A congregational study of the Book of Job. By Pastor Jose Luis
Session Seven. Read Job chapters 4 and 5.
The first of Job´s friends speaks. His point of view is a direct rejection of the idea that Job is really innocent. Eliphaz considered that Job was not leading by example, he says to Job: “you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. 5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.” 4, 3-5.
The fact that Job questions his suffering is a sign for Eliphaz that Job´s spirituality was not authentic. He considers that all the disgraces that Job is suffering are divine retribution, maybe because Job´s children were sinners, Eliphaz notes this idea when he says:
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. Chapter 5, 3-4
Eliphaz considers that Job should accept this calamity as a sign that God is disciplining him, because no man can be considered just and pure in comparison with God. Eliphaz´s case is to prove that Job should accept God´s clear verdict that he is a sinner and he deserves what is happening. Job cannot be innocent, for him, calamity is the result of sin and is God´s discipline. That is why Eliphaz makes these questions:
17 Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
He doesn’t believe in Job´s innocence.
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