Job 5:17-27 comments: Eliphaz, the Pollyanna Christian

17 ¶  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole. 19  He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. 20  In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. 21  Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. 22  At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. 23  For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. 24  And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. 25  Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth. 26  Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. 27  Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

Verse 17 reveals a great truth, if we can handle it. First, when a person is happy in the Lord they are blessed.

Genesis 30:13  And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

We are happy or blessed when God deals with us through answered prayer or changing us by speaking to us through His words.

God corrects those who are His children, who belong to Him.

Deuteronomy 8:5  Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

Proverbs 13:24  He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Hebrews 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Paul, in speaking to the Corinthian church about taking the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper commemorating Christ’s sacrifice, reveals that some chastening of the Lord can even result in our physical death.

1Corinthians 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

 This is an important point for Christians because, as God has saved you and, like Israel, even when dealing with your rebellion will not turn His back on you, your willful disobedience may result in your physical death. You are saved once and you are saved forever but He can first deal with your willful sin with conviction, then, if that is ignored, chastising you through some earthly pain or loss, and finally, if you are that hardhearted, a coffin awaits your flesh. This is necessary because of your eternal security in salvation. You cannot lose your salvation if you believe, He has given you faith, and you are saved. But, you can lose your life.

Eliphaz here is talking about the chastening that affects a man or woman’s family, their possessions, and their health but stops short at the loss of their life, which is exactly what has happened to Job although Eliphaz is in great error in attributing this loss to the consequence of sin on Job’s part. Remember that God has already told Satan that Job suffered, “without cause.”

When we are wounded because of God’s chastening, we should not hold that judgment in contempt, but learn from it. God will allow calamity to come to a believer’s life but He will also heal and restore that person when repentance is manifest.

 

 

Deuteronomy 32:39 ¶  See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

1Samuel 2:6  The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

Psalm 147:3  He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

Don’t forget that God is absolute sovereign of the universe. There is no war between God and Satan. Satan can do nothing without God permitting him through God’s permissive will or unleashing him in Satan’s blind fury against mankind through God’s directive will. Satan is the author of rebellion and his fate is fixed by his pride. He hates us. But he cannot act independently of God’s will or in opposition to God’s will.

 Note that Christians who were unrepentant could be turned over to Satan for the, “destruction of the flesh.” Christians are too quick to afford Satan more power than he has and to give themselves power over him which they do not possess.

God is sovereign and in absolute control of the universe, physical and spiritual. What He allows to happen for a reason we may not know disturbs us greatly, at times.

Isaiah 45:5 ¶  I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Satan, when dealing with us, mixes truth, half-truth, and outright lies to deceive us. Here, in his argument, he uses many true premises to draw a false conclusion. Correlation is not causation. Just because Job has suffered and Eliphaz assumes that good people cannot suffer like Job has he draws the conclusion that Job has done great evil to deserve this and if he had been truly submissive to God and not sinned his life would have been hunky-dory and none of the bad things that befell him would have happened.

Eliphaz’s “Pollyanna” view of the life of God’s man or woman is common among American Christians who live in a country where they have been so blessed with abundance and social safety nets. Eliphaz represents the Christian who says to other Christians who might be suffering through no fault of their own that he knows something about their situation that it is impossible for him to know. And his self-righteous and mean-spirited pronouncement does more to harm than to heal.

Eliphaz concludes through verse 27, and I am going to apply this to the Christian today, that if you, Christian, had done no wrong, then your life would have been a bed of roses and you would die very old surrounded by your many children and within the security of your prosperity because bad things don’t happen to good people. Have you ever heard that before? I have. Not being a good person and having had great calamity happen to me because of my sin I have the perspective of being shocked at seeing people who tried to do right and to live their lives in the right way get crushed by circumstance. Then, I have heard self-righteous, sanctimonious Christians imply that they must have done something really bad to deserve it, even if they don’t have the bad manners to say it to that suffering person.                                                                                                                     

Job 5:6-16 comments: people who are too clever for their own good

6 ¶  Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; 7  Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. 8  I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: 9  Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: 10  Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: 11  To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. 12  He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. 13  He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. 14  They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night. 15  But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. 16  So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

Eliphaz continues to say that disaster doesn’t just come for no reason, out of nowhere, as a random accident of things. Man is born to it. This is a great and true statement that, “man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Life can be very difficult at times, even for the person who lives their life trying to please God. But the sinner cannot blame his troubles on the stars or the seasons or things outside of his own sinful nature. Man is born to sin and therefore born to trouble as Matthew Henry pointed out in his commentary on Job.

