WHAT NOT TO SAY TO A SUFFERING BELIEVER PART TWO

Job 5:1-27

A Publication offered a prize for the best definition of a friend. Amoung the thousands of answers received here are some of them.

A friend is….”One who multiplies joys and divides grief.” 

A friend is….”One who understands our silence.” 

A friend is….”a volume of sympathy bound in cloth.” 

A friend is….”like a watch which beats true for a time and never runs down.”

There were thousand more like these ones, great definitions, of what a true friend is. But the one that won the prize in this Publication’s contest was this one.

“A friend is the one who comes in when

the whole world has gone out.”

This is true with Job’s friends; because they came in when the world left Job to his suffering. Friends can play an important role in your life. It can be either good or bad. Our friends can be a great blessing and they also can be a great hindrance. Our friends can at times be used by God or Satan to builds us up, or tear us down. Solomon wrote “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer.” Prov 18:24. Unfortunately for Job, this close friend Eliphaz was going down the wrong the tracks that will end in a train wreck, if he isn’t careful. Did Job need to confronted by his friends with his harsh, dark lament in chapter three? Yes. But Eliphaz did it in such way that it could have a dangerous effect on the listener. Eliphaz only gave one side, or one part of truth. Sin is the root cause of suffering and it must be the judgment of God on one person’s life. (4:v7-v8). He pointed out everything that is wrong with mankind, even angels, and none of us are worthy and God is distant and is uninvolved with His created children. (4:v17-v20)

Instead of Eliphaz…. Consoling his dear friend Job, to continue in what Job taught others to do in their circumstances. He doesn’t do that! He goes right to “You must have sinned in order for all of this to happen.” (v1-v7) He doesn’t blatantly come out and say it, but he is certainly implying it here in his opening remarks towards Job. Since Eliphaz believes that Job sinned, he instructs Job to bring his case before God. Why? Because who can deliver you from this suffering, not even the angels “holy ones” were able to deliver Job from this (v1). What Eliphaz is implying is “You are in such a big mess no one can get you out this predicament, not even God’s holy ones.” And if that wasn’t enough to crush Job even further, Eliphaz continues to tear Job down some more. You ask yourself! How much worse can he get? He just got done telling Job, his dark mysteries encounter with a spirit that we cannot determine where it came from, or what help it was trying to convey, to broken man who is feeling utterly helpless and alone at the moment.

He continues by implying that is Job a fool! (v2-v4) Eliphaz is interpreting Job lament as a foolish man speaking who pays no attention to God at all. Eliphaz is sort of saying the same thing that Job said to his wife; but only difference is, Job, isn’t a fool at all, according to the scriptures. The Bible says that Job was “Blameless and upright” (1: v1). This doesn’t mean perfection or sinless, but that he was authentic and genuine towards God and others. The bible says that he took his children’s spiritual non-existent lives seriously daily. (1: v4-5). Job was the real deal, not a fake or a phony. This letter doesn’t want us to lose sight of this truth as Job goes through tremendous suffering. We read three times that he is characterized as a man who is “blameless and upright” in under two chapters. God, Himself said “there is none like him on the earth.” (2:v3) What God is saying is that “Job is a unique servant” and there is no one like him.

One would have to ask “Who is the fool in this conversation then?” Because it’s your counsel that is causing more confusion and damage than good; to a man who is trying to figure out why this happened. This calling Job a “fool” is a low blow statement! Because Eliphaz has said I’ve seen a lot of fools in my life and it seems to be I’m looking at one right now. (v3) Eliphaz is pointing out that when Job was prosperous and healthy he was blessed and had a flourishing life. He uses a word to describe this by using the word “root” this word used in the bible generally refers to strength, health, wealth and flourishing life. Psalm 1:3 says “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” Isaiah 27:6 says “In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.” It almost seems that Eliphaz was, a little jealous of Job’s abundant lifestyle.

He doesn’t stop their though, he also thought it was important to point out the calamity that fell upon his children. (v4). Reference to the tornado that crushed his children What Eliphaz is saying “Your house was cursed by your sin and this is the result of what happened?” (v5-v7) Why? Trouble doesn’t spin from the ground or out of thin air, man is born into trouble. One theologian said “Yet because man is born to trouble, we know that trouble must have a cause.” In this case Eliphaz is trying to draw Job out to confess that he has unconfessed sin in his life. Here we see Eliphaz displayed a flawed theology that if you only stop playing games with God, everything we turn out for the better. This is a very bad characterization of God and His character to man who needs comfort. We would call this call “unrealistic theology” If you submit yourself to God and seek His mercy, He will restore you and everything will be fine. What Eliphaz is implying is “Do this and follow these steps to a better life of protection and it He will keep you safe from trouble.”

But, what does the Bible have to say about that? 

