Why Were Job’s Friends Rebuked?

Don’t be like Job’s friends.

I’ve said that quite a few times when encouraging people not to be miserable counselors to suffering people. In the face of a hurting and destitute Job—who at times was even suicidal—all these friends did was spout theological truths and tell Job that if he would repent then things would get better for him.

Finally in Job 42:7 we hear what we have been longing for throughout the entire book; namely, the rebuke of Job’s friends. The LORD said to Eliphaz, “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.”

What did they say that was untrue?

The core of their theology was that God does not punish the righteous. Suffering comes because of discipline from the Almighty. “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.”

All suffering is a punishment for sin. All prosperity is a reward for righteousness. God is just and He does not punish the righteous. Therefore, Job must be sinning or else he would not be suffering. If he repents the Lord is gracious and He will heal and restore Job.

Before we dismiss their theology we should consider a key verse in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 28 the Lord outlines what will happen if the Israelites faithfully obey the Lord. “All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God”. Prosperity is the reward for righteousness.

“But if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” Suffering is the punishment for sin.

Job’s friends passed their Old Testament class in seminary. Sort of. They got the multiple choice questions correct but they blew it on the essay where they were to apply their theology.  The problem is that they take something that is true and offer it as the only explanation for Job’s suffering. This is where I get an axiom that I teach my students: good theology that is wrongly applied, stinks.

Proverbs 22:6

It is a general principle that if you “train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it”. Except sometimes they do. And the parents did everything they could to train up their child. They were good and godly parents just like Job was a righteous man. But for some reason their child departed from the faith.

Those that follow in the stead of Job’s friends will assume that a rebellious child must equal ungodly parents. It might. But it does not have to; assuming that it does will cause one to speak things that are untrue of God.

There are some things that are always true no matter the context; i.e. Jesus Christ is the only way to God. But there are some things that are generally true but shouldn’t be applied as if they are always true. The wise counselor won’t flatten truth the way Job’s friends do. Instead the wise counselor will hold the hand of suffering people as they, as Job, grope to find the One that is Truth and in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

When Sovereignty Evokes Terror

“But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?  What he desires, that he does.  For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.”  (Job 23:13-14)

What comes next? 

“Therefore, I am joyously content…”?

“Therefore, I will trust Him…”?

“Therefore, I can relax…”?

Nope.

“Therefore, I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him.  God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me…”

Job 23:13-14 is only good news if “God is for us”.  If you are convinced, like Job, that “the arrows of the Almighty” are in you, and if you have no knowledge that there is an “arbiter to lay his hand on us both”, then the immutability and power of God is something that evokes terror rather than peace.

This is why a good amount of our counseling of hurting people (including ourselves) is to buttress—or establish--a confidence in the goodness of God.  Furthermore, our hearts and minds must be readjusted to believe that our greatest good is conformity to Jesus and drinking from the fountain of God’s sustaining grace. 

Here comes a really weird transition statement…

I almost killed a guy once. 

It was not intentional.  Total accident.  I was playing church league slow-pitch softball and hit a rocket to third base.  The ball hit something, took a bad hop, and absolutely jacked the face of the third baseman.  (Actually one of my former students, that I had poured a good amount of time into).  He was hurt pretty bad but I left the ball park, feeling pretty bad but convinced that I had only broken his nose. 

A few hours later the news turned grim.  Apparently he had some sort of condition that made that part of his cranium softer than normal.  He now had swelling on his brain and it was looking pretty serious.  Needless to say, I was pretty shaken up. 

During this time someone assured me “God is in control”.  They pretty much told me Job 23:13-14.  My response was similar to Job’s…terror.  I knew that God was more dedicated to His glory than He was to my unblemished not-accidentally-killing-a-guy record.  I knew that He could very well allow my friend to die and I would be (in part) the reason, though accidentally. 

Again, the counsel that I needed was not “God is in control”.  The counsel that I needed was that “God is good”.  I needed to know that he would withhold no good thing from me.  I needed to be reminded that all things work together for good (fundamentally conformity to Christ). 

