Page 19 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

horrible catastrophe struck. The possibility of a universe structured differently than he thought and thus
a God different than he thought had been in the back of his mind for a long time. He seems to be
accurate in his assessment and his fear. A good man can suffer horribly. The author has already
commented on Job’s goodness twice (1:22; 2:10). We will have to wait for the theological reasons as the
book unfolds.

Eliphaz is the first friend to respond. He sounds a bit like a charismatic and begins with basic theology.
“Who, being innocent, has ever perished (4:7a)?” God simply does not run the world in such a way as to
allow innocent people to die an undeserved death. Does not happen! “Those who plow evil and those
who sow trouble reap it (4:8).” Eliphaz knows these things in part because of revelation. “A spirit glided
past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end (4:15).” He is vague in his description of this spirit.
He is not so bold as to call it an angel, yet he took it to be some presence from God. The spirit
encourages his thinking to ask, “Can a mortal be more righteous than God (4:17)?” “His dream left
Eliphaz with a profound realization of the sinfulness of man, and it colored his whole outlook on life from
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then on.”

This friend has more to say in the way of advice, although he sounds a bit callous. He recounts his
observations of a fool. Such a person’s children are far from safety, his harvest is consumed, and, in
general, he is born to trouble (5:3-7). “If I were you,” says Eliphaz,
“I would appeal to God expecting a miracle (5:8-9).” He is
sovereign. Ultimately the lesson in all this is simply God’s refining.
“Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so, do not despise the
discipline of the Almighty (5:17).” The experience of Job can be
compared to that of any child who is disciplined by a father. If Job
responds in the right way, the outcome will be wonderful. He will
laugh at destruction. His tent will be secure. His children will be Figure 9: Father discipline
many (5:22-25). Eliphaz has checked out the truth of what he says
and invites Job to hear it and apply it (5:27).

We might be tempted to stop here in our thinking about suffering. After all, the same theology is
expressed in an extended paragraph in the NT. Eliphaz says, “Blessed is the one whom God corrects, so
do not despise the discipline of the Almighty (Job 5:17).” His words of advice sound so much like
Hebrews 12:7, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as children. For what children are not
disciplined by their father?” The NT passage is linked to the same wisdom from Proverbs 3:11, 12. The
key word here is “discipline” in both Job 5:17 and Proverbs 3:11. God is disciplining Job as any good
father disciplines his child.

Job protests. If we have been identifying at all with Job, we feel the sting of the words of Eliphaz. Job has
lost all his children. He had not been an absentee father but cared very much for them. He replies with
words of comparison. “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales
(6:2).” He feels like God has shot arrows at him, poison arrows. His strength is g one. If this is fatherly
discipline, it qualifies as child abuse. In an extended metaphor he likens his friends to a stream in the

23 H. L. Ellison, A Study of Job (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 35.
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