I should have been doing this with you from the start to help you get in the habit, but I just plain forgot since I've already done this earlier before I began my study time. That being said, though, let's pray before we begin: Father, thank You for Your Word and for giving us eyes that can see and minds that have been opened to understand. I ask that You would be our guide today as we continue our study of Job and lead us each to whatever it is You would have us learn this day. Please open Your Word to us, give us understanding and then bring it into our minds and thoughts throughout this day so we can reflect on it with You. Please also write Your Word on our hearts so that we will never forget it. Thank You Lord! In the Name of our Savior, Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
OK, let's look at the rest of what Eliphaz said to Job. I'm going to include verse 8 again as without it we won't get the reason he's saying the rest. Keep in mind as you read that Eliphaz is assuming that Job has sinned deliberately and because of that, God has punished him with all trials he's been going through.
Job 5:8–27 (NIV)
8 “But if it were I, I would appeal to God;
I would lay my cause before him.
So Eliphaz is telling Job that he should appeal to God for help for all the following reasons:
9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
10 He bestows rain on the earth;
he sends water upon the countryside.
11 The lowly he sets on high,
and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.
13 He catches the wise in their craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
Paul quotes the last part of what Eliphaz says in this verse in 1 Corinthians 3:19 —For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; * This does not mean that everything Eliphaz said to Job about God was correct, it means that it was all correctly, and accurately recorded. Just like we know that God does not condone polygamy, even though scripture records the fact that many of the patriarchs practiced it. Paul confirms that this particular sentence that Eliphaz said is true about God, but that does not mean that Eliphaz is applying this truth correctly about his friend Job. Do you understand what I'm saying?
14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;
at noon they grope as in the night.
15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;
he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
The words, "sword of their mouth" is translated in a number of different ways in various version. Let me share what some of the other meanings of this phrase are in the original language: cutting words, lies, and slander. So it's actually saying God saves the needy from the cutting, harmful words, the lies and slander of the wicked who think they're so smart; and He saves them from the powerful hold they have on them.
16 So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts its mouth.
So because of all the things that God does for us, all those things from verse 9 through 15, the poor have hope because they know that God is just and will work things out in the long run so that justice will be done. I also looked up the word, "poor" here and while it can mean someone who has little money, it also refers to those who are weak, and those who have little status in the world.
17 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects;
so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.b
b Hebrew Shaddai; here and throughout Job
El-Shaddai - “God Almighty” or “God the All Compassion” or “God
of the mountain”. Once again Eliphaz insists that Job's sinned deliberately and God is punishing him and if he'd just confess his sin and get it over with, then, in the next verse, Eliphaz says that God would heal him. This is very typical "Word of Faith" or "prosperity Gospel" false teaching today. It's false in that they believe, like Eliphaz did, that if someone is not healed it must be because they're living in unrepented sin and/or do not have enough faith in God. We know better then this for the Bible tells us over and over again that sometimes God doesn't heal us for a number of other reasons, so we must simply trust that He loves.
18 For he wounds, but he also binds up;
he injures, but his hands also heal.
Eliphaz wanted Job to make a bargain with God by confessing his sins so God would restore all that he'd lost. If Job had done that, it would have disgraced God and vindicated Satan, because that's exactly what Satan had said was the only reason people worshiped God for in the first place...to get something from Him!
19 From six calamities he will rescue you;
in seven no harm will befall you.
“in six troubles,” yes even in “seven.” This is often called the X+1 formula and always expresses the idea of completeness, In this case it's saying in effect that "in all troubles" the Lord would deliver those who responded positively to his chastisement. The other one that immediately came to my mind that we're all probably familiar with is from Proverbs 6:16 —There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: * which is saying "all the things God hates" It is a way of stating something indefinite, in other words, the list isn't complete. Just like in the verse in Job it's showing that the list there isn't a complete list of troubles.
20 In famine he will ransom you from death,
and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue,
and need not fear when destruction comes.
Notice that the "lash of the tongue", meaning things like gossip, lies, and slander, are considered to be every bit as bad as war, disease, and hunger.
22 You will laugh at destruction and famine,
and need not fear the beasts of the earth.
23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
This just means that even creation and the animals will cooperate with him.
24 You will know that your tent is secure;
you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
25 You will know that your children will be many,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
Isn't this insensitive! It's hard to believe that anyone, especially a so called "friend" would say something like this to someone who had just lost every child they had! And yet, friends do this to each other all the time just as Eliphaz is here. He's telling Job that if he repents and confesses his sin that God will restore his health, his wealth, and give him many more children, and in the next verse he adds that Job will then be given a very long life.