Then Eliphaz goes on to say that if this had happened to him he would submit to God’s will and accept God’s will. Job should accept God’s judgment on him and stop his whining. Eliphaz points out how great God is and how merciful and good He is. God is gracious.

Paul declared;

Romans 11:33 ¶  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

God is merciful to all, even to those who oppose Him on earth. Jesus makes this call to His followers in the, “Sermon on the Mount.”

Matthew 5:43 ¶  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

In the context of verse 11, God has the power and the will to protect those who are in any danger, if it be within His purposes. A Psalmist said;

Psalm 46:1 ¶  « To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. » God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2  Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3  Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. 4  There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. 5  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

    6 ¶  The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. 7  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 8  Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 9  He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. 10  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

As Eliphaz in verse 12 points out, God can foil the intentions of the cleverest of men and women who are too clever for their own good;

Psalm 33:10  The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

Eliphaz’s statement in verse 13 is quoted by Paul in 1Corinthians 3:19. It may have been a well-known saying even when Eliphaz said it.

Paul also wrote for us;

1Corinthians 1:19  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Examples would be Ahithophel, Sanballat, and Haman. Look them up.

But God favors the poor among His people. 

Psalm 12:5  For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

Those who dominate and exploit God’s poor will be silenced.

Psalm 76:8  Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,

9  When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.

What Eliphaz is saying is true. How does it apply to Job?

Job 5:1-5 comments: the attack by Eliphaz continues

1 ¶  Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn? 2  For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one. 3  I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation. 4  His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them. 5  Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.

Verse 1 – Go ahead Job, find someone among those of God’s people who have had something like this happen to them. Can you find just one instance of something like this happening to someone who was actually saved? God would never allow this to happen to one of His people.

But bad things do come to God’s people. The noted sixteenth century Anglican preacher, Richard Hooker, said that sorrow and grief does come to people of faith and that it is a good thing that they do lest the Christian’s mind become superficial or wanton, as he put it. He said, “…God will have them that shall walk in light to feel now and then what it is to sit in the shadow of death. A grieved spirit therefore is no argument of a faithless mind.”(13)

Verse 2 – Eliphaz points out the truth that the sin of sinners tends to their own ruin. Wrath and envy are their undoing. Job, you must be guilty of some great thing and just won’t repent so you curse the day you were born instead.

Verse 3 – I’ve seen others just like you, doing well for a time, seemingly justified in their behavior by getting away with it and then God smashes them.

Jeremiah 12:2  Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

Psalm 37:35  I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

36  Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Eliphaz speaks the truth about how we often see the wicked seem to get away with things even though he draws the wrong conclusions about Job out of ignorance.

Psalm 73:1 ¶  « A Psalm of Asaph. » Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. 2  But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4  For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. 5  They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. 6  Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. 7  Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. 8  They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. 9  They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 10  Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11  And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 12  Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 13  Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14  For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

    15 ¶  If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. 16  When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; 17  Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 18  Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. 19  How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. 20  As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

    21 ¶  Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. 22  So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. 23  Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. 24  Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25  Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26  My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. 27  For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. 28  But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Verses 4 & 5 – The children of the wicked are not safe, the wealth of the wicked is not safe, and there is no one to save and deliver the wicked in the day of their trouble. So goes Eliphaz’s diatribe against Job.

(13) Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Books 1 to 4, ed. Ronald Bayne (1592; repr., London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1907), 7.

Job, chapter 4: Eliphaz calls Job a hypocrite

1 ¶  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2  If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking? 3  Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 4  Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. 5  But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. 6  Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

Eliphaz, the first one of the friends to speak, tries to set Job up for his criticism of him by asking, apparently having talked about this with the others, if Job would be angry at their giving him advice. Then, he comments at the end of that verse that they can hardly restrain themselves from speaking.

