Job Chapter 4
Please read: Job 4 –
Eliphaz, one of the three friends that came to console Job, begins to speak to Job in this chapter and the next. We first learn from Eliphaz’s response to Job that Job was known for being a man who was upright, a righteous man who taught and encouraged others to walk with God in difficult days. Job was a man that was highly respected for his uprightness, and this is evidenced by these three men coming and spending a week with him in complete silence. But now it was Eliphaz who spoke up first, feeling the need to respond to Job’s words and to remind him that he needed to heed his own teachings and admonishments.
While Eliphaz tried to speak eloquently to his friend Job, he began assembling a false conclusion as to why Job was suffering so much. His assumption was that Job must have sinned in some way and in sinning caused God to be angry with him who then withheld his protection and blessings. This conclusion seemed logical to him, but what we will learn in the last chapter of the book of Job is that God said that He was angry for what Eliphaz and the other two friends had said to Job. “…for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
Let's Reflect
1. What did Eliphaz seem to accuse Job of in verse 5 after hearing Job’s complaints regarding his situation?
2. Eliphaz began to teach his friend Job what he thought he needed to hear. He told him that God had “cut off” (removed His hand of protection and blessing) toward Job because Job must have done what? See verses 7-8.
3. Eliphaz, trying to speak eloquently, described the anger that God pours out on a sinner by likening His anger to what animal?
4. Eliphaz claimed to have come to this great wisdom he was sharing by means of a vision or night dream. Whether he was actually visited by spirits is unknown but is certainly possible since it was Satan who was working to destroy the faith of Job. According to verse 15 what did “seeing” this spirit do to Eliphaz?
5. Eliphaz tried to explain to Job that all men are sinners, and he was certainly correct. He asked a rhetorical question, “can a mortal be more righteous than God?” It seems he was trying to say that there is no shame in recognizing that Job could have sinned in some way. He backed this statement up with another truth found in verse 18 about beings that fell from God’s grace. Even these being sinned before God. What were these beings that sinned?
6. The opening speech of Eliphaz does not end here, but the chapter ends with him reasoning that if the beings mentioned in the previous verse could fall into sin, how much more vulnerable are humans who dwell in clay houses (physical bodies). What is Eliphaz describing in verses 19-21 that happens to humans that prove they are vulnerable?
Let’s remember what will happen to Satan and those angels who fell from grace. God tells us in the last book of the Bible what their end will be.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
