Troublesome Topic: SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS USED IN JOB

Here is a summary of the arguments made by each participant, starting after the suffering of Job is described. You will notice many similarities (apart from the issue of innocence or guilt). Don’t get discouraged by the fact that they keep repeating themselves. Watch for the parts where the nature of God is brought out.

Job’s friends sat with him in silence for seven days and seven nights before anyone spoke, and it was Job who broke the silence.

Job: (3:1-26)

I wish I had never been born, that would have been easier. Why does God allow this to happen?

Eliphaz:  (4:1- 5:27)

If you were blameless you would not be suffering. God must be punishing you, so seek God because he will restore you and bless you.

Job:  (6:1- 7:21)

If only I could die, then I would know that I died without denying God’s words. My friends are no help because they are undependable. So, friends, get specific, if you are so confident I am in the wrong, show me where I’ve been wrong. God, if I have sinned then show me how I have sinned.

Bildad:  (8:1-22)

Your children died because they had sinned. If you return to God, he will restore you. Consider what history teaches, and those who have gone before us, that if you abandon God you will be punished. God is on the side of the righteous, but not on the side of the evil.

Job:  (9:1-10:22)

Before God I am nothing. All I can do is plead for his mercy. When bad things happen to good people, who allows it? If not God? If only there were someone to arbitrate between me and God (a hint toward Jesus). God, do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. You are so powerful that you can do whatever you want to do. If I had sinned, you would punish me. If I am innocent, I am still full of shame.

Zophar:  (11:1-20)

I wish God would speak and show you your sin. You may think you are not guilty; God may see it differently. If you devote your heart to him, and stay free from sin, things will go better for you.

Job: (12:1-14:22)

God is the only one who knows all things. How well would it go for you if God examined your life carefully? Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him. I am confident he will vindicate me. But if I am found guilty, I will take my punishment.

Eliphaz: (15:1-35)

You must be guilty. Is it even possible for a man to be righteous? We have always been taught that the wicked will suffer, therefore you must be wicked.

Job (16:1-17:16)

If the roles were reversed, I could assume the same things about you. But I wouldn’t, I would try to be encouraging. God, you are being hard on me, more than I thought I could bear. But I know I am innocent. I also know that I have an advocate who is pleading my case before you (once again a hint at Jesus and the Holy Spirit). I have confidence in You, and I know that the righteous will be rewarded.

Bildad:  (18:1-21)

Why do you talk to us that way? We also know something. It is obvious that if someone suffers it must be because he is wicked.

Job: (19:1-29)

My guilt or innocence is my business alone, why do you keep making the same accusations that you cannot prove. God has chosen to turn against me. But I know there is a resurrection, and after what is left of me is destroyed, I will see my Redeemer with my own eyes. My heart yearns to see Him. You, my friends, should be fearful because if suffering and punishment are always directly connected to wrongdoing, you will not escape.

Zophar:  (20:1-29)

I am offended by your rebuke. From of old our understanding has been that the wicked will prosper and be happy for a short time, then they will perish. They will be destroyed so quickly that those around them will be amazed. Therefore, I assume you must have done something very wicked.

Job:  (21:1-34)

There are times that the wicked prosper yet punishment does not sweep them away. Some say God stores up punishment for a man’s sons. That would be unfair. One man has ease, another man has hardship. Why is this? You have not yet answered that question satisfactorily. Yet you have not learned from those who come from afar; their stories would tell you of wicked men with power that do what they want and are not punished in this life.

Eliphaz:  (22:1-30)

Does God rebuke you because you are righteous? If God is rebuking you and punishing you, then you must be wicked. You must have mistreated the needy and been heartless. But if you stop being wicked, change your ways and submit to God, he will restore you.

Job: (23:1-24:25)

If I could only have a hearing before God, I am sure He would not press charges against me. I look for Him, but I cannot find Him, to make my plea before Him and be proven innocent. Yet I know that when I am tested, I will be proved innocent. Does God judge the wicked immediately?  No, He lets them carry out their evil plans and live wicked lives. God may let the wicked feel secure for a time, but then their punishment will come, no matter how powerful they have become.

Bildad:  (25:1-6)

How can a man be righteous before God? It is impossible.

Elihu:  (32:1-37:24)

Job says he is innocent, yet God is inflicting him with incurable wounds. It is a contradiction. God does not do evil; He does not pervert justice. There is a direct connection between what a man does and how God treats him. God will repay a man according to what he deserves, so Job must deserve this. And God sees what everyone does, so He is able to judge justly. Job has tried to force God to accept him as righteous; this is a type of rebellion. Job says he is innocent but yet he does not understand why God is doing this to him. Just listen to me, for I have perfect knowledge. Doing right brings prosperity and contentment, doing wrong brings suffering and death. But if someone cries out to God, He will listen. Job, you should consider how great God is, fear Him, and not speak such blasphemy, for God does not oppress people unjustly.

