The central section of Job revolves around a series of speeches between Job and his friends. While they had come to comfort him, we quickly discover that they had completely misdiagnosed the situation and were, therefore, completely unable to help. As Job would later say, they proved “miserable comforters” (16:2).
The first to address Job was Eliphaz the Temanite, who seems to have been the oldest of the comforters and considered a leader among them. In his first speech (chapters 4–5), he displayed his conviction (as all the others would later do) that Job was suffering because he had sinned and, in essence, offered four pieces of counsel. Christopher Ash helpfully captures his fourfold counsel.
First, he urged Job to be consistent (4:1–11). He reminded Job that he had previously offered counsel to people, so he must not be hesitant now to receive counsel. He implied that the counsel he was about to offer was precisely the same counsel that Job would have given if the roles were reversed. His conviction was simple: Innocent people do not suffer (4:7). Job must simply be consistent with this settled conviction and admit his wrongdoing.
Second, he urged Job to be realistic (4:12–5:7). Here, he claimed to have received a vision by which God (we assume) revealed the truth about Job’s sin to him. He claimed that a spirit, sent from God, brought him a word: “Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (4:17). It was not only common wisdom that suggested that Job must be suffering because he had sinned; direct revelation affirmed this common wisdom. Given this agreement between common wisdom and direct revelation, Job must be realistic: People simply cannot be right before God. He must therefore admit his sin.
Third, he urged Job to be humble (5:8–16). Since common wisdom and divine revelation proved incontrovertibly that Job had sinned, he must now humble himself, confess his sin, and trust God to restore him.
Fourth, he urged Job to be submissive (5:17–27). Job must not complain, for he had no just cause to complain. Instead, he must submit to God’s righteous chastening. He must accept that he was receiving the just deserts for his evil deeds. Only through repentance would God’s hand be lifted. God pours out his blessings on the righteous and if Job wanted blessings, he must hold his tongue, receive God’s chastening, and turn to him in repentance. This was absolute truth and Job must receive it as such (5:27).
Eliphaz had a clear system of theology: God was in absolute control. Since he is absolutely just and fair, he always blesses righteousness and punishes wickedness. Therefore, if Job was suffering, he must have sinned. Eliphaz’s friends shared this theology, as we will see. But there was a problem with their theology. That problem lay as much in what they did not affirm as in what they mistakenly affirmed.
In Eliphaz’s theology, there was no place for spiritual opposition. The reader knows the reality of the spiritual forces at work in Job’s suffering, but Eliphaz’s worldview could not fathom Satan or any form of spiritual warfare. Suffering and evil were purely materialistic realities; there was no spiritual battle raging behind the scenes.
In Eliphaz’s theology, there was no room for patient trust. Righteousness must be rewarded now and evil punished immediately. If Job was righteous, he should expect immediate blessing. Since he was experiencing turmoil, he must have done something terribly wrong. Ash describes this as “an impersonal slot machine formula”: insert righteousness and blessings emerge; insert wickedness and affliction returns. There is no room for trusting God in affliction for trust removes all affliction.
In Eliphaz’s theology, there was no room for innocent suffering. Of course, a faith devoid of innocent suffering is not the faith of the Bible. From the very beginning (Genesis 3:15), faith in God was dependent on an innocent sufferer. Eliphaz seems to have missed this crucial truth and therefore could not imagine that Job might be suffering as a righteous person.
Here is the lesson: As we seek to offer comfort to those in affliction, we must be careful that we do it in a truth-filled, gospel-centred way. If we do not root our theology soundly in Scripture, and particularly in the gospel, any comfort we offer the afflicted will be meaningless.
As you reflect on Job 4–5 this morning, ask God to help you root your worldview explicitly in the truth revealed in Scripture so that, as you seek to offer hope to those around you, you offer hope that is rooted in the gospel rather than devoid of truth.
