Job 4

4:1-6 Introduction to Eliphaz’ first speech to Job

4:7-11 Eliphaz: We reap what we sow

4:12-16 Eliphaz’ dream vision

4:17-21 The content of the vision

What is wrong with what Eliphaz says?

The statements of Job 4:7-8 seem to be the basis of the argument of Eliphaz against Job. The idea that we reap what we sow is a fundamental Biblical truth uttered often in Scripture (Hos. 8:7; 10:12; Prov. 11:18; 22:8; Gal. 6:7-9). Matt. 26:52 makes the same point as a general principle Why is Eliphaz stating the same truths as Jesus and inspired writers and yet something seems wrong with his comment? How does these other statements about reaping what we sow differ from his statement in 4:8?

How does Psalm 37 fit into this argument? The heading of Psalm 37 mentions it as a psalm of David. Psalm 37:25 says, “I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” He appeals to his experiences as Eliphaz did. David makes the same kind of observation that Eliphaz does in Job 4:8. Psalm 37:25 asserts the same type of thing that Eliphaz and Job’s other friends argue. Job’s friends believe that his intense suffering must be because he has done something terribly wrong to deserve it. The reader knows on the basis of the prologue of Job that this is not true, and that Job is not suffering because of his sin (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). How did they misinterpret Scripture and Job’s experience?

Passages like Psalm 37 were not given for the purpose of stating that the life of the righteous is always easy and the life of the wicked will always be hard. The intent was to

stress that righteousness is the path of blessing and wickedness is the road to disaster. The world of Psalm 37 was a world (like ours) where the wicked often prospered (vss. 1, 7-8, 35) and the righteous were often their main targets of hatred (vss. 12, 14, 32). One sometimes had to choose between being righteous and having little and being wicked and having much (vs. 16). The righteous were sometimes “hurled headlong” (vs. 24) and faced troubles (vs. 39). As already mentioned in the paragraph the righteous experienced the hatred and opposition of the wicked. Yet In spite of appearances of the moment, the Psalm stresses that the wicked would be cut off (vs. 9, 22, 28, 34, 38) and the righteous would inherit the land (vs.9, 11, 22, 29, 34). The prosperity of the wicked though it may be real at the moment was going to be short lived (vs. 1-2, 10, 20, 35-38). The purpose of the writer is to show that the ultimate path to blessing is righteousness, and that wickedness and evil is going to fail regardless of how attractive it will look in the short term. Psalm 37 was not given for the purpose of helping us to distinguish the righteous from the wicked. Psalm 37:25 is not a statement that everyone who finds themselves in financial need is giving clear evidence of their sin. That is not the purpose of Psalm 37. Job’s friends use the same kind of statement as Psalm 37:25 but for the purpose of saying that Job has sinned.