Chapter 4
Eliphaz the Temanite speaks:
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.
Job 4:5-8 ESV
This is how we think when bad things happen. We think we are living right, so this evil is undeserved, we think bad things are always a punishment for sin...when they happen to others! When they happen to us they are unfair, though we counseled otherwise when it was other people suffering.
In 7-11 Eliphaz states the principle, apparently universally accepted, beginning with these verses:
7 "Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? 8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. [Job 4:7-8 ESV]
They do not allow for the possibility of things beyond their knowledge being the cause of Job's problems. They assume that there is sin, and Job's troubles are the result of that sin. Just as the disciples ask Jesus a thousand years later who's sin made this man blind? Perhaps the answer Jesus gives then is the answer for Job in his time. That God might be glorified. In fact, Job's faithfulness does glorify God over Satan in heaven. In fact, the relief that God grants Job later also glorifies Him. But to Job and his friends, reason and logic should be able to root out the sin that has brought this about.
Possible FB post 2023.
These verses, that tell of an encounter Eliphaz had in the night. Was this Satan again trying to persuade Job to curse God by sending word through his friends? What a deceitful thing to do:
17 'Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? 18 Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; 19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. 20 Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. 21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?' [Job 4:17-21 ESV]
Look at the lies bound up in the truth here! vs 17, the answer is no. That is why God had already put a redemptive plan, built on trust and trust alone rather than works, in place. No man can accomplish his own righteousness. So Job must have sinned to bring this about, right?
God charged Satan with error because Satan was a usurper, but we can be sure Satan was not using himself as a "good example" here. No, Satan goes on to say that if even the angels are accused by God, what hope does man have? Again, Satan says Job deserves what he is getting because of his sin. And Satan goes on to say that men are too stupid to even figure out what their sin might be. He wants to undermine Job's faith by saying this IS a punishment from God for sin. Job is maintaining that he is not being punished, but that God has some other purpose, and Job is willing to suffer as God commands, even though he has no sin. But if Satan can convince Job that this is God's punishment but for a sin God will not reveal to Job, Job might conclude that God is unfair. This is rebellion. Job doesn't know what to confess to remove the curse. Satan wants to convince him he is too stupid to know. IS this a fair and just God who would punish for sin we don't even recognize??? We do see examples of such punishment elsewhere.
2025 - So from the paragraph above, I had seen this before, it just didn't click. Satan's great strategy is to have us blame God for being unfair. He wants us to believe ourselves undeserving of any punishment because we're such good people. He wants us to elevate our own perfection in our own eyes - which is what Satan did in the first place to get thrown out of heaven. The bad things that happen to us are orchestrated by Satan, not by God. Job knows he is not being punished for sin though. Job knows this is something else, for which he does not place blame on God. He just wants it to be over, whatever it is, so he can die and rest.
2025 - Job's claim that he has no sin for which God should punish him, especially with this severity, might be hyperbole to make the point of this morality play. The whole point of the book is that Job is being punished unjustly, AND that God is allowing it, AND therefore it is unfair. That is, He is not the loving God he claims to be and we ought to curse Him and die. This is how we think! This is what we do! Who could ever be so bad that they deserved bone cancer??? Why would God make anyone suffer like that? God DOES NOT cause that. And we ought to place the blame where it belongs, and we ought to thwart the purpose of the one causing that by continuing to trust God through our suffering, knowing that we are part of something bigger than ourselves!!!
2021 - MSB note says that the real message Eliphaz delivers is that God judges angels and finds those higher, purer beings at fault, so how much more will he find error in miserable, lowly man? I don't think, reading this now, that this vision has delivered a pack of lies to Eliphaz, though the application of what the vision said is wrong. Eliphaz is making the point that Job has done something pretty awful to have brought all this misery on himself - it has to be his own doing, and God is judging him. Eliphaz wants Job to acknowledge his sin. Job says he's done nothing wrong. It is possible that Job had not committed a sin that was held against him in a time when men made their own rules. I don't believe Job was sinless, but I believe he was a good man, less sinful by far than those around him.