 4:17; he has humbled himself below God (cf. Job 1:21, Job 2:10).
Furthermore, Eliphaz accuses Job of being a fool (Job 5:2–3), cruelly claiming to line up Job’s specific calamities (Job 5:4, Job 5:5) with those specifically reserved for fools. He allows for no fruit of grace in Job’s life, on the basis of the (true, but misapplied, here) doctrine of total depravity (Job 5:6-7).
Having given a wrong explanation, he now offers an incorrect solution: if you just repent, everything will get better (Job 5:8-27).
Again, there are many truths here: the Lord chastens those whom He loves, and we should be thankful for it when He does (Job 5:17-19); and the Lord does ultimately bless the repentant. But Job has not been unrepentant, and it is not ultimate conditions, but present conditions, that are crushing the man.
Eliphaz shows us the danger of jumping to conclusions and applying right doctrine in a wrong way. Thankfully, the One Who fully knows us has been kind and compassionate, giving Himself for us and to us.
What painful situation are others in? What conclusion should you resist drawing about them from it?
Sample prayer: Lord, You alone know our hearts. Don’t let us come to you like Eliphaz, jumping to conclusions from our limited information. Give us to trust in Your marvelous greatness and Your kind compassion. We come to You, confident of mercy, and looking for the help of Your Spirit to uphold us in godliness. Make us to hope in You, like Job, even when others accuse us of exactly the opposite. Glorify Yourself in our lives, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH231 “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right”
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