We all know when we have such definite opinions about someone’s tragedy  that we can hardly contain ourselves or stop from telling them what we think, to expose what we see as their error. But you have not experienced their suffering or known the loss that they feel, usually. In a tragedy their wounded hearts are still raw and bleeding. We are told;

Ephesians 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Eliphaz accuses Job of being a hypocrite. He tells him that while he had the right words to say for others when they faced a time of trial and weakness, when it came down to it Job couldn’t apply the same words as a balm to his own broken heart.

In other words, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this and I hope you don’t get mad but I can’t help myself. You are a fraud and a phony. You could talk the talk but not walk the walk.” Strange  how we do that when we are explicitly told by Paul.

2Corinthians 1:3 ¶  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Can you imagine going to a friend who had been an inspiration to you of Godliness and what it meant to be a Christian but who had just lost his entire family in a car accident and who was in tears doubting whether or not he could go on and saying what Eliphaz has said to Job?

Job was the kind of person who followed the thoughts of these verses given to the Jews before they were written.

Isaiah 35:3  Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4  Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

And yet, when calamity came to Job, as would be expected of any human being who loved his family and honored God’s sovereignty, who thought he was putting good money in his spiritual bank, he was devastated when that which he feared the most happened to him. Now, Job is crushed and Eliphaz calls him a phony for it.

As Job’s wife encouraged him to do what Satan expected him to do, to curse God, his friend uses Satan’s dismissive and contemptuous words in belittling what has happened. Compare “it toucheth thee,” in verse 5 with Satan’s words in Job 1:11 and 2:5.

How we do the work of Satan when we hold in contempt the response of our Christian brothers and sisters to their own suffering as proof they are not what they pretended to be. “Keep a stiff upper lip, Job. The church is watching you. Be an example. Keep your chin up. Don’t be a hypocrite.”

Verse 6 basically calls out those traits of Job that God was talking about glowingly as being mere pretence, the implication being that if Job had really been sincere none of this stuff would have happened to him. Do you see yourself in Eliphaz at all, even if you never had the nerve to say what you were thinking?

    7 ¶  Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? 8  Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. 9  By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. 10  The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. 11  The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.

Eliphaz tells Job that bad things don’t happen to good people. Here, in verse 7, we see a method by which the Bible defines itself. In this verse, cut off and perished are linked a synonymous. Of course we can see that in other verses where cut off is used.

Here is another example of what it means to be “cut off.”

2Kings 9:8  For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:

Here are two verses in Zechariah;

Zechariah 11:9  Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.

Zechariah 13:8  And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

So, Eliphaz even goes so far as to imply that Job’s children must have been wicked or they wouldn’t have been taken from the land of the living. After all, he couldn’t imagine this happening to them unless it was an act of God’s judgment.

When you saw that a young person had died suddenly and violently did you not wonder what great sin that young person was guilty of? I’ve heard it before from Christians. There is an assumption that bad things happening to a Christian, or anyone for that matter, are always the result of God’s judgment on sin in their lives.

    12 ¶  Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof. 13  In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, 14  Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. 15  Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: 16  It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, 17  Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? 18  Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: 19  How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? 20  They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it. 21  Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.

Eliphaz brings up an experience he claims he had, sort of a personal revelation from the world of the spirit. This ghost, which he claimed visited him either in reality, or not literally, but as a method of making a rhetorical point, does not identify itself as coming from God. It simply terrified him, like the “angel” that visited Mohammed and terrified him. Then, it gave its message which, as in most such occasions of this sort, is mostly true but misleading as Eliphaz says several true things but applies them in the wrong way.

It is true that mortal man cannot be more just than God.

Psalm 145:17  The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

Ecclesiastes 7:20  For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

There is as huge a gap between the most wicked man or woman on earth and God as there is between the most righteous man or woman on earth and God. As Jonathan Edwards said in his sermon, “Pardon for the Greatest Sinners,”;

The mercy of God is as sufficient for the pardon of the greatest sins, as for the least; and that because his mercy is infinite. That which is infinite, is as much above what is great, as it is above what is small. Thus God being infinitely great, he is as much above kings as he is above beggars; he is as much above the highest angel, as he is above the meanest worm. One finite measure doth not come any nearer to the extent of what is infinite than another.–So the mercy of God being infinite, it must be as sufficient for the pardon of all sin, as of one. If one of the least sins be not beyond the mercy of God, so neither are the greatest, or ten thousand of them.(12)

 

With regard to Eliphaz’ statement about angels, we know from the Bible that a number of the sons of God, or angels, left their first estate…

Genesis 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose….4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

…and are held in expectation of their final judgment.

