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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Wednesday, 4 February 2025:
Job 5:1-2 — Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.
Eliphaz begins by cornering Job rhetorically. He implies that no one, not God, not angels, not the righteous, would validate Job’s protest. The assumption is clear: Job stands alone because Job is wrong. Eliphaz reframes Job’s anguish as “vexation” and “jealousy,” moralizing grief instead of listening to it. Suffering is no longer treated as pain to be borne, but as evidence of inner corruption.
This reveals a dangerous instinct in human reasoning: when we cannot explain suffering, we often redefine it as sin. The New Testament warns against this reflex. Jesus explicitly rejects the idea that suffering is always tied to personal guilt, reminding His disciples that calamity is not a reliable indicator of moral standing. Eliphaz’s theology leaves no space for innocent suffering — which means it leaves no space for the gospel.
- John 9:1-3 — As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Job 5:3-5 — I have seen the fool taking root… his children are crushed in the gate….
Eliphaz claims experiential authority. He has “seen” the fool prosper briefly, only to be cut down. From this, he assumes Job must be the same kind of man. His worldview is rigid: wickedness may flourish temporarily, but God always brings swift retribution. Job’s loss of children, therefore, must reflect divine judgment.
What Eliphaz cannot see is the heavenly reality already revealed to the reader: Job’s suffering is not punishment but testing. This gap between what humans see and what God is doing is central to the book. The New Testament reinforces this tension by teaching that God’s purposes often operate beyond immediate visibility. Faith trusts God’s character when outcomes cannot yet be interpreted correctly.
- Isaiah 55:8-9 — For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Job 5:6-7 — For affliction does not come from the dust… but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
Here Eliphaz offers a proverb-like statement. Suffering, he argues, is not random; it has a moral source. Humanity is naturally prone to trouble, so affliction must be deserved. There is partial truth here — the world is broken, and suffering is woven into human existence — but Eliphaz again draws the wrong conclusion. He collapses fallenness into culpability.
Scripture later clarifies that while suffering is universal, its meaning is not uniform. The New Testament teaches that some suffering is corrective, some is refining, some is participatory in Christ’s sufferings, and some remains unexplained until glory. Eliphaz treats suffering as a single-category problem, and in doing so, misrepresents God.
Job 5:8-11 — As for me, I would seek God… He sets on high those who are lowly….
Eliphaz now shifts from accusation to prescription. He urges Job to “seek God,” implying Job has not. This is especially cruel because Job has done nothing but seek God. Eliphaz’s counsel sounds pious, but it assumes distance where there is devotion.
Ironically, Eliphaz describes a God who lifts the lowly and exalts the humble, a truth fully realized in the gospel. Yet he cannot apply that truth rightly to Job. This exposes how easy it is to speak correctly about God in theory while misapplying Him in practice. Jesus later confronts this same error in religious leaders who knew Scripture but missed God’s heart.
Job 5:12-16 — He frustrates the devices of the crafty… so the poor have hope….
Eliphaz celebrates God as the one who overturns injustice and protects the vulnerable. These are true statements, but tragically mistimed. He describes what God eventually does as if it explains what God is doing now. The hope Eliphaz proclaims is real, but his assumption that it has already arrived for Job is false.
The New Testament clarifies that justice is sometimes delayed, not denied. Final vindication is eschatological — secured in Christ but not yet fully visible. Eliphaz speaks as though God’s justice must be immediate to be true, while Scripture teaches patience, endurance, and hope anchored in resurrection.
Job 5:17-18 — Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. He wounds, but He binds up….
This is one of the most theologically complex moments in the chapter. Eliphaz introduces the concept of divine discipline, a truth later affirmed in Scripture. God does discipline His children in love. But Eliphaz assumes discipline is the only possible explanation for Job’s suffering.
The New Testament affirms that God disciplines those He loves, but it also insists that discipline flows from sonship, not condemnation. Job is not being corrected for rebellion; he is being tested for refinement. Eliphaz’s failure is not in acknowledging discipline, but in assuming he knows when and why God applies it.
Compare this verse with Proverbs 3:11 – “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof….” Eliphaz responded to Job with sound Biblical doctrine. However, it was misapplied because Eliphaz was using it in a judgmental fashion, assuming that God was punishing Job for an unspoken sin. We can judge whether a person’s actions are consistent with God’s word, but we can never presume to know what God is doing in someone’s life. We must handle God’s words carefully as if handling a rose which is very beautiful but potentially hurtful if misapplied – “Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.” (Proverbs 26:9)
Job 5:19-26 — He will deliver you from six troubles… you shall come to your grave in ripe old age….
Eliphaz promises safety, prosperity, longevity, and peace, but he frames these blessings as conditional outcomes tied to Job’s acceptance of guilt and submission to correction. In doing so, he turns restoration into a transaction: if Job agrees that his suffering is deserved and adjusts his posture accordingly, then God will bless him again. Hope becomes leverage, and obedience becomes a means to an end.
This is where Eliphaz’s theology subtly but seriously distorts the character of God. Scripture is clear that sin has real consequences. God’s moral order is not imaginary, and disobedience does bring damage to ourselves, to others, and to our fellowship with God. The Bible never denies that reality. What Eliphaz gets wrong is not the existence of consequences, but the nature of relationship.
Eliphaz treats the relationship between God and man as fundamentally transactional: do the right things, receive the right outcomes. But God does not desire a relationship with a taskmaster dynamic, where obedience is offered primarily to secure comfort, safety, or prosperity. He does not call His people to relate to Him as a means to an easier life, but as a Father to be trusted, loved, and obeyed because of who He is.
The gospel clarifies this distinction with precision. Our relationship with God is not built on merit but on grace. Obedience flows from gratitude, not bargaining. Repentance is not a tool to manipulate outcomes, but a return to trust when fellowship is strained. We do not go to God merely to get forgiveness or relief; we go to Him because He is good, faithful, and worthy of trust, even when relief does not come.
This is why suffering becomes such a revealing test of faith. If obedience is primarily transactional, suffering feels like a breach of contract. But if obedience is relational, suffering becomes a place where trust either deepens or collapses. God invites His people to obey not in order to control outcomes, but because His character is trustworthy regardless of outcomes.
Eliphaz offers Job a future based on performance: if you submit correctly, God will restore you. The gospel offers something far deeper and more secure: a future anchored in God’s character and promises, not our accuracy, insight, or deservingness. Christ bears judgment not so that life becomes painless, but so that suffering no longer signals abandonment, condemnation, or loss of love.
God does not promise His children a trouble-free life; He promises His presence, His faithfulness, and ultimate restoration according to His wisdom. Trusting God through suffering is not pretending consequences don’t exist; it is believing that consequences, pain, and loss do not have the authority to define God’s love or nullify His purposes.
In this way, Job’s struggle exposes the difference between serving God for outcomes and serving God for God. Eliphaz cannot imagine faith that persists without visible reward. God, however, is forming in Job, and in us, a faith that rests in who He is, not in what He gives.
Job 5:27 — Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.
Eliphaz concludes with certainty. His greatest error is confidence. He believes he has searched, understood, and explained Job’s situation fully. This is precisely what God will later rebuke. Eliphaz speaks many truths about God, but he applies them without humility, curiosity, or love.
This warns every reader: it is possible to be theologically articulate and spiritually wrong. Wisdom begins not with answers, but with reverence. The New Testament reminds us that knowledge without love builds pride, not faith.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 4 February 2025: Examine how you respond to suffering, your own or others’. Do you rush to explanation, correction, or spiritual formulas, or do you allow space for mystery and trust in God’s unseen work? Today, choose restraint. Resist the urge to explain what God has not revealed. Practice compassion without conditions.
Pray: “Father, protect me from the arrogance of thinking I understand Your ways when I only see part of the story. Forgive me when I speak truths without love or apply Scripture without wisdom. Teach me to trust You in suffering, not as a puzzle to solve, but as a place to remain faithful. Help me to comfort others with patience, humility, and hope grounded in Christ. Thank You that Your purposes are deeper than my explanations and Your grace greater than my understanding. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
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