26 You will come to the grave in full vigor,
like sheaves gathered in season.
27 “We have examined this, and it is true.
So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
Finally he ends his speech by saying that he and the other friends have discussed all this together and verified that it is all true, so Job would be wise to accept this truth and apply it to himself. But Job knows they're wrong about him. He hasn't sinned and has nothing to confess about his behavior before all these troubles came on him.
I know that many of us who live with pain daily have run into other believers who have told us something very similar. Generally they tell us that thee must be sin in our lives or else God would have already healed us; either that or that we don't really believe God like we say we do. This is really hurtful to us when it happens and can leave some very deep wounds, so I imagine it did the same to Job as well.
While much of what Eliphaz says about God in this chapter is true, he made two mistakes. First, as we've said, while sin can be the cause of our trials, it most certainly is not the only reason we have trials - there are many reasons God allows them to happen. Secondly, rather then comforting Job, the way the Lord wants us to, he made Job feel even worse then before. (Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 12:26; Galatians 6:2)
To give Eliphaz and the other two friends the benefit of the doubt, we could say that he had no way of knowing that Job hadn't sinned. However, that's not entirely true. Remember, he was a good friend of Job's and knew him well. While anything is possible, it's unlikely that a man of such upstanding character as Job had had for so very many years, would suddenly have begun to live in unrepented sin. Plus, if he had begun to live in sin, since he was a well respected citizen and an elder who helped judge important cases in his town, everyone would have known about it and it would have been talked about constantly. That didn't happen. There were no rumors that Job was living in sin, so Eliphaz really had no reason at all to suspect this other then his own misunderstanding of God and His Word.
I'd also like to make one other point about this. While Job had not been living in unrepented sin, he was a sinner as we all are. So if we were asked if Job had sinned the day these terrible things had happened to him, we'd have to say, "yes". We'd have to say that because each one of us sins every single day. It's impossible for us to get through a whole day without sinning. But that's very different then living in unrepented sin. Our daily sins are covered by the blood of Christ and so were Job's. No, Job didn't know the Name of our Lord, but He believed and knew that God would provide a Savior who would save him from his sins, therefore the blood of Christ covered his sins as well.
Most of our daily sins are sins that we're generally unaware of, they're unintentional. In the OT God made provisions for even unintentional sins (Lev 4) so that people could make a sacrifice for them and be forgiven for any sin they were unaware of. This is the sacrifice Job used to make regularly even for his children, remember? The Law said that if you later realized you'd sin, in other words, if you later became aware that something you'd done was a sin, then you had to go make another sacrifice to acknowledge that you were now aware of it and needed forgiveness and your sin would be forgiven. We know that Job made a practice of sacrificing to the Lord for forgiveness so we can be sure that if he'd been aware of any sin in his life, he would have repented of it and asked for forgiveness with a sacrifice.
What God was teaching them through these sacrificial laws was that ignorance isn't bliss. This applies to us as well. God tells them and us that just because we don't realize something is a sin, it doesn't make us innocent. If we do it unknowingly, we're still guilty. I know...it doesn't sound fair. Look at it this way. We're all familiar with the law of gravity. When we jump off a chair, we're going to fall down and land on the floor. Because of gravity, we will not float in the air when we jump. That law works even with an infant or toddler that isn't aware of it. It's the same with sin. Just because we don't know that we've just gotten our clothes dirty from sin, doesn't change the fact that we have. When we realize this and remember the definitions of sin, we begin to realize just how sinful we really are. Let's look at the definitions of sin that God gives us in His Word:
Definitions of sin:
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14:23.
Romans 14:23 —But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. *
OK, let's look at the rest of what Eliphaz said to Job. I'm going to include verse 8 again as without it we won't get the reason he's saying the rest. Keep in mind as you read that Eliphaz is assuming that Job has sinned deliberately and because of that, God has punished him with all trials he's been going through.
Job 5:8–27 (NIV)
8 “But if it were I, I would appeal to God;
I would lay my cause before him.
So Eliphaz is telling Job that he should appeal to God for help for all the following reasons:
9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
miracles that cannot be counted.
10 He bestows rain on the earth;
he sends water upon the countryside.
11 The lowly he sets on high,
and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.
13 He catches the wise in their craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
Paul quotes the last part of what Eliphaz says in this verse in 1 Corinthians 3:19 —For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; * This does not mean that everything Eliphaz said to Job about God was correct, it means that it was all correctly, and accurately recorded. Just like we know that God does not condone polygamy, even though scripture records the fact that many of the patriarchs practiced it. Paul confirms that this particular sentence that Eliphaz said is true about God, but that does not mean that Eliphaz is applying this truth correctly about his friend Job. Do you understand what I'm saying?