Jesus said "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matt 6:34

Jesus said “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matt 10:21-22

Jesus said "…If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matt 16:24

Acts 14:21-22 we read “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

1 Thess 3:3 we read “that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.”

We know that if you live long enough that being a Christian does not make you immune from suffering. If you struggle with this you need to read the about the saints that have gone before you and me. Start with the disciples. Better yet! Start with the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself who went before us. Amongst his unrealistic theology, Eliphaz gives a wonderful picture of God’s …. Sovereignty, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His omniscience and the His transcendent holiness. (v8-v16) With these wonderful and rich attributes of God, Eliphaz tries to make a case against Job that it’s his sin that caused this tragedy. So Job “stop this madness” thinking you can hide this from a God who is sovereign over Creation. He will catch you Job, and uncover this wicked sin that you seem to be hiding from a God who will catch the crafty and schemes of men. (v12-13). Eliphaz thinks Job is in danger of trying to pull the wool over God’s eyes with his craftiness, trying to claim that he is wiser than God.

What Eliphaz saying in the closing argument is true there is blessing that flow from a God who gently corrects or rebukes His servants. (v17) He will heal our wounds and he will deliver us from trouble in the end. He will bring us to Himself in the end and we will not fear what this life can do to us. But! This is the problem that Eliphaz is making that those who are redeemed and in His grace go untouched by the world and Satan. Only those who are wicked, lost and unrepentant are to face trials and struggles and calamities. We have a clear ticket to a peaceable, fruit filled life secured in His sovereign arms. Again! We are secured in His sovereign arms, but this does not mean will not have trouble in this life. As Eliphaz said earlier we are born to trouble. (v7) Naturally depraved, separated from a holy God.

This is where the gospel reminds of His grace and love for fallen sinners.

A prime example of this is found in the life a man who was told to marry a woman who would sell herself and break the covenant of the marriage bed. Hosea 1:1 we read “when the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD." Gomer would betray Hosea and sell herself to be with her lovers “For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'” Hosea 2:5. The beauty of this story is that Hosea demonstrates unmerited grace and love to a sinner who does not deserve anything except condemnation. What does Hosea do to display this grace? He buys her back looking past her sinful depraved wickedness because of the love he had for her. Hosea 3:1-3 we read “And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver….. And I said to her, "You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." Hosea’s love towards an unworthy and worthless image-bearer of God was to be a picture of “the love of the Lord has toward the children of Israel.” This is also a picture of the love God has for us in the gospel. Because apart from God we all have committed spiritual adultery. Why do you say this? Man is born to trouble, since the fall we are naturally rebellious to the things of God, apart from His saving grave through the gospel.

What we need to understand! In God’s perfect timing God will heal the brokenness sometimes in life, but also understand more will follow. But ultimately He heals over brokenness in Heaven. The gospel is what gives us hope, meaning every day in the good and the bad. When a man is prosperous and happy this doesn’t mean they are any less a sinner than the man who is going through trials and tragedy. When we focus on Christ, though our trials are, real, painful and significant! They are nothing in comparison to the love He has for you and me. This is how Eliphaz should have counselled his friend Job. By explaining the attributes of God with the understanding that God will deliver us from this broken world. But also! This doesn’t mean we won’t see it happen around us; or affect us from one extreme to the next.

For example:

Lot and his family! God spared Lot and his two daughters from total destruction.

Noah and his family when God destroyed and poured his wrath upon the earth from the sin they loved with a worldwide flood.

Christ and you sin, my sin, when He faced the full extent of the wrath of God for our rebellion for our spiritual adultery.

What was wrong with Eliphaz counselling? Keeping in mind, we sometimes, make the same mistakes with our unrealistic theology. Christopher Ash answered this question this way “Eliphaz like his friends will give us the best that the wisdom of this world can offer, the cream of the wisdom that comes from morality and human religion. But without the cross it makes no final sense.” Understand this truth when it comes to suffering! 

For the unbeliever every suffering they go through is a foretaste of the final judgement and warnings of Hell. For which they are heading apart from repentance and faith in Christ alone. In Luke’s gospel we read this “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Luke 15:1-5

For the believer as we go through suffering we are reminded that this isn’t our home and this suffering is only temporary. Because all our sin has been borne on the Lord Jesus Christ, paid in full by His grace by becoming a curse for the suffering saint. And though we go through present and future sufferings we are eternally secure for Heaven, by a God who is glorified in our sufferings. Paul wrote “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Rom 8:16-17. Paul also wrote to encourage the hurting through suffering when he said “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:10-11

Charles Spurgeon said “God has not forgotten you, because He smites. His blows are no evidences of lack of love. You may fear that the Lord has passed you by--but it is not so! He who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting His own redeemed children! He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made--or the only saint He ever loved!

Remember this truth "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end!" John 13:1. Where Eliphaz failed in this opening statement is that he only focused on one side of truth and left out the grace. What we need to learn is that when we are counselling or consoling a friend empty of the cross, will only leave a person discouraged and without any form of hope. 

Why? Without the cross there is no hope at all! The Gospel eternally saves, the Gospel restores and the Gospel comforts the brokenhearted.