Eliphaz and Job, Round 1

Job 4-7

Okay, I’m not entirely sure how to tackle this whole next section of the story that is a few people just talking at each other.  Based on my few read-throughs, it’s basically a whole lot of words and not much substance.  But still, it needs to be addressed and we have plenty of Advent left, so I guess I should try to do a little something with all of this nonsense.

Here’s the current plan:  I’m thinking I’ll take each friend’s speech and Job’s reply to it as one package.  I was going to say “as one conversation,” but that felt like a stretch.  So I’m just going to package them together and see what jumps out at me about it.  That’s the plan.  I reserve the right to deviate from it.  #life

Job’s story started with two rounds of exchanges between God and Satan, and now there are essentially three rounds of exchanges between Job and his friends.  Chapters 4 and 5 are Eliphaz’s first speech, and chapters 6 and 7 are Job’s response. 

4:1-6 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:  “Would you mind if I said something to you?  Under the circumstances it’s hard to keep quiet.  You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.  Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in people about to collapse.  But now you’re the one in trouble—you’re hurting! You’ve been hit hard and you’re reeling from the blow.”

For some reason, I have it in my head that Job’s friends are not good people, and they do go off the rails a little later, but so far, I think they’re doing okay.  They sat with Job in silence for a llllloooooonnnnngggg time.  No one spoke until Job did.  That’s impressive.

And now Eliphaz starts out on a pretty good note.  He starts by treading lightly and offers us our first glimpse that perhaps Job has a heart in that law-abiding chest.  Eliphaz reminds Job that Job has helped plenty of people who were struggling.  Eliphaz even suggests that Job has a history of using his words to clarify things for others, which is funny because there is zero evidence of that from Job in the next 389,486,837,458 verses.  But Eliphaz says that Job used his words to clarify, encourage, put people on their feet, and instill fresh hope.  That is words at their best.

Here's the thing, though: now the shoe is on the other foot.  If there is one thing I have learned over the last couple of years, it’s that it is so much easier to be the helper than the helped.  Asking for real help is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  Having literally nothing to meet your need – financial, emotional, physical, whatever – is terrifying.  Looking down into your soul’s purse and finding it empty is a dark feeling.  And then working from that emptiness to ask another human being to help you fill it, not because you want to but because you have to, that is a vulnerable, scary thing to do. 

I’m not talking about getting on your knees before God and asking for provision in a nebulous way.  I’m talking about sitting in front of your friend and asking for groceries or money or insurance.  Even if they have offered a million times, sitting down and asking for it is hard.  Period.  Full stop.

In fact, if we pay attention, we’ll see that Job doesn’t actually do that.  In fits and spurts, he does come before God with pleas and demands, but he doesn’t ask a human for anything.  In fact, in Chapter 6, Job is pretty clear on this point:

6:22-23:  It’s not as though I asked you for anything—I didn’t ask you for one red cent—nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me.  So why all this dodging and shuffling?

Again I say, it is so much easier to be the helper than it is to be the helped.

There are a lot of other things we could talk about here.  In fact, reading this through most recently, the things that really stuck out to me was the general discrepancy about Job’s sin (or lack thereof).  Eliphaz clearly thinks Job has sinned, but Job clearly thinks he has not.  At least part of the time he does.  But then in 7:21, Job asks, “Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?”

So has he sinned or has he not sinned?  And is the repetitive assertion of perfection and righteousness not kind of a sin in and of itself?

Another thing that I’m kind of watching is what Job asks for and what Job complains about.  In keeping with our Advent overtones, what is Job expecting?  What is Job waiting for?  These are things we can BOLO for in the coming chapters.  We’ve still got plenty of time.