Jude 1:6  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

So, it is true, how can man, who inhabits a weak body of flesh, be wiser or more righteous even than those spirit beings who have communed personally with God but have been charged with evil?

We are weak in body and our biological lives are temporary.

James 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

James 1:10  But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

Psalm 39:5  Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

1Peter 1:24 ¶  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

Yes, we often go to the grave no more wise than when we came into the world. Solomon, in the progress of his thinking in the book of Ecclesiastes, considered the value of mankind, based on what he had seen in life. Although this wasn’t his final conclusion it is interesting to note in the context of what Eliphaz is saying here about the weakness of the flesh and the lack of wisdom that characterize mankind. Note that Solomon, in this passage, implies that no one even really knows if a man’s spirit, when he dies, goes to a place different than an animal’s spirit.

Ecclesiastes 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. 19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. 20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

The point is, man is weak, mentally and spiritually handicapped, and wicked.  Eliphaz says some very true things. But, the question is, how does that make true Eliphaz’s declaration that Job is a hypocrite and he and his children must have deserved what happened?

(12) Jonathan Edwards, “Pardon for the Greatest Sinners,” http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Fellowship/Edwards.Pardon.for.Sinners.html.htm.  (accessed 8.9.2014).

Job, chapter 3: Job breaks the silence

1 ¶  After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 2  And Job spake, and said, 3  Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. 4  Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. 5  Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 6  As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. 7  Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. 8  Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. 9  Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: 10  Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

Job has done what others have done, cursed the day he was born. It is an old lament, “I wish I’d never been born.” This is the cry of George Bailey, in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life based on the short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. But, the typical twentieth century humanistic response to Bailey’s existential crisis is how important and wonderful he is and not how great and powerful and sovereign God is. In addition, in the story and the movie, life, not a relationship with one’s Creator and eternal life with Him, is the greatest gift.

Job’s response is classic from someone who cannot or will not curse God. He curses himself and the very fact that he is alive. Is this not a back door to cursing God?  When we hate our very existence we are saying, “God, you made a mistake.”

You may have been an abject failure in life. Nothing may be right at this time. Your sin may have consumed you, or like Job, your calamity came out of left field, as the saying goes. However, we are to not be looking backwards as Christians, but always forward.

Philippians 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Renewal and revival lie ahead of you, not behind you. There is no rewind button on life and we can only look ahead of us for the crooked way to be made straight and the hills to be leveled out, depending at all times on God to do that very thing for us. You should not be looking back at that special time you had with the Lord years ago but looking forward to what He is going to do with you now and in the next few minutes or few hours.

In the same way, your loved ones who have passed on in the Lord do not lie at some place in your past, frozen in time, with your memory of them slowly dimming and the sharp edges of pain and grief becoming dulled. They have gone on ahead of you and are waiting for you to catch up.

We do cling so hard to the ones we love as we fear in our hearts that they might go ahead. It is a strange thing for Christians who believe in the Resurrection to experience.

The prophet, Jeremiah, who didn’t seem to gain a single convert to the instructions God had given him, expressed a similar sentiment to Job’s.

Jeremiah 20:14 ¶  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. 15  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

Job’s cry in verse 10 says that one reason for despairing of life is that if we had not lived we could not have known great sorrow. Solomon made a similar claim about the peril of seeking knowledge and wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 1:17  And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. 18  For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

    11 ¶  Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? 12  Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? 13  For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14  With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; 15  Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16  Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. 17  There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. 18  There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19  The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

Job wishes he had been a miscarriage, a child who never saw the light. A sorrowful Christian today might wish he or she had been aborted by their mother and never had the chance to experience the pain and agony they are experiencing now. He wishes he was in the grave where everyone from the greatest to the lowest in life are at rest, free from their burdens and free from their oppression, a wish made in grief without depth of thought.

