1 “Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2 Surely vexation kills the fool,
and jealousy slays the simple.
3 I have seen the fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
4 His children are far from safety;
they are crushed in the gate,
and there is no one to deliver them.
5 The hungry eat his harvest,
and he takes it even out of thorns,
and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
6 For affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
7 but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.
In chapter three of this section, Job has been cursing the day of his birth. He has been afflicted with all manner of suffering and only wishes he was either not born or would simply die. His depression is real and taking root in his heart and mind. He needs guidance and comfort and empathy. Remember, we know the whole story. You can’t read or study Job without recalling the first two chapters and the last chapter. We have that privilege. Job, nor his friends, do.
Job’s three friends showed up to bring him comfort. But upon hearing Job’s woes, the first speaker, Eliphaz, decides to speak to him via tough love. Eliphaz wants him to know blunt truth. In chapter four Eliphaz makes the case that no one is right before God and the consequences of not being right before God is that you are sinful and suffering. Eliphaz’s syllogism is as follows:
Sinful men suffer
Job is a man who is suffering
Therefore, Job’s suffering is from his sinning.
Hence the above words from Eliphaz. His argument is actually simple:
1. (Vs 1) - Eliphaz instructs Job to call again, but this time to ask for something other than cursing his birth and asking to die. Eliphaz makes that point that no god (holy ones) will hear that type of prayer, much less Yahweh.
2. (Vs 2-5) - Eliphaz now compares Job to the fool and the simple one. The fool in Scripture is the unredeemable one. There is not hope for the fool in Scripture. The simple one is more persuadable but also less likely to be rescued from his thought patterns. Eliphaz is, in essence, saying, “Job, you talk as a simpleton and/or a fool. Like them you will lose everything because you reject God’s discipline and reject God’s power by this silly talk of wishing you were dead.”
3. (Vs 6-7) - Eliphaz’s last argument is to confirm the bias of his syllogism. He simply restates everything he said in chapter four. Affliction and trouble do not manifest themselves on their own. They don’t just sprout up from the ground. They come from a seed (sinning). Sparks (suffering) only happen because there is a fire. There has to be a fire (sinning). So if there is suffering, and suffering comes from sinning, then Job’s suffering is from sin. Eliphaz has no room in his mind for innocent suffering. He does not know the first two chapters or the last chapter of the book. The book of Job is the book about innocent suffering (pointing to Christ’s innocent suffering for us.)
The issue with Eliphaz’s argument here is that Job has already lost everything. His current talk is not going to cost him more because he has nothing more to lose, except his life. Again you can’t read this passage without remembering the end of the book. Eliphaz will be, in the end, rebuked by God for his counsel to Job. Instead of coming along side Job to comfort him (which was the purpose of the three friends visiting Job), Eliphaz must show Job where he is wrong. Make no mistake, Job is wrong to curse the day he died and not to recognize God’s purpose in all this. But again, Job does not know the full the story of the first two chapters of the book either. He only knows the suffering, not the work of Satan in the background.
It would be wise for us to be less condemning and less confronting in our work with those who are suffering. To pin all suffering on sin is to limit the marvelous work of God in our lives. God does punish for sinning, yes. But this book also shows that suffering can come from other places and for other reasons. It would be wise for us to not condemn but rather explore and seek empathy through clarity vs condemnation through criticism. Especially when we don’t know the first or last chapters of their life.
No comments:
Post a Comment