Job 4 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study
Job 4 Short Summary:
In Job 4, Eliphaz, one of Job’s 3 friends, responds to Job’s suffering. He suggests that Job’s suffering is due to some kind of hidden sin in Job’s life. He suggested that Job was reaping what he had sown, even though he wasn’t aware of any specific sin Job had committed.
Job 4 Bible Study
SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB
Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan
Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution
Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.
Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost
WHEN:
The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).
I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.
KEY CHARACTERS:
Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.
Eliphaz – One of Job’s 3 friends. Eliphaz was the first to speak and suggest a reason for Job’s suffering.
WHERE:
Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.
OUTLINE:
ELIPHAZ, THE FIRST FRIEND TO SPEAK (4:1-11):
After 7 days of sitting with Job and hearing Job curse the day of his birth (Job 3), Eliphaz the Temanite was the first to speak.
Eliphaz appears to have already made up his mind about why Job was suffering.
At least to modern readers, he comes off as shockingly confrontational in chapter 4.
Eliphaz began by pointing out a seeming contradiction in Job’s behavior. Job had comforted many people in the past, but Eliphaz suggested he was now unable to apply his wisdom to himself. He comforted others but could not comfort himself.
Eliphaz suggested that Job was inconsolable because he had committed some kind of trespass against the Lord.
He said, “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (4:8).
Eliphaz thought God was humbling Job for some hidden wickedness.
ELIPHAZ’S NIGHT VISION (4:12-21):
Eliphaz claimed he had seen a vision.
In this vision, a ghostly figure stood before him and spoke to him, saying, “Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in His servants He puts no trust, and his angels He charges with error” (4:17-18).
All men sin, even the angels in Heaven sin. No one is perfectly blameless before God.
Perhaps Eliphaz recounted this vision to encourage Job to confess his sin. All men sin and there is no shame in confessing it.
Eliphaz must have felt confession was Job’s pathway to healing. The only problem was, Job hadn’t sinned, so he had nothing to confess, and no sin to account for his troubles.
APPLICATION
I believe common sense is generally a good guide in life, but we need to be careful about applying human common sense to spiritual life and spiritual questions.
Eliphaz’s suggestion, that Job was suffering because of an unconfessed sin, probably seemed sensible to him.
It is generally true that people reap what they sow (Job 4: 8; Gal 6:7).
But human common sense is limited by our limited knowledge of God and the spiritual realm, therefore we need to be very careful before drawing conclusion that seem reasonable to us but that we have little insight into.
Eliphaz gives this eloquent monologue, that extends into chapter 5, about God’s justice and Job’s wrongness. He may have thought himself to be very wise, but he was totally wrong. He was totally wrong because he was totally blind to the spiritual realm.
This chapter teaches us that we need to proceed with great humility when we seek to answer questions that God has not provided us answers to.
The speed at which Job’s friend makes this critical error should coach us all to be slow to speak.
Our eyes can only see the physical.
Imagine reading a book, but you are only allowed to read the pages on the left side. Think of how much you’d be missing, how much you’d have to assume, and how many things you could potentially get wrong.
Seeing only the physical, and being blind to the spiritual, lets draw conclusions with the utmost caution and humility.
