Remember these words from chapter two? “…they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him” (2:11). The original goal for coming to visit Job was soon forgotten and the three comforters must have concluded that their silence wasn’t solving anything. But I think they should have just stuck to changing his bandages and cleaning his ash heap...
Job 4:1-2: “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, 2 If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?”
Eliphaz, probably the oldest and most eloquent of the three, is the first to speak. It had been an entire week of silence in the ICU and Job’s grotesque and hideous appearance had startled his three friends. FIA states, “The sympathetic silence of the friends is now broken by sympathetic speech…Eliphaz ventures a reply that is tactful in its manner and unobjectionable in its matter. He does not yet charge Job openly with any fault, but already there is a note of gentle disapproval, if not reproof, in his words.” FIA seems to be gentler on Eliphaz than most commentators who find him (and his two associates) to be rather sarcastic, cynical and smug from the beginning. It obviously is hard to gauge Eliphaz’s heart and motive and I think that he genuinely wanted to help Job. But he (and Bildad and Zophar) was so taken aback at Job’s critical condition and his “lament curse” from chapter three, that he must have come to the conclusion sometime that week that “We gotta say something here!”
Eliphaz begins rather diplomatically and politely, but notice a word that he uses in verse 2 and then again in verse 5. He states, “…will you become impatient?” (vs. 2) and “…it touches you and you are impatient” (vs. 5). That may be the conclusion of Eliphaz, but it’s not how God views Job! James 5:11 states, “You have heard of the patience of Job…” When we are going through difficult times, the view and conclusion of our friends may be dramatically different from the view and conclusion of God!
4:3-4 “Behold you have admonished many, and you have strengthened weak hands. 4 Your words have helped the tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble knees.”
Study the verbs used in these verses: admonished (or instructed), strengthened, helped. And notice the recipients of those actions: the weak and the tottering and the feeble. Eliphaz was mindful of what Job had done and how he had treated the less fortunate. Hartley writes, “He does not stand aloof from the needy as though they are parasites wanting to get at his resources. Rather he gladly gets his elegant garments dirty as he reaches out to help them.” Job’s words had brought instruction, encouragement and discipline to those worn out and exhausted. To those that were beaten down by life, Job was a spring of refreshing water. The Living Bible characterizes those helped by Job this way, “…those who lie crushed upon the ground and tempted to despair.” And the Message puts it this way, “…you have spoken words that clarify…your words have put fresh hope in people about to collapse.”
4:5-6 “But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed (aghast or alarmed – a fear that is close to panic). 6 “Is not your fear {of God} your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
The calamities had led the three friends to doubt Job’s integrity. FIA observes, “Already there is the insinuation that Job is unable to apply to himself what he preached to others.” See the word in verse 5 that Eliphaz uses? “…it touches you…” It’s the same word that is used in 1:11 and 2:5 by Satan to God, “But put forth Thy hand now and touch all that he has…” And also notice the words “fear” and “integrity” in verse 6; they are the same as those used in 1:8 and 2:3 in God’s testimony to the devil about Job’s character! Eliphaz’s theology box (and it’s a little box) is constructed solely from that which his eye has seen. But Job’s theology is also going to undergo a drastic renovation by the time we get to chapter 38. FIA writes, “But a terrible pitfall is not far away from all of them. The friends must infer from Job’s suffering that he has sinned; Job must infer from his innocence that God is unjust.”
4:7-8 "Remember now, who {ever} perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? 8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it.”
The Message puts verse seven this way, “Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap? Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?”
(Note this about Eliphaz’s first few words to Job: the word “upright” in verse seven is the same as that used in 1:1, 1:8 and 2:3 to describe Job’s character. So in just a couple of verses here in chapter four, three of the four words that God used to describe Job [fearing God, integrity, uprightness] have been used by Eliphaz. But used in a way that says, “If you really were upright, fearing God, and a person of integrity, you wouldn’t be in the hospital!)
Perhaps Eliphaz began to speak with the best of intentions, and I believe he truly wanted to help his friend find a way off from the ash heap. But can you believe these words, “…whoever perished being innocent?” This speech just added salt to those oozing and worm-infested sores!
As per Eliphaz, the Law of Retribution or the Law of Sowing and Reaping has never been violated. But notice the wit of FIA when he writes, “Eliphaz claims that he has never observed an exception to the rule: You reap what you sow. Eliphaz obviously deserves the retort, ‘You haven’t seen much!’”
Young’s literal translation of verse eight reads, “As I have seen – plowers of iniquity, and sowers of misery, reap it!”
If you can find a copy of “Eliphaz’s Systematic Theology” on EBay, buy it. And it won’t take long to read because there are only three chapters:
Chapter One: Plowing
Chapter Two: Sowing
Chapter Three: Reaping
And in his mind…Chapter One plus Chapter Two ALWAYS equals Chapter Three!
4:9-11 “By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they come to an end. 10 The roaring of the lion and the voice of the {fierce} lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. 11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.”
When Eliphaz states that “…by the blast of His anger they come to an end,” the implication is made that Job’s kids died because of some sin. Why that conclusion? Because the same word for “blast” is used in 1:19 of the great wind that blew down the home of Job’s eldest son. Job would have gleaned only one thing from that phrase: The wind that blew that house down was the blast of God’s anger!
Five different Hebrew words for “lion” are found in verses ten and eleven. Hartley states that those five words probably refer both to the varieties in species and to the stages of development of these majestic animals. At one time lions were found throughout Palestine. The rather oblique message to Job? If a den of regal lions (the strong male, the lioness, and the whelps) can be destroyed by an act of God, well then that’s probably what happened to your family!
Have you ever been a patient in a hospital? And as that patient, have you ever been visited by someone you sort of wished would just go away because their words only brought more pain and confusion? Job must have wanted in the worst way just to hit the “Get-the-Nurse-Fast!” button by his bedside and have her ask them to kindly leave.
God is good. But sometimes life doesn’t seem to bear that out. Job not only lost his kids and his businesses and his health, but he is now losing the kindness and the compassion of his friends. And things get pretty ugly between them before God finally breaks through.
What can we glean from these verses? First, listen well. I think really good listeners are hard to find. Lots of time in life we need friends who will simply listen, and listen in love. And secondly, be slow to formulate conclusions. I don’t know about you, but at times I am tempted to give simplistic & pat answers to some pretty difficult problems. Life is complex and our point of view is often very limited. Saying nothing (but just being there) may be the best course of action.
(Please feel free to copy/print/email these devotionals)
NASV = New American Standard Version
OT = Old Testament
K&D = Commentary by Keil and Delitzsch (from PC Bible Study)
JFB = Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (from PC Bible Study)
Adam Clarke = Adam Clarke Commentary (from PC Bible Study)
Barnes = Barnes Notes (from PC Bible Study)
Hartley = The New International Commentary on the Old Testament:
The Book of Job by John E. Hartley
Swindoll = Job, Profiles in Character from Charles R. Swindoll
FIA = Tyndale OT Commentaries: Job by Francis I. Anderson
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