{"id":7085,"date":"2020-01-05T20:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T03:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=7085"},"modified":"2020-01-05T23:48:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T06:48:07","slug":"job4_1-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/job4_1-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Make Eliphaz\u2019s Mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Job 4:1-21 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

There are some powerful lessons for us to learn from today\u2019s passage in Job 4:1-21.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Job 4:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0Eliphaz and his friends were doing such a great job of comforting Job\u2026until Eliphaz opened his mouth!\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not that Eliphaz should not have said anything at all.\u00a0\u00a0Rather, it\u2019s about what Eliphaz said in the verses that follow which would end up frustrating Job instead of helping him.<\/p>\n

Job 4:3-5 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 3-5:\u00a0\u00a0To paraphrase what Eliphaz is saying in verses 3-5:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cJob, in the past you would encourage and strengthen others when they were in trouble.\u00a0\u00a0But now you can\u2019t pick yourself up when you are in trouble?\u00a0\u00a0What\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Eliphaz finds it strange that Job would be a great encourager of others when they encounter trouble, but be so down in the dumps when he himself encounters trouble.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s as if Eliphaz is suggesting that Job is weak and a bit hypocritical for being someone who encourages others to face their problems courageously, and yet when problems come upon himself Job faces them without courage.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Here Eliphaz wrongly assumes that encouragers don\u2019t need encouragement themselves.\u00a0\u00a0That couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.\u00a0Encouragers need encouragement too.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t fall into the trap of thinking, \u201cThat person doesn\u2019t need my encouragement since he\u2019s always so positive and encouraging to others.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0For we often try to bless others in ways that we ourselves want to be blessed.\u00a0\u00a0Instead of just looking at a person in trouble and thinking, \u201chow weak is he?\u201d, be an encourager.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Job 4:6 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 6:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To paraphrase Eliphaz here: \u201cJob, shouldn\u2019t your piety in encouraging others\u00a0then<\/em>\u00a0be your confidence\u00a0now<\/em>?\u00a0\u00a0And shouldn\u2019t your blameless ways\u00a0then<\/em>\u00a0be your hope\u00a0now<\/em>?\u00a0\u00a0In other words, Job, shouldn\u2019t you practice what you preach?\u201d Eliphaz suggests.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSince you always seem to know how to instruct others to face their problems, how come you can\u2019t face your own?\u201d<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Keep in mind that Job has just lost everything, including his children, and the first point Eliphaz tries to bring up with Job is that Job has been a hypocrite.\u00a0\u00a0Even if Eliphaz was right about Job being a bit hypocritical (and that is a big if),\u00a0accusing a person of hypocrisy is not the way to start a conversation with a person who is in deep grief and who has just lost everything.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019re not going to help a grieving person by accusing them and putting them on the defensive.<\/p>\n

I believe there is another layer to Eliphaz\u2019s statement in verse 6.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s as if Eliphaz is saying, \u201cJob, if you\u2019re so pious, God-fearing and blameless, then you shouldn\u2019t have any problems.\u00a0\u00a0Your life should just be 100% confidence and hope.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0As Eliphaz would say in verse 7:\u00a0“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?”<\/p>\n