It is in verses like these where the fundamentalist’s view of the Bible being God-breathed, as if that actually meant anything, rather than as it says, given by inspiration, falls apart. Job is expressing his grief and his feelings, and God has preserved it, as Paul said, for our learning. The statements of a man viewing life from the center of his grief and misery cannot be doctrine for us to follow but only heartfelt sorrow for us to acknowledge and be aware of in our own lives. This is not evidence that Job didn’t believe in a resurrection of the dead, Heaven, or Hell. It is evidence that Job is distraught, although he makes several true statements.

Job makes an important point here in that, in death, social distinctions are eliminated. “The servant is free from his master.” This is true in spite of the feelings of the rich man in Hell in Luke 16 who pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus, who was his social inferior in life, to serve him. As well, although throughout history Christianity did its best to serve the social status quo and was hijacked by the wealthy and powerful, social distinctions as well as distinctions of gender and ethnicity are not to be regarded within the body of Christ.

Galatians 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:11  Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

No king or queen or man of wealth and influence will have any greater part in the life after physical death than the soul who was the poorest beggar in this life. Nor are they supposed to have any greater part in the assembly of the saints on earth in spite of their ability to fund buildings and buy pews.

Job’s great wealth is gone. But even if he had it still he couldn’t buy his children’s lives back.

    20 ¶  Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; 21  Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22  Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave? 23  Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? 24  For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. 25  For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 26  I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Job expresses that life is a bitter thing and for the person in his misery death is something to be hoped for, to be sought. People who have suffered long with a painful and eventually mortal disease might get to a point where they just want it to be over, where they want their pain to end. It is reported that people who suffer from the mental illness called Bipolar Disorder have a high death rate from suicide and physical disease caused by their choices compared to the death rate for cancer and heart disease for the rest of us. (11) Truthfully, when a person’s life becomes such a burden and consumed with so much pain it is not hard to see how they can view death as an escape, preferable to the suffering that they feel.

If you think this can’t happen to you, remember, the thing you fear and dread the most hasn’t happened. If, and when it does, you may feel differently. Job wasn’t sitting back taking it easy and ignoring God, cluelessly thinking things would go on as they always had. He offered sacrifices and was careful to be faithful to his religious practice. He can’t understand that, in spite of that faithfulness, he has been crushed.

(11) Rick Nauert, “Mortality Among Bipolar,” PsychCentral, http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/02/03/mortality-among-bipolar/3876.html. (accessed 8.4.2014).

Job 2:11-13 comments: faithful and concerned friends

11 ¶  Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. 12  And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. 13  So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

We discussed what we can ascertain about Eliphaz’s background. Bildad may have been a descendant of Shuah, Abraham’s son by Keturah, although Shuah also can be a place name, like Teman.

Genesis 25:1 ¶  Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2  And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

Zophar may have come from a place named Naamah.

All three of Job’s friends expressed grief over Job’s suffering, displaying the cultural signs of immense sorrow.

Lamentations 2:10  The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Ezekiel 27:30  And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:

Revelation 18:19  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

Genesis 37:29  And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes…34  And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

Things start out speaking highly of the love and faithfulness of Job’s friends from our perspective.

Romans 12:15  Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

For a week, they sit with Job, respecting his great sorrow of heart. There are much speculation that can be made regarding the amount of time just as there is much speculation that can be made regarding the number of Job’s sons and daughters, but I will stay with the story as it is because while speculation is fun and interesting it doesn’t help us where we are.

These faithful friends made an agreement to come together, to mourn with Job, and to comfort him. What follows reveals a great deal about our own views of God and God’s will and of self-righteousness and submission to God.

Job 2:7-10 comments: discouragement and heartbreak

7 ¶  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 8  And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. 9  Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Satan has caused Job to have boils over his entire body. This is a specially prepared disease for Job and not something we should be able to point to in medical literature. It is not Hidradenitis Suppurative. It does not just afflict his armpits and groin. The boils cover him from the top of his head in the back where men go bald to the soles of his feet. This is not Job’s Syndrome in the medical literature as it is very specific in the misery it imparts to Job.