Thankfully the story is that I almost killed a guy once.  But I learned a valuable lesson during that time—that often it is the goodness and not the sovereignty of God that suffering people must be graciously reminded of. 

Al Mohler, Homosexuality, and Job’s Friends

There has been somewhat of a controversy within the SBC concerning statements made by Al Mohler at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting.  Actually it’s probably not as much of a controversy as some bloggers would have us to believe.  Truth is much that gets the blogosphere in an uproar is usually but a pebble in the ocean of real controversy.  Nonetheless, there has been a good amount of discussion regarding Mohler’s comments.

You can read the full transcript here.  Or watch the video below.  But most of the controversy stems from these words:

But we as Evangelicals have a very sad history in dealing with this issue. We have told not the truth, but we’ve told about half the truth. We’ve told the biblical truth and that’s important, but we haven’t applied it in the biblical way.

Not to put words in Dr. Mohler’s mouth but I think in part what he is saying is that we have been very similar to Job’s friends.  They are only beating on one side of the drum—you’ve sinned, you’ve sinned, you’ve sinned.  To this Job finally responds in Job 19:

“Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!  Why do you, like God, pursue me?  Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?”

Job’s point is that IF he has sinned as they claim why are they still chasing him down in judgment and not offering him mercy.  There is nothing in their words that is pointing them to a redeemer.  They are simply saying, Job ‘fess up and maybe things will get better for you. 

Job 19:25-27 should not have been on the lips of Job--or at least only as a response.  These words should have been on the lips of Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad.  They should have been proclaiming to Job redemption and not only his sin:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!

Unless the gospel goes deeply into our hearts we will be just like Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad.  We will look at a lost, dying, sinful, hurting, rebellious, and broken people and only shine the flashlight on their wretched condition.  Instead we should proclaim Jesus (I know that E, Z, and B didn’t have a full knowledge of Jesus) and allow the Spirit to turn on the floodlights to display the beauty, excellencies, and sufficiency of Jesus to conquer any sin no matter how heinous. 

This I believe is what Dr. Mohler is saying, “In our response to homosexuality we have only called it sin but we have not done as great of a job of pointing to Jesus.”  If that’s not describing you, then, great—thank the Lord that the Spirit has so worked in your heart that you apply the gospel rightly. 

But I believe Dr. Mohler is correct.  For far too long we have ministered to those guilty of practicing homosexuality and those with same sex attraction in an overly simplistic way that looks more like Job’s friends than it looks like Jesus Himself. 

As Mohler says, “The gospel is what we stand for and the gospel is the only remedy for sin.”  May we be gospel people and not Job’s friends.

Hold ON!

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face”.  Job 13:15

This verse has long been a hallmark of rich biblical faith.  It is, but it may not necessarily be in the way that you think.  Often Job’s faith, here, is compared to that of Habakkuk. 

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  God, the Lord, is my strength…”

Habakkuk is trusting that God knows best even if it hurts.  Habakkuk has come to learn that even though there is great suffering and loss he can trust a good God.  Habakkuk finds His joy in God and no longer in circumstances. 

Is Job’s faith in 13:15 like Habakkuk’s? 

I submit to you that it is actually more like Peter’s in John 6. 

Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

Peter’s confession comes on the heels of Jesus’ famous “eat my flesh and drink my blood” sermon.  That one did not go so well (at least on Jesus’ ACP report).  The beginning of John 6 is a rousing“we love Jesus” rally, with the hopes of crowning Him as the their King.  John 6 ends with these same people leaving…probably thanking YHWH that the cannibal Jesus didn’t accept the crown. 

As everyone is leaving Jesus turns to the disciples and asks, “are you going to join them?”  To this we have Peter’s response…there is nowhere else to go. 

Peter’s faith is more like Job’s in 13:15.  Job is not chipper or speaking of joy as Habakkuk does.  Job, just as I am assuming Peter and the disciples were, is still scratching his head.  He is still longing for answers. 

Job wants and audience with God even if it kills him.  Why?  Because he knows that God is the only one that “has the words of eternal life”.  He knows that God is the only one that can redeem him, and so even though it may kill him he ventures to have an audience with God. 

