Eliphaz the Temanite answered

 

 

 

 

 

Job 4:1-11

 

December 26, 2024

 

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?  Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.  Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.  But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.  Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?  “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?  As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.  By the breath of God, they perish, and by the blast of his anger, they are consumed. The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.  The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

In chapter 3:26-27, we have these words from Job; “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.  I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”  

 

Job and his 3 friends have been sitting in ashes for 7 days and Job speaks, but one must be reminded that God brought up Job’s name to the devil and said these words; “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

 

It is also good to recall that every time his children had a feast, Job worried that they may have sinned again. His fears were not why this happened; Job was blameless before God, and God was not surprised about what Satan was up to or where he had been, in that God is all-knowing.

 

I believe Job’s friends began well but they were not very good at encouraging, and that brings my thoughts to myself, am I a good friend, have I removed the log in my eye to help my friends get the speck out of their eyes?

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice