Punch to the Gut 1 – Job 4

Wiki How to Do Anything has an article on How to Know Whether You’re Insensitive, and it’s not bad. It shows you how to understand what sensitivity is (both cognitive and emotional), how to evaluate yourself, and how to make a change toward more sensitivity. Too bad Eliphaz didn’t have this article.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken. The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?’ (Job 4, ESV)

What a question to ask someone who is in deep pain! “Will you be impatient if I contradict what you are saying?” Eliphaz’s next words would seem to be encouraging words, perhaps designed to prepare Job for a slam, but they become cutting words when paired with what he says next. “Job, you could dish out advice when things were going good for you but now that you are in the same situation you’re all bent out of shape.”  Hard to imagine more hurtful words, branding Job at once as both a hypocrite and a spiritual weakling.

Eliphaz questions whether Job really has fear of God and integrity, as a way, I suppose, of spurring Job to greater orthodoxy.  This is not the way to comfort someone. He appeals to experience, arguing that it is always the case that righteous people do not perish or get cut off by God.  Only those who plow iniquity reap trouble, because God blasts them in His anger.  Though they may seem strong as lions, they will perish from hunger and their children will be parentless.  I suppose by “perish” Eliphaz means before their time and in disgrace, for all die, righteous or unrighteous.

Now Eliphaz appeals to a personal revelation he received from a divine being.  But this revelation seems to prove too much.  The messenger purportedly implies that no human and no angel can claim to be right before God (or more right than God).  God can find something in every creature to charge error to.  This is all the more true of humans who are attached to bodies (unlike angels, he seems to believe).  The implication seems to be that Job must have some problem because every human can find something of error within himself for God to punish.  But following this logic Eliphaz and friends should also be “perishing” like Job.  Yet he obviously does not believe this applies to him at this point in his life. Wow!

Discussion Questions for Small Groups

1. What is the most insensitive thing someone has said to you? (no names, please)
2. What is the most insensitive thing you have said to someone else?
3. What emotions do you suppose Eliphaz is feeling in response to Job’s wishing he had never been born?
4. Do you think the author of Job wants us to believe that everything Job’s friends say is true?
5. Why does Eliphaz believe he will escape perishing at God’s hand or suffering like Job is?
6. Can you excuse someone who is saying what Job is saying because you know they are suffering?