I have no idea what many of you are going through.  Some of you are perhaps at a spot of Habakkuk faith—where you are finding joy in drinking from the fountain of God’s riches, despite outward circumstances that still cause pain. 

Some of you may be closer to Job.  He’s just sitting in the fountain wishing he could enjoy a drink.  He knows that there is no other fountain to find life in, that is why he is sitting in this one.  But Job isn’t at a spot yet where he can taste and see that the Lord is good. 

Hold On!

Why Did This Tragedy Happen?

Tragedy strikes a small up and coming nation.  They are in the middle of a fierce drought.  They are ravaged by this famine.  People are starving to death.  Babies are starving to death.

The famine gets so bad that this nation is easy prey for a much more powerful nation.  At first it is a good relationship.  The more powerful nation takes this fledgling nation under her wing to protect her from the famine.  But eventually the policies change.  It’s not long before the bigger nation enslaves the smaller nation.

As if slavery were not enough, these people are abused by their owners.  They are no longer starving but now they are being made to work ruthlessly for cruel task masters.  These are cruel task masters that eventually attempt ethnic genocide.  They put together a cruel plan to kill every male child among this people.

For those knowledgeable of Scripture you probably guessed that this was the beginning of the history of Israel.  Hang with me as I ask a rather deep question.  Was this part of God’s plan?

Mull that over for a moment while we consider Job. 

A guy loses EVERYTHING…well, all accept his unhelpful friends and his very unhelpful wife.  The same wife that told him after this tragedy, “curse God and die”.  So, yeah Job lost EVERYTHING. Was this part of God’s plan?  Or was it an aberration; a plan “B”, of sorts?

Listen I do not understand how all of this fits together but I do want to let Scripture speak for itself.  Consider what God said to Jacob before he began his journey into Egypt:

“I am God, the God of your father.  Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.  I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” 

God is reassuring Jacob that going to Egypt is keeping with his promises.  Notice how God recapitulates his promise to Abraham.  We can see the themes that will run throughout all of redemptive history: “I will make you a great nation…I will be with you…I will also bring you up again”. 

The Israelites are in Egypt because the all-knowing God told them to be there.  This is not plan B.  God is reassuring Jacob that their presence in Egypt is absolutely NOT plan B.  This is plan A.  And certainly this includes their slavery. 

Or consider Job.  You know how he answered our question?  In Job 12:9-10 he says, “who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?  In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” 

This whole chapter is Job proclaiming the absolute sovereignty of God.  If something happens ultimately it happens because of God.  Job does not allow us to hide behind secondary causes.  You can say that he was a loon, a raving mad man.  Job said this much about himself.  But at the end of the story it is Job that God says has the proper theology.  It’s hard to get around that. 

When tragedy strikes we like to say, “the devil did this”.  I am not so certain that Scripture allows us that freedom. 

So what does all of this mean?  Ultimately you will have to wait for eternity to get that one.  But I hope to try to tie a couple of loose ends together and consider where Jesus is in the midst of all these question. 

For that you will have to read my response....

Not Being Eliphaz

I hope I am getting better at pastoral counseling.  When I first began doing ministry I figured that the key to effective counseling was knowing answers and giving those answers to hurting people.  I’m not so sure of that anymore. 

I take my cues from the book of Job.  Consider this little snippet from Eliphaz’s counsel to his hurting friend Job:

“8 As for me I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause…17 Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.  18 For he wounds, but he binds up;  he shatters, but his hands heal.  19 He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you.” 

That is good solid counsel is it not?  Calamity has come upon Job.  Depressing, “my life will never be the same”, type of calamity.  Is it not good advice to tell a hurting man to entrust Himself to the Lord’s care?  Eliphaz is reminding Job that this is a period of discipline but trust in the Lord and eventually he will heal you.  Eliphaz essentially tells Job to “turn that frown upside down” God will bless you again eventually. 

Every one of those verses can find other Old Testament Scripture to back it up.  Whether it be from the Torah, the Psalms, or the Prophets what Eliphaz is saying is biblical. 