Just as Jonah was swallowed by a specifically prepared fish and it is foolish to search for large fish that regularly swallow men, in light of that, arguing over what the name of the disease that Job had is pointless (the word whale in Matthew 12:40 is not a taxonomic term referring to marine mammals of the order Cetacea but simply means a large sea creature. See Genesis 1:21 and quit trying to make the Bible agree with man-made classifications that serve man’s limited purpose and not God’s by reading man’s opinions back into the Bible. God does not classify living creatures by Linnaeus or those who followed after him).

Jonah 1:17  Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The next time someone tells you they don’t know of a fish or a whale that could swallow a man tell them that you don’t know of a fish or a whale that can live 3,000 years either, so why would they expect to find this specifically prepared fish  or a representative of it now?

Back to Job, there is even a paper on the National Institutes of Health’s website suggesting that Job had scabies. (10) The point is that Job was given this horrific condition by Satan with God’s general permission.

Job’s wife does the work of Satan here, encouraging him to curse God, and die. That Job would curse God was Satan’s prediction.

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

Job’s wife, who has suffered the loss of her children and her financial security, is displaying the classic discouragement and failure of heart that the Christian today, who has decided that God is picking on or has abandoned him or her displays. The Christian who suffers great financial or personal loss may feel like he just wants to die and get it over with, that there is no point to a life of faith and how can it all be true, anyway, if this bad stuff is happening to me? He or she may even commit suicide, experiencing despair that overwhelms them. I know life can be tough, painful, and disappointing but these individuals are playing right into Satan’s hand.

It is a constant struggle, when times are tough, for a believer to just keep their head above water. I know you spiritual champions are above all this and you never experience discouragement or despair because you are sooooo close to Christ you can smell Heaven, but for those of you who don’t have a need to pretend that everything is, “hunky-dory,” all the time to impress others with your spiritual superiority, don’t doubt your salvation because your heart is broken into a million shards of glass by the suicide of a child, bankruptcy, a disease, or foreclosure on your home.

A man who came to Jesus with a devil-possessed son said;

Mark 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Has that been your prayer at times?

I’ve seen Christians who have had things go well for them but there is a faint element of fear in their attitude. There is an element of a bargain they think they’ve made with God. I’ll be faithful if you be merciful. They’ll slap you on the back as they grab your hand and say, “God is good, ain’t he, brother?” But, how good would God be to them if the thing they feared the most happened and the thing they loved the most was taken from them? How good would God be if their spouse or child/children died, they lost their job and couldn’t replace it as they descended into poverty, lost their home, or their health? Let’s not look down our noses at either Job or his wife.

You say, “I would never curse God, turn my back on Him, or allow myself to be discouraged in my Christian walk.”

Okay, Simon Peter.

Job has an answer. Jeremiah wrote;

Lamentations 3:38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?        

In some Biblical contexts evil is described as trouble or disaster.

Matthew 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

It can be the tribulation that God’s judgment brings on a person or a nation…

Isaiah 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

…just as God causes the rain to fall on the just and the wicked, to their benefit. Note that in the context of this verse in Matthew that evil refers to evil people, linked to unjust people by parallel phrasing.

Matthew 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

So, bad things will come on God’s people, as well, while they are in this earthly body. Job, in his immense suffering, is acknowledging a fact of existence that all the Pollyannas and pathological optimists of the Christian faith, who think they can make some kind of pain-free business deal with God, won’t acknowledge. Bad things will happen to God’s people. Remember;

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

…and…

2Corinthians 1:3 ¶  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

A simple understanding of this principle of earthly existence will save the Christian from a lot of faith-killing false notions. The sense of entitlement that some religionists have in that they believe they are promised a peaceful and pain-free life by taking verses out of context written for Israel as a people under the Law is an impediment to understanding God’s will and to walking close with Christ. I hear the following verse used quite frequently by Christians baffled at the predicaments in which they find themselves.

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

God’s “expected end,” is not necessarily ours. It is His will that we depend upon Him completely for all things. In that context our suffering is a good thing. In fact, one might be concerned if his or her life was without rough spots. Can God trust your faithfulness to shine through in your pain and agony or will you fall away in a time of testing?           

(10) T. Appelboom, E. Cogan, & J. Klastersky, “Job of the Bible: leprosy or scabies?” U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health, 2007.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17516561.