Job 4 - When Helpers Hurt

Introduction

Put yourself in Job’s situation.

The Sabeans have stolen your oxen and donkeys and killed your servants.

Fire has burned up your sheep and killed more of your servants.

The Chaldeans have stolen your camels and killed even more of your servants.

A great wind has killed all ten of your children.

Sore boils now cover you from dead to toe.

You are in anguish.

You can’t eat.

You can’t sleep.

You don’t understand why all this happening.

Still you hold on to your faith in God.

And then your friends show up.

You breathe a sigh of relief.

They are here to help.

Little do you know, they are like the Sabeans and Chaldeans—they too will attack and steal.

They are like the fire and the wind—there to destroy and kill.

They are like the boils—there to rob you of rest until you are almost driven mad, until you almost curse God.

We are introduced to Job’s friends in Job 2:11-13.

They have heard about Job’s suffering.

They have agreed to come together and come to Job.

Their plan was to sympathize with him and comfort him.

When they saw Job’s agony, they cried with him, grieved with him, and sat with him in silence for a week, because they saw that his pain was very great.

There was Eliphaz the Temanite.

Teman was a city of Edom.

Eliphaz’s counsel to Job will be based on what he has seen and experienced.

There was Bildad the Shuhite.

The Shuhites were descendants of Abraham through his wife Keturah (Gen. 25:2, 6).

Bildad’s counsel to Job will be based on the wisdom of the past.

There was Zophar the Naamathite.

The location of Naamath is uncertain, although it was likely in Edom or Arabia.

Zophar’s counsel to Job will be based on his own intellect.

But will any of these friends have any wisdom for Job?

No.

For more than 20 chapters, Job’s friends will take turns pummeling his integrity, his faithfulness, his loyalty to God.

With each new round of accusation, Job’s friends press him harder and drive him closer to cursing God.

These men often sound right, and they are not always wrong, but what truth they have they misapply to Job’s case; ultimately they are the most effective tool that Satan deployed against Job.

They are worse than the Sabeans and Chaldeans, worse than the fire and wind, worse than the boils.

In the end, God will say to Job’s friends, “My wrath is kindled against you…, because you have not spoken of Me what is right…” (Job 42:7).

If we want to speak rightly about God to those who are suffering, we need to pay attention to the words of Job’s friends and say the opposite of what they say.

In Job 3, Job let out his lament. God heard it. Job’s friends heard it.

In Job 4, Eliphaz begins to respond to it.

Let’s break his response into three PARTS…

Exposition

PART #1: Eliphaz’s Fake Praise (Job 4:1-6)

Job 4:1–6 NASB95

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, 2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking? 3 “Behold you have admonished many, And you have strengthened weak hands. 4 “Your words have helped the tottering to stand, And you have strengthened feeble knees. 5 “But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; It touches you, and you are dismayed. 6 “Is not your fear of God your confidence, And the integrity of your ways your hope?

[EXP] Eliphaz seems to sense that it might not be the right time to speak.

He asks, “If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient?” (v. 2)

But Eliphaz can’t help himself. He thinks he has wisdom to offer Job, wisdom that will explain Job’s suffering.

If you had—or thought you had—that sort of wisdom, could you refrain from speaking?

Eliphaz couldn’t.

He begins with what initially sounds like affirmation or praise.

Apparently, according to what Eliphaz says in v. 3, Job has instructed, encouraged, admonished the weak (i.e., the suffering) so that they were restored to strength.

His counsel has caused the tottering to stand strong (v. 4).

Now, Eliphaz says that its time for Job to take his own medicine.

Weakness, tottering, and feebleness have come to Job, and Eliphaz says that Job is impatient and dismayed (v. 5).

Eliphaz is asking Job, “Do you know believe for yourself what you have said to others?”

Verse 6 seems especially positive given what we know from chapters 1 and 2 about Job’s reverence and fear, but I think there’s a barb hidden in Eliphaz’s praise.

We see it when we get to v. 7.

In v. 6 Eliphaz asks, “Is not your reverence your confidence and your integrity (i.e., faithfulness) your hope?”

But in v. 7 he asks, “Who ever perished being innocent? When have the upright been destroyed?”

In essence, Eliphaz is hinting to Job, “If you’re perishing like this… if you’ve been destroyed like this… are you really so innocent and upright? Would God really allow this if you were sincerely reverent and faithful?”

[TS] Eliphaz thinks like this because he holds to a false principle.

PART #2: Eliphaz’s False Principle (Job 4:7-11)

Job 4:7–11 NASB95

7 “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? 8 “According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity And those who sow trouble harvest it. 9 “By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of His anger they come to an end. 10 “The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of the young lions are broken. 11 “The lion perishes for lack of prey, And the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

[EXP] Here is the false principle that Eliphaz holds to: If you’re suffering, it can only be because you have sinned.

With his questions in v. 7, he basically says that the innocent don’t perish and the upright are never destroyed.

He states in v. 8 that, according to his own observations, people reap what they sow.

If Job is reaping suffering, then he has sown iniquity and trouble.

He says in v. 9 that those who sow iniquity and trouble perish by the breath of God and meet their end by the blast of his anger.

Eliphaz believes that, if you’re suffering, it’s because you have sinned, and God is getting you back.

He thinks this is what's happening to Job.

Then in vv. 10-11, Eliphaz tries to cleverly insinuate that this is why Job’s children are dead.

“The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion…” —that’s Job in his anguished wailing in chapter 3.

But although Job wails, it’s his children who have perished—“the teeth of the young lions are broken.”

“The lion perishes for lack of prey…” —that’s Job perishing as he hunts the unknown cause of his suffering.

