ARE THE UPRIGHT EVER DESTROYED?

Job 4:1-21 / Keywords 4:7

Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?

 

Eliphaz

4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

    