Job 4:1-6
“Would you mind if I said something to you?
Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.
You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words
that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
Your words have put stumbling people on their feet,
put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting!
You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.
But shouldn’t your devout life give you confidence now?
Shouldn’t your exemplary life give you hope?
We have plenty to say to others when they are in trouble! We can use our words to put stumbling people on their feet. Words and Words talking over and over, convincing words. Words that are to uplift. Words come easy to the one who is not in trouble. I wondered how often I have used words to soothe the one who is in trouble. Eliphaz wants Job to put his confidence is Job's own devout life. Ehiphaz is saying that Job's exemplary life should give him hope. So in other words....Since we live a good life we can have hope? Then is there no hope for the ones that do not lead a good life?
I wonder how many of Job's friends, neighbors and relatives believed that hope was found in a good life. Ehiphaz wanted Job to hope in Job's righteousness. That reminds me of a hymn.
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.
Refrain
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
Refrain
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Hope in our own goodness is selling ourselves short of what God has intended for our lives now.
Job 4
New International
Version (NIV)
Eliphaz
4 Then
Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 “If someone ventures a
word with you, will you be impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
3 Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;
you have strengthened faltering knees.
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
But who can keep from speaking?
3 Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;
you have strengthened faltering knees.
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
7 “Consider now: Who,
being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
9 At the breath of God they perish;
at the blast of his anger they are no more.
10 The lions may roar and growl,
yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Ehiphaz points to Job's peity, Jobs confidence, Job's blameless life. Where is God? I would also think that the way Ehiphaz has labeled Job as discouraged is wrong. Job is grieving. Ehiphaz wants to fix Job with his words and using God's words to persuade Job into cutting the grieving short. Ehiphaz tells of God's blast of anger and digs into Job while he is suffering.
12 “A word was secretly brought to me,
Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
9 At the breath of God they perish;
at the blast of his anger they are no more.
10 The lions may roar and growl,
yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Ehiphaz points to Job's peity, Jobs confidence, Job's blameless life. Where is God? I would also think that the way Ehiphaz has labeled Job as discouraged is wrong. Job is grieving. Ehiphaz wants to fix Job with his words and using God's words to persuade Job into cutting the grieving short. Ehiphaz tells of God's blast of anger and digs into Job while he is suffering.
12 “A word was secretly brought to me,
my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people,
14 fear and trembling seized me
and made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face,
and the hair on my body stood on end.
16 It stopped,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a hushed voice:
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
What is this vision that Ehiphaz sees? I wondered would the Spirit of God bring trembling and fear and make the hair on our body stand on end? Ehiphaz did not recognize the Spirit. And then the voice Speaks truth: 17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? Yes this is a true statement. I really believe that Job never believed that he was more righteous than God. Therefore this was not helpful to Job. Infact it was hurtful.
Have you ever used a true verse, vision or idea of the way you thought it should be to work to fix someone or a situation? This is not from the Spirit of God. I don't believe that God's Spirit comes in a Hushed voice. I believe his spirit comes is a gentle whisper. This whisper is loving and kind.
Maybe the Spirit was the Spirit of God and then I believe the words that the Spirit gave Ehiphaz was for Ehiphaz. This was not for Job. When the Spirit comes to us it is good to listen on how God is Speaking to "me".
18 If God places no trust in his servants,
if he charges his angels with error,
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
so that they die without wisdom?’
God trusts Job to suffer. The cords of the tents are not pulled up and just left to die. The cords of the tents are pulled up to bind them to the horns of the alter. Job is trusted by God to suffer.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people,
14 fear and trembling seized me
and made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face,
and the hair on my body stood on end.
16 It stopped,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a hushed voice:
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
What is this vision that Ehiphaz sees? I wondered would the Spirit of God bring trembling and fear and make the hair on our body stand on end? Ehiphaz did not recognize the Spirit. And then the voice Speaks truth: 17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? Yes this is a true statement. I really believe that Job never believed that he was more righteous than God. Therefore this was not helpful to Job. Infact it was hurtful.
Have you ever used a true verse, vision or idea of the way you thought it should be to work to fix someone or a situation? This is not from the Spirit of God. I don't believe that God's Spirit comes in a Hushed voice. I believe his spirit comes is a gentle whisper. This whisper is loving and kind.
Maybe the Spirit was the Spirit of God and then I believe the words that the Spirit gave Ehiphaz was for Ehiphaz. This was not for Job. When the Spirit comes to us it is good to listen on how God is Speaking to "me".
18 If God places no trust in his servants,
if he charges his angels with error,
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
so that they die without wisdom?’
God trusts Job to suffer. The cords of the tents are not pulled up and just left to die. The cords of the tents are pulled up to bind them to the horns of the alter. Job is trusted by God to suffer.
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