This is the first in a series on the book of Job by guest writer Lucas Ward. Look for this series on the Monday nearest the middle of the month for the next several months.
We must always be careful when making assumptions about God’s intentions. We can find several examples of times when prophets and apostles both said "who knows, maybe this is what God is doing." If inspired men are unwilling to say definitively what God is doing, then who am I to quickly assert, "God has opened this door for me and is leading me down this path."?
I think a great example of this is found in the book of Job. One of the amazing things I have discovered about Job is that his friends' sayings are so often right. Over and over their arguments parallel the best of the wisdom books. At least twice Job agrees that their statements are correct in themselves but that they don't apply to him. For instance, compare Eliphaz's statement in Job 4:7-9 with Prov. 13:21-22. "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off? According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger are they consumed." and "Evil pursueth sinners; but the righteous shall be recompensed with good. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous." They seem very similar, no? Or Eliphaz's description of the fool in Job 5:2-6 and Solomon's in Prov. 13:18-19. Also very similar. Most telling, perhaps, is Eliphaz's statement in Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." That idea is paralleled in Ps. 94:12 and Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3 is then quoted in Hebrews 12 and the writer expounds upon the idea considerably. So, the general wisdom statements of Job's friends were good, sound wisdom as understood by Job and backed by God's inspired writers.
So, then, how were the friends wrong? Why were they condemned? The easy answer is that they wrongly condemned Job, that they accused him of sin without evidence and assumed his guilt and attacked him for it. That, however, is not why God said He was angry with them. "The LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." Job 42:7. It is not what they said about Job that was so annoying to God, it was what they said about God that got them into trouble. Yet almost everything they said of God was good, accepted wisdom backed up by other inspired wisdom writers!
So where did the friends, and Eliphaz particularly, go wrong? This is a question I intend to pursue as I go on in my study of Job, but here is my first impression of how they went wrong: in trying to fit God into a box. In assuming that, because they knew some good general wisdom about God's tendencies, they understood exactly what He was doing at all times. In basically assuming that, if God were righteous, He MUST do what THEY thought He ought to do. If God did otherwise, then He was wrong. This, I believe, is how they spoke wrongly about God.
Don't you see how this fits in with the original discussion? We know quite a bit of good, general wisdom about how God acts. We know that "all things work together for the good of them that love God." We know that we "can do all things through Christ who strengthens" us. We know that God is protecting us, watching over us, and taking care of us. But when we say, specifically, that God is doing such and such based on these general statements, we are confining God to a box. We are saying that He must be doing this, because this is what we understand as right, and, therefore, if He is doing something else, then He is wrong.
Maybe, in a certain situation, He is blessing us or maybe He is testing us to see if we will come to rely on our wealth instead of Him. We see a door open and assume it is from God, but maybe it is Satan tempting us to go astray. Maybe these horrible things that are happening to us, which we assume are from Satan, were actually sent by God to make us stronger. In the end, I know that I'll be better because of what happens in this life (Rom. 8:28) but I need to be careful about assuming I know the mind of God in every instance. That assumption is not one the prophets or apostles were willing to make (“who knows…?”) and it is one that got Eliphaz and his friends in trouble.
Lucas Ward
We must always be careful when making assumptions about God’s intentions. We can find several examples of times when prophets and apostles both said "who knows, maybe this is what God is doing." If inspired men are unwilling to say definitively what God is doing, then who am I to quickly assert, "God has opened this door for me and is leading me down this path."?
I think a great example of this is found in the book of Job. One of the amazing things I have discovered about Job is that his friends' sayings are so often right. Over and over their arguments parallel the best of the wisdom books. At least twice Job agrees that their statements are correct in themselves but that they don't apply to him. For instance, compare Eliphaz's statement in Job 4:7-9 with Prov. 13:21-22. "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off? According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger are they consumed." and "Evil pursueth sinners; but the righteous shall be recompensed with good. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous." They seem very similar, no? Or Eliphaz's description of the fool in Job 5:2-6 and Solomon's in Prov. 13:18-19. Also very similar. Most telling, perhaps, is Eliphaz's statement in Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." That idea is paralleled in Ps. 94:12 and Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3 is then quoted in Hebrews 12 and the writer expounds upon the idea considerably. So, the general wisdom statements of Job's friends were good, sound wisdom as understood by Job and backed by God's inspired writers.
So, then, how were the friends wrong? Why were they condemned? The easy answer is that they wrongly condemned Job, that they accused him of sin without evidence and assumed his guilt and attacked him for it. That, however, is not why God said He was angry with them. "The LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." Job 42:7. It is not what they said about Job that was so annoying to God, it was what they said about God that got them into trouble. Yet almost everything they said of God was good, accepted wisdom backed up by other inspired wisdom writers!
So where did the friends, and Eliphaz particularly, go wrong? This is a question I intend to pursue as I go on in my study of Job, but here is my first impression of how they went wrong: in trying to fit God into a box. In assuming that, because they knew some good general wisdom about God's tendencies, they understood exactly what He was doing at all times. In basically assuming that, if God were righteous, He MUST do what THEY thought He ought to do. If God did otherwise, then He was wrong. This, I believe, is how they spoke wrongly about God.
Don't you see how this fits in with the original discussion? We know quite a bit of good, general wisdom about how God acts. We know that "all things work together for the good of them that love God." We know that we "can do all things through Christ who strengthens" us. We know that God is protecting us, watching over us, and taking care of us. But when we say, specifically, that God is doing such and such based on these general statements, we are confining God to a box. We are saying that He must be doing this, because this is what we understand as right, and, therefore, if He is doing something else, then He is wrong.
Maybe, in a certain situation, He is blessing us or maybe He is testing us to see if we will come to rely on our wealth instead of Him. We see a door open and assume it is from God, but maybe it is Satan tempting us to go astray. Maybe these horrible things that are happening to us, which we assume are from Satan, were actually sent by God to make us stronger. In the end, I know that I'll be better because of what happens in this life (Rom. 8:28) but I need to be careful about assuming I know the mind of God in every instance. That assumption is not one the prophets or apostles were willing to make (“who knows…?”) and it is one that got Eliphaz and his friends in trouble.
Lucas Ward
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