Having just given a summary of what Elihu said in his long speech, I must look more closely at one passage in order to honestly deal with the text. That passage is Job 33:16-18 and 23-28. Verse 27 of Job 33 is especially thorny; if you want to look into it more fully, click on this link to my translation and paraphase of it – Job 33:27

In this abbreviated study of Job, I am making the case that Job did understand the nature of God and salvation while the others did not.

In Job 33:16-18 and 23-28 it sounds like Elihu is saying the right things pertaining to God’s graciousness. However, at the end of the book, God told the other three friends to ask Job to pray for them, but He totally ignored Elihu. God did not pat him on the back and tell him he got it right. Why was Elihu’s correct presentation of God’s grace (at least in this short section) discounted?

One way to look at this is that Elihu understood God and the working of God with men a little better than the other three friends, but he was arrogant, proud and self-centered. That is why, at the end of the book, God ignored Elihu. His actions belayed his true belief system – he saw it as a scale in which our good must outweigh our bad, and he was confident he was a pretty good person. He came up with his own system for weighing uprightness, one which likely emphasized outward actions and ignored the condition of the heart. Many people today still believe that God uses a scale and if our good outweighs our bad, we are okay; they are unequivocally wrong! That is not the way God works! God looks at the heart. He always has.

This reminds me of Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees. In thought, they were so close to getting it all right, but in heart they were furthest away of them all. Jesus came down harder on them than He did the Sadducees because they (the Pharisees) had most of the doctrinal foundation that was needed; it was their hearts that needed altering (the Sadducees needed both a heart change and a mental change).

At the end of Job (42:7-9), God told Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar to go to Job, offer sacrifices and ask Job to pray for them; Elihu is conspicuously absent from that invitation. God would have invited him too if He saw in him the germ of repentance. Like the Pharisees, he was closest in thought, but oh, so far away in heart. The other three were simply misinformed, Elihu was poisoned and rotten.

The rest of what Elihu said in his long speech sounded like the other friends – “God treats people by how they act.” He seems to have contradicted himself when he talked about God being gracious. This tells us that he struggled to find the balance between God’s grace and our actions; he put too much emphasis on our actions while acknowledging that God is gracious (something the other friends did not recognize at all.)

In reality, we all struggle with this balance. How much does God do for us and how much is on us to do, not to earn our salvation, because that is impossible, but to fulfill our responsibilities in this matter. Those would be things like repentance, confession, trust, faith, obedience, taking the proper actions to love others and live a holy life. In everything there is a balance between God working in our lives and us doing what Paul said in Philippians 2 :12, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. Oswald Chambers was fond of saying, “we must work out what God works in.”

Most of us know that entire theological systems have been built around certain positions regarding this debate. I encourage you to do your own searching in God’s word; don’t take the position of your denomination as proven fact. I am convinced that any position on one end of this spectrum or the other is most likely wrong. It is a nuanced thing, not a cut and dried thing. The better we understand the qualities of God, the better equipped we are to make our own determination on what a proper balance looks like on this topic. And then be ready to continually alter your position in small ways as you continue to learn more about who God is and how He works.

We may never find the perfect balance on this issue, but learning God’s heart will get us closer than anything else can. In the end, it is not an intellectual pursuit, it is a spiritual journey.

THE LORD to Job:   (38:1 – 40:2)

Okay Job, I will take you up on your request; I will evaluate your claim of innocence.

Are you something great? How much do you really know?  How much can you do?

Job’s reply:  (40:3-5)

I am unworthy, how can I reply? I spoke once, but I will not say any more—I will not try to defend myself before You.

THE LORD to Job again: 40:6- 41:34)

Do you wish to accuse me of wrongdoing? Do you have the power or authority to make any accusations at all? If you can execute justice, and bring down on the wicked their just punishment, then I will admit that your own arm can save you. If you could do what I do, you would not need me. How much strength do you have? Are you powerful enough to capture the Behemoth or the Leviathan?

Job’s reply:  (42:1-3)

Surely, I spoke of things I did not understand. I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

THE LORD to Eliphaz and his two friends:  (42:7-9)

I am angry with you. You have not spoken of me what is right—your view of me is twisted. Repent, offer sacrifices, and ask Job to pray for you—I will accept his prayer.

(They did what God told them to do, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer for them.)

Conclusion:  (42:10-17)

Job was restored to health and wealth, and a full family again.

The next lesson is: Job’s Friends Did Not Understand the Nature of God