Job 4

Job 4.1-6:

"Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:

2 “Will you be patient and let me say a word?
For who could keep from speaking out?

3 “In the past you have encouraged many people;
you have strengthened those who were weak.
4 Your words have supported those who were falling;
you encouraged those with shaky knees.
5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.
You are terrified when it touches you.
6 Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence?
Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?"

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Now this is where I've always had trouble with the book of Job. At the end we'll read that Job's friends (spoiler alert) get in trouble, we shall say, with God. Yet I find a lot of times that while there are lots of things they say that makes sense as to why they become in trouble with God, there are also things that I believe are truthful and important to learn from. So the problem I run into is how to figure out the beneficial things and the non-beneficial things. I suppose perhaps that it could have something to do with their hearts in the matter and the way that they went about talking/ministering to Job. That being said, I think Eliphaz has a good point that many people in America need to be reminded of. I love verse 6. I think it's something that I try to remind myself of each and every time that I encounter a rough time.

Job 4.7-11:

7 “Stop and think! Do the innocent die?
When have the upright been destroyed?
8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble
and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
9 A breath from God destroys them.
They vanish in a blast of his anger.
10 The lion roars and the wildcat snarls,
but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.
11 The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered."

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Here's where I start to get a little cautious about what Eliphaz is saying. Verses 8-11 make sense to me, so I'm OK generally with those. However in verse 7 when he asks if the upright die (and in my opinion infers that they don't), I see everyday some instance of an upright person suffering and dying. It's not due to anything they've done, but it's simply because that's the situation that they live within. Granted today is probably a little more different from then than we already know, but I can't imagine that similar things didn't happen then as well. Hebrews 9.27 shares with us that every person is destined to die once. Solomon discovered the same thing when he wrote,

"This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. 2 The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t."

 - Ecclesiastes 9.1-2

Job 4.12-17:

“This truth was given to me in secret,
as though whispered in my ear.
13 It came to me in a disturbing vision at night,
when people are in a deep sleep.
14 Fear gripped me,
and my bones trembled.
15 A spirit swept past my face,
and my hair stood on end.
16 The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape.
There was a form before my eyes.
In the silence I heard a voice say,
17 ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God?
Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’

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Haha, if anyone came to you today and said what Eliphaz just said in verses 12-17, I'm sure we would be like, "Dude, have you been drinking?" =) I do find interest in verse 17 though! My answer to his question here is simply, 'No. Not anyone who isn't Jesus anyway.' Paul echos this truth in Romans 3.23.

Job 4.18-21:

“If God does not trust his own angels
and has charged his messengers with foolishness,
19 how much less will he trust people made of clay!
They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth.
20 They are alive in the morning but dead by evening,
gone forever without a trace.
21 Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses,
and they die in ignorance."

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What a humbling thought! If God has hidden things from the angels who go in and out before Him, what do you think He's shared with us? Stay with me here for a second. =) Keep this thought in your mind and then think back to what Paul wrote in Ephesians 3. Remember when he said that God had revealed His mysterious plan to us? Now read this:

Psalm 8.4-6 (also quoted and expounded upon in Hebrews 2.6-10):

"What are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—"

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It's so cool to think that we are so low, yet thought of so highly by the God of the universe! Sure there are things that God does not reveal to us, but think about what He HAS revealed to us! The mysterious plan to reconcile and save all of creation! =) What do you guys see in this chapter? =)

"Father thank You for humbling us! I pray that You would forgive us when we think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Allow us to be you hands and feet and share You love and Your grace with those around us! May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You! It's in Jesus' name that I pray, amen!"