Then why this:

“After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, 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, emphasis mine)

So what is the problem; is Eliphaz’s problem a theology problem? 

As I read Job I am becoming increasingly convinced that the problem with Eliphaz and his two friends is not that they have horrible theology.  These men aren’t the Dr. Phil and Oprah of the camel riding days.  They have pretty solid theology (especially given their historical place in God’s unfolding revelation).  Theology is not really their problem.  Their problem is that they are wrongly applying pretty solid theology.  And because of this they are not speaking accurately of the LORD. 

Notice in 5:17 that Eliphaz encourages Job not to despise the discipline of the LORD.  That is true.  But it does not apply to Job because this is not happening to Job because of the Lord’s discipline.  So everything that Eliphaz says—no matter how true theologically—is off the mark.  It is crappy counsel. 

Those of us that are pastors need to be extra sensitive in seeing ourselves in Eliphaz.  We spend a good amount of our time studying Scripture, rubbing shoulders with people, and learning the ways of the LORD.  We typically know the right answers.  But we are prone to being like Eliphaz where we try to make our theological answers fit every situation.  Sometimes we need to just listen and humbly say, "maybe I don’t have the answers to this one”.

On Being Eliphaz

In our guys Bible study we are going through the Book of Job. I hope the guys are having as much fun with it as I am. It is teaching me a ton about the way that I counsel people. Especially people that are hurting.

Yesterday we looked at Eliphaz's first speech. It's amazing when you look at his theology. As I told the guys, if we were grading his speech for theology he would probably get about an 85 or 90%. He believed that God is just. He believes that God is self-sufficient. He seems to understand that God is transcendent but He is also loving and sends blessings. He understands that God disciplines. He also seems to know that God saves and that God redeems (although that could be debatable).

His advice to Job is pretty simple. 1) Live what you teach 2) The innocent do not perish, the guilty do. Trouble does not simply spring up from the ground. It has to be planted. You reap what you sow. 3) Repent (make sacrifice) and God will remove His hand of discipline and you'll be blessed again.

Other than a possible hint of the prosperity gospel in the end, Eliphaz's advice seems to be pretty sound. Only problem is that God rebukes him in the end (42:7-9). Why? His theology was good, yet God says that what he spoke about God was "not right". It is this:
Right theology, wrong applied, sucks. (Sorry, if you are offended by the word "sucks". I can not think of a better word that is clear and concise. I mean no offense.)

As I think about Eliphaz I see myself. Spiritually arrogant at times. He has all the answers. He has read all the right books. He has even had a "word from God" (or so it seemed). Eliphaz knows what he is talking about. He knows truth. Can you hear the hubris in 5:27? "Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good". Oh, the arrogance of Eliphaz. He knows Job's problem. Job is going through a hard time. Trouble does not come upon the innocent. No man is innocent. Job is not innocent. Job's trouble is coming because of his guilt.

But that's not the case. Even though Eliphaz's theology is pretty accurate it is wrongly applied. Job is not guilty. Job has done nothing wrong. This is not coming upon Job because of his guilt. Therefore, Eliphaz may have the correct theology but he applies it to the wrong situation. Do I do this? Do I look upon people as if "I know your problem"? Do I automatically assume that someelse's experience is similar to my experience, "I know what you are going through"?

Right theology, wrongly applied, sucks.

Job for the Non-Calvinist

That's the book of Job, not a job that pays you. Quick question. I am certain that I have a few readers that are not necessarily persuaded by the the arguments for Calvinism. Here is my question, and it is legit. I am not trying to trap anyone, I am trying to learn. If someone were coming from a Semi-Pelagian or Arminian perspective how do you understand the book of Job?

The basic gist of my question is that Arminians and Semi-Pelagians have a wonderful answer for the problem of evil...the fall of man, our sinfulness, our choices, etc. The book of Job does not allow for such an answer. In fact those answers are rebuked by God. The Calvinist is able to sit back read the book of Job, and say "let God do what He will". So, for my Arminian/Semi-Pelagian readers, how do you address the book of Job as a whole?