14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;
at noon they grope as in the night.
15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;
he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
The words, "sword of their mouth" is translated in a number of different ways in various version. Let me share what some of the other meanings of this phrase are in the original language: cutting words, lies, and slander. So it's actually saying God saves the needy from the cutting, harmful words, the lies and slander of the wicked who think they're so smart; and He saves them from the powerful hold they have on them.
16 So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts its mouth.
So because of all the things that God does for us, all those things from verse 9 through 15, the poor have hope because they know that God is just and will work things out in the long run so that justice will be done. I also looked up the word, "poor" here and while it can mean someone who has little money, it also refers to those who are weak, and those who have little status in the world.
17 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects;
so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.b
b Hebrew Shaddai; here and throughout Job
El-Shaddai - “God Almighty” or “God the All Compassion” or “God
of the mountain”. Once again Eliphaz insists that Job's sinned deliberately and God is punishing him and if he'd just confess his sin and get it over with, then, in the next verse, Eliphaz says that God would heal him. This is very typical "Word of Faith" or "prosperity Gospel" false teaching today. It's false in that they believe, like Eliphaz did, that if someone is not healed it must be because they're living in unrepented sin and/or do not have enough faith in God. We know better then this for the Bible tells us over and over again that sometimes God doesn't heal us for a number of other reasons, so we must simply trust that He loves.
18 For he wounds, but he also binds up;
he injures, but his hands also heal.
Eliphaz wanted Job to make a bargain with God by confessing his sins so God would restore all that he'd lost. If Job had done that, it would have disgraced God and vindicated Satan, because that's exactly what Satan had said was the only reason people worshiped God for in the first place...to get something from Him!
19 From six calamities he will rescue you;
in seven no harm will befall you.
“in six troubles,” yes even in “seven.” This is often called the X+1 formula and always expresses the idea of completeness, In this case it's saying in effect that "in all troubles" the Lord would deliver those who responded positively to his chastisement. The other one that immediately came to my mind that we're all probably familiar with is from Proverbs 6:16 —There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: * which is saying "all the things God hates" It is a way of stating something indefinite, in other words, the list isn't complete. Just like in the verse in Job it's showing that the list there isn't a complete list of troubles.
20 In famine he will ransom you from death,
and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue,
and need not fear when destruction comes.
Notice that the "lash of the tongue", meaning things like gossip, lies, and slander, are considered to be every bit as bad as war, disease, and hunger.
22 You will laugh at destruction and famine,
and need not fear the beasts of the earth.
23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
This just means that even creation and the animals will cooperate with him.
24 You will know that your tent is secure;
you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
25 You will know that your children will be many,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
Isn't this insensitive! It's hard to believe that anyone, especially a so called "friend" would say something like this to someone who had just lost every child they had! And yet, friends do this to each other all the time just as Eliphaz is here. He's telling Job that if he repents and confesses his sin that God will restore his health, his wealth, and give him many more children, and in the next verse he adds that Job will then be given a very long life.
26 You will come to the grave in full vigor,
like sheaves gathered in season.
27 “We have examined this, and it is true.
So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
Finally he ends his speech by saying that he and the other friends have discussed all this together and verified that it is all true, so Job would be wise to accept this truth and apply it to himself. But Job knows they're wrong about him. He hasn't sinned and has nothing to confess about his behavior before all these troubles came on him.
I know that many of us who live with pain daily have run into other believers who have told us something very similar. Generally they tell us that thee must be sin in our lives or else God would have already healed us; either that or that we don't really believe God like we say we do. This is really hurtful to us when it happens and can leave some very deep wounds, so I imagine it did the same to Job as well.
While much of what Eliphaz says about God in this chapter is true, he made two mistakes. First, as we've said, while sin can be the cause of our trials, it most certainly is not the only reason we have trials - there are many reasons God allows them to happen. Secondly, rather then comforting Job, the way the Lord wants us to, he made Job feel even worse then before. (Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 12:26; Galatians 6:2)
To give Eliphaz and the other two friends the benefit of the doubt, we could say that he had no way of knowing that Job hadn't sinned. However, that's not entirely true. Remember, he was a good friend of Job's and knew him well. While anything is possible, it's unlikely that a man of such upstanding character as Job had had for so very many years, would suddenly have begun to live in unrepented sin. Plus, if he had begun to live in sin, since he was a well respected citizen and an elder who helped judge important cases in his town, everyone would have known about it and it would have been talked about constantly. That didn't happen. There were no rumors that Job was living in sin, so Eliphaz really had no reason at all to suspect this other then his own misunderstanding of God and His Word.