But although Job is perishing in his anguish, the children born of his wife are dead— “the whelps (i.e., cubs) of the lioness are scattered.”

Eliphaz believes that we always suffer because of some sin we’ve committed.

He believes that Job’s children are dead because of some sin Job has committed.

[TS] To make his case supposedly full-proof, Eliphaz claims there is divine authority behind his insight.

Look at Eliphaz’s Feigned Power in Job 4:12-21.

PART #3: Eliphaz’s Feigned Power (Job 4:12-21)

Job 4:12–21 NASB95

12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily, And my ear received a whisper of it. 13 “Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, 14 Dread came upon me, and trembling, And made all my bones shake. 15 “Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. 16 “It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; A form was before my eyes; There was silence, then I heard a voice: 17 ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? 18 ‘He puts no trust even in His servants; And against His angels He charges error. 19 ‘How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! 20 ‘Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. 21 ‘Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.’

[EXP] Eliphaz claims to have had some sort of divine vision.

It comes to him quietly in a whisper.

It was disquieting and dreadful.

It made his bones rattle and his hair stand up.

It’s spooky.

Then Eliphaz claims the spirit spoke to him…

Job 4:17 NASB95

17 ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

The implied answer is no.

Eliphaz says no man, not even Job, is just before God.

Eliphaz says no man, not even Job, is pure before his Maker.

Eliphaz says Job is just a man, like so many other sinful men, who dwells in a house of clay, whose foundation is dust, who is crushed like a moth (v. 19)!

Eliphaz says Job is just a man, like so many other sinful men, broken in pieces in a day’s time, between morning and evening; a man forever forgotten as he perishes from the earth forever (v. 20)!

Eliphaz says that Job is just a man, like so many other sinful men, whose life is falling down around him because his tent-chord has been yanked up (v. 21a).

Eliphaz says that Job is just a man, like so many other sinful men, who die without wisdom (v. 21b).

Eliphaz is convinced that he has wisdom.

Eliphaz is convinced that he sees Job’s case clearly.

He’s convinced that he sees Job’s case as God sees it.

But Eliphaz is blind.

Illustration

Luke 6:39 NASB95

39 And (Jesus) also spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

In Job chapters 1 and 2, we see what Job and Eliphaz cant see; we see why all this suffering has befallen Job.

We hear the conversation between God and Satan.

We know this is all a test of Job’s integrity that is meant to bring glory to God and shame to the devil.

But Job doesn’t see this, and Eliphaz doesn’t either.

Both men are blind.

The difference is, Job knows it, while Eliphaz thinks that he can see.

Repeatedly, Eliphaz makes reference to his supposed insight into such matters.

Job 4:8 NASB95

8 “According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity And those who sow trouble harvest it.

Job 5:3 NASB95

3 “I have seen the foolish taking root, And I cursed his abode immediately.

Job 15:17 ESV

17 “I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare…

But Eliphaz doesn’t see.

Despite being convinced of his own insight, he is blind to what God is doing in Job’s suffering.

He is a blind guide, and his blindness causes him to heap further anguish on a friend—a friend who is already buried in misery.

He shows up ready to help his friend, but only becomes a helper who hurts.

Application

If we would not be helpers who hurt, let us be sure that we see a few TRUTHS…

TRUTH #1: Some people are as reverent and faithful as they appear.

Eliphaz is suspicious of Job’s fear of God and faithfulness to God because of Job’s suffering.

He thinks that God wouldn’t bring suffering like Job experienced to a man who was truly reverent and truly faithful.

Therefore, Eliphaz thinks he sees that Job must not be truly reverent or faithful.

But Eliphaz was blind, and Job was a man of reverence and complete integrity.

If we would be helpers who help rather than helpers who hurt, let us remember that some people are as holy as they appear.

TRUTH #2: Sometimes the innocent do perish and the upright are destroyed.

In Job 4:7, Eliphaz asks, “Who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed?”

His point is, from what he has seen, it doesn’t happen.

Therefore, Job must not be innocent; he must not be upright.

But Eliphaz was blind, and Job was innocent and upright.

He wasn’t sinless, but Job had committed no sin to warrant the suffering he was experiencing.

If we would be helpers who help rather than helpers who hurt, let us remember that suffering is not always the fault of the sufferer.

Sometimes people reap what they haven’t sown.

TRUTH #3: Man can be just before God and pure before his Maker.

In Job 4:17, Eliphaz claims to have had this supernatural vision in which he was told that man can’t be just or pure before God.

If man can’t be just or pure before God, then Job can’t be just or pure before God.

Therefore, Job has sinned and deserves the suffering that has come his way.

But what did God say about Job in chapter 2:3?

Job 2:3 NASB95

3 "…there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil.”

And what did Job continually do in chapter 1:5?

He consecrated himself and his family and made burnt offerings for everyone.

It was by sacrifice that Job was counted as just and pure before his Maker.

There’s a couple times in Job 4, when we want to respond to Eliphaz’s questions with the answer, “Jesus!”

Job 4:7 NASB95

7 “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed?

Jesus was innocent, but he perished.

It was at the cross that he, although upright, was destroyed to pay the price for our sins.

Job 4:17 NASB95

17 ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Yes, Eliphaz; through faith in Jesus who was without sin…

…through faith in Jesus who died in our place as the sacrifice for our sin…

…through faith in Jesus who rose from dead…

…we can be made just before God and pure before our Maker.

If we would be helpers that help rather than helpers that hurt, we must help the hurting to see Jesus.

When we see him, we receive strength.

When we see him, we are helped to stand.

When we see him, we have wisdom to help the suffering.

Conclusion

[PRAYER]

The Longer I Serve Him, Hymn #374