Job Sees The Light - Sixth in a series

Hover over the Scripture references to read the verses under discussion

Job 5:1 Eliphaz continues. Certainly, the “saint” whom Eliphaz met in his sleep would not be a helpful “holy one.”

The search for an intermediary is an important theme of the book of Job. Job will long to find one, and he will prophesy about Jesus. The era before Christ was a time of leaning forward to understand. But then as now, the godly person must not entertain or listen to false Christs and demons.

Job 5:2-7 Eliphaz suggests Job may be envious and resentful like those who are foolish and silly. That type of person endangers his children through his attitudes. Yet, Job’s children are not in a predicament— they are dead, and not through any fault of Job. Has Eliphaz fathomed this? He seems to consign Job’s dilemma to ‘the way life is.’

Job 5:8 He advises petitioning the Lord. First he told Job to hope in his own goodness; next he surmised that Job had not really been very good; now he encourages him to appeal to God. What is the basis of the appeal? That Job has done much good? Yet has he not done much bad, as evidenced by his disastrous straits?

Though Job does not perceive anything in himself worthy of the extreme condemnation he has suffered, he will do as Eliphaz recommends. He will lay his case before the Lord and appeal to him on the basis of his own goodness. And up to the end, he will believe he can justify himself before the Lord. This is man’s great blindness— believing an impossible thing to the death.

Job 5:9-16 But nothing is impossible with God who can confound the wicked and preserve the weak.

Job 5:17-18 Eliphaz gets to the point! All the terrible things that have crushed Job were to punish him for wrongs he committed. Now, if he will accept God’s discipline, he will be blessed again.

Job 5:19-21 The Christian’s heart longs to believe that deliverance and protection will always be given to him. In the long run they are, but at times the sifting of saints is permitted. Is the sifting by means of false accusations worse than that from the loss of possessions? Perhaps so. James wrote: The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. When Satan rails against us through the mouth of a friend, no amount of answering or reasoning will satisfy his appetite for devouring us. Our responses only further confuse the ‘discussion.’ Only if we are right with God may we resist and rebuke the devil so that he is forced to exit.

Job 5:22-27 Eliphaz has proposed many ideas, but in this crowning advice he is true to his name, God is dispenser. God is a divine being, he suggests, who gives prizes in return for certain behaviors.

Satan wants us to believe that salvation is a mechanical prospect, but it is not. It is a matter of the heart.