Job Chapter 5
Please read: Job 5 –
In the first part of Eliphaz’s response to Job, he implied that Job must have done something terribly wrong to have caused God to bring this calamity on him. Eliphaz did get a lot of things right about God as he described to Job in this second part of his response, but he also got a lot of things wrong. Eliphaz tried to put God in a box, thinking that God always responds to humans in the same way. And what I think is important for you and I to learn in reading this, is that we cannot draw conclusions about God based on what other people have said about Him. Instead, we must read and re-read the Bible to find out for ourselves what God is like. God has gifted many good Bible teachers and preachers that we can listen to and learn from, but we also must be reading God’s Word for ourselves to discern if what they are teaching us lines up with the truth of the Bible.
Eliphaz was sure that he had God all figured out. And because he thought Job must have committed some terrible sin, and based on his assumptions of how God works, he felt he was being a good friend to Job by telling him that he should confess his sin to God. This was a rude assumption on Eliphaz’s part, assuming that Job had sinned and not confessed it to God. We know from the first chapter that Job was the type of man that if he committed a sin, he would have confessed it right away to God. We read in chapter 1 that he made intercession for his seven children many times just in case they had sinned while they were feasting.
Job 1:5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
Let's Reflect
1. Eliphaz talked to Job as if he had lots of wisdom and experience in the way life works. He suggested that Job could even talk to others, holy men, who would tell him the same thing. To prove he knew what he was talking about he began to describe what always happens to fools. Fools dig into their ways and refuse to change. But before long their foolish ways come back to hurt them. He mentions that the fool’s children experience harmful things. What does he say “always happens” to the harvest of the foolish man?
2. He summarizes life as being full of troubles and that affliction is going to hit us all at some point or other just as sure as when you burn a fire, what hot thing always flies upward? (And he was probably pointing to a bon-fire while saying this just for emphasis!)
3. In verse 8, Eliphaz states that if I were you…this is what I would do. What did he tell Job he should do?
4. In verses 9-16 he eloquently tells Job about the greatness of God. He got a lot of things right about Him. What are some things he named that are true of our God?
5. Another truth he did get right about God is found in verse 17. God does chasten those that have gone astray to bring them back into alignment with His holiness. But Eliphaz assumes that what Job is experiencing is what?
6. In verses 18-26 he makes more sweeping assumptions about how God operates in our lives. These are things that he thinks will be the experience of a righteous person. He implies that if Job confesses his sin to God, then he will experience all these blessings in his life. While God does delight in giving us many good things, what is something in Eliphaz’s list that you found to be ridiculous?
7. In the last verse what proof did Eliphaz offer that his advice was solid?