I'd also like to make one other point about this. While Job had not been living in unrepented sin, he was a sinner as we all are. So if we were asked if Job had sinned the day these terrible things had happened to him, we'd have to say, "yes". We'd have to say that because each one of us sins every single day. It's impossible for us to get through a whole day without sinning. But that's very different then living in unrepented sin. Our daily sins are covered by the blood of Christ and so were Job's. No, Job didn't know the Name of our Lord, but He believed and knew that God would provide a Savior who would save him from his sins, therefore the blood of Christ covered his sins as well.
Most of our daily sins are sins that we're generally unaware of, they're unintentional. In the OT God made provisions for even unintentional sins (Lev 4) so that people could make a sacrifice for them and be forgiven for any sin they were unaware of. This is the sacrifice Job used to make regularly even for his children, remember? The Law said that if you later realized you'd sin, in other words, if you later became aware that something you'd done was a sin, then you had to go make another sacrifice to acknowledge that you were now aware of it and needed forgiveness and your sin would be forgiven. We know that Job made a practice of sacrificing to the Lord for forgiveness so we can be sure that if he'd been aware of any sin in his life, he would have repented of it and asked for forgiveness with a sacrifice.
What God was teaching them through these sacrificial laws was that ignorance isn't bliss. This applies to us as well. God tells them and us that just because we don't realize something is a sin, it doesn't make us innocent. If we do it unknowingly, we're still guilty. I know...it doesn't sound fair. Look at it this way. We're all familiar with the law of gravity. When we jump off a chair, we're going to fall down and land on the floor. Because of gravity, we will not float in the air when we jump. That law works even with an infant or toddler that isn't aware of it. It's the same with sin. Just because we don't know that we've just gotten our clothes dirty from sin, doesn't change the fact that we have. When we realize this and remember the definitions of sin, we begin to realize just how sinful we really are. Let's look at the definitions of sin that God gives us in His Word:
Definitions of sin:
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14:23.
Romans 14:23 —But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. *
The thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24:9.
Proverbs 24:9 —The schemes of folly are sin, and men detest a mocker. *
James 4:17. All unrighteousness is sin
James 4:17 —Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. *
Proverbs 24:9 —The schemes of folly are sin, and men detest a mocker. *
James 4:17. All unrighteousness is sin
James 4:17 —Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. *
John’s epistle defines sin as lawlessness and defilement:
1 John 5:17 —All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. *
1 John 3:4 —Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. *
1 John 5:17 —All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. *
1 John 3:4 —Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. *
1 John 1:9–2:2 here it views it as defiance.
1 John 1:9–2:2 —If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. *If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. *My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. *He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. *
Sin is basically a matter of the will. For us to assert our will against God’s will is rebellion & rebellion is the root of sin. It's not simply that sin reveals itself in lawless behavior but that the very essence of sin is lawlessness. From the time of Adam and Eve, replacing God with self has been at the root of all sin.
God wanted the people, including us, to understand that ignorance wasn't bliss. We were and are guilty of sin whether we realize that what we're doing is a sin or not. However, God will not punish us for a sin we are unaware of. This is where Job's friends got things wrong too. While Job was certainly a sinner, just as we are, he was saved just as we are, and therefore considered righteous by God. His sins were forgiven and he was not knowingly sinning. Therefore the trials he was going through had nothing to do with sin. We know that the reason he was going through this was because of Satan, but of course neither Job nor his friends could know that. Does all that makes sense to everyone? (I'm sorry, but I've been interrupted so many times while writing this that I may have lost my train of thought...)
1 John 1:9–2:2 —If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. *If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. *My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. *He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. *
Sin is basically a matter of the will. For us to assert our will against God’s will is rebellion & rebellion is the root of sin. It's not simply that sin reveals itself in lawless behavior but that the very essence of sin is lawlessness. From the time of Adam and Eve, replacing God with self has been at the root of all sin.
God wanted the people, including us, to understand that ignorance wasn't bliss. We were and are guilty of sin whether we realize that what we're doing is a sin or not. However, God will not punish us for a sin we are unaware of. This is where Job's friends got things wrong too. While Job was certainly a sinner, just as we are, he was saved just as we are, and therefore considered righteous by God. His sins were forgiven and he was not knowingly sinning. Therefore the trials he was going through had nothing to do with sin. We know that the reason he was going through this was because of Satan, but of course neither Job nor his friends could know that. Does all that makes sense to everyone? (I'm sorry, but I've been interrupted so many times while writing this that I may have lost my train of thought...)
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