Here Eliphaz makes the biggest theological mistake of the entire book of Job, one that his friends after him would also repeat.\u00a0\u00a0That mistake is to assume that if we always love and follow God, we will never have trouble.\u00a0\u00a0Compare this to Jesus\u2019 own statement in John\u00a016:33, \u201cIn this world you\u00a0will\u00a0<\/em>have trouble.\u00a0\u00a0But take heart, for I have overcome the world.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Just because a person has trouble does not mean necessarily that their trouble is the result of their sin.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A corollary of Eliphaz\u2019s mistaken thinking is to assume that I can somehow put my hope in my own moral performance, that if I am good enough and God-fearing enough, I can earn a trouble free life on earth and\/or a happy afterlife when I die.\u00a0\u00a0That is what most other religions and secular philosophies teach at their core.\u00a0\u00a0Yet in response to this ego-driven approach to spirituality, Jesus would say, \u201cI am the way, the truth and the life.\u00a0\u00a0No one comes to the Father except through me\u201d (John 14:6).\u00a0In response Paul would latter say, \u201cNo one is righteous, not even one\u2026for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.\u201d (Romans 3:23-24)\u00a0\u00a0In other words, Eliphaz, I can\u2019t put my confidence in my own piety or my hope in my own blameless ways, because no matter how pious or blameless I try to be, I can never meet God’s standards.\u00a0 I can never earn a trouble free life on earth or a place in heaven.\u00a0\u00a0But praise God for sending Jesus Christ to live the pious, blameless life that I could never live.\u00a0\u00a0When I put my confidence and hope in Jesus\u2019 blameless ways, and not my own, that\u2019s when my life both now and for eternity is secure.<\/p>\n

Job 4:8-9 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-11:\u00a0\u00a0Here Eliphaz continues with his biggest theological mistake.\u00a0\u00a0Eliphaz thinks, \u201cJob, the reason you are in trouble now is because you have somehow sinned and done evil.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Just look at verses 8-9.<\/p>\n

Eliphaz then makes a cryptic statement in verses 10-11: he negatively compares Job to a strong lion who has lost his cubs.\u00a0\u00a0Eliphaz is suggesting that no matter how strong or upright Job thinks he is, the fact that Job lost his children shows that Job sinned.<\/p>\n

Eliphaz has yet to learn that\u00a0sometimes we go through trouble not because we have sinned but because we are being tested<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On verses 12-21:\u00a0\u00a0Now Eliphaz does one more thing: he claims to have received a supernatural word from God in a dream (\u201ca word was secretly brought to me\u201d (v12) \u201camid disquieting dreams\u201d (v13)).\u00a0\u00a0The message of the dream is basically that God wants to crush and destroy prideful sinners.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0A person may go into great detail about their seemingly supernatural experiences, but at the end of the day, whether the word they bring is from God or not will depend on how that word matches up with Scripture.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Eliphaz\u2019s word was a word of judgment, condemnation and fear that did not capture the full revelation of who God is in Scripture.\u00a0 Eliphaz had yet to understand that while God is indeed holy and just, God is also full of mercy and compassion, One who does not treat us as our sins deserve.\u00a0\u00a0Always match the message that a person claims to have from God for you with Scripture to help you determine whether that truly is a word from God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So in one short speech contained in chapter 4, Eliphaz has done a lot.\u00a0\u00a0He has accused Job of being a weak hypocrite (verses 3-6), a sinner who got the trouble he deserves (verses 7-11), and a prideful person that God has decided to crush (v12-21).\u00a0\u00a0Good times.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s no wonder Job would become even more frustrated after receiving Eliphaz\u2019s \u201ccomfort\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Lord Jesus, I praise You because when we were helpless, You did not come to condemn us the way Eliphaz condemned Job.\u00a0\u00a0Instead You came with love, mercy and compassion.\u00a0\u00a0You identified with our pain, even to the point of taking our pain upon Yourself and dying on the cross in our place.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You for being the ultimate encourager and the greatest comforter.\u00a0\u00a0May I be a wise and effective comforter like You.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,
\n\u00a0
\nThere are some powerful lessons for us to learn from today\u2019s passage in Job 4:1-21.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJob 4:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:\u00a0
\n2\u00a0\u00a0“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0Eliphaz and his friends were doing such a great job of comforting Job\u2026until Eliphaz opened his mouth!\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not that Eliphaz should not have said anything at all.\u00a0\u00a0Rather, it\u2019s about what Eliphaz said in the verses that follow which would end up frustrating Job instead of helping him.
\n\u00a0
\nJob 4:3-5 (NIV)\u00a0
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.\u00a0
\n4\u00a0\u00a0Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.\u00a0
\n5\u00a0\u00a0But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7088,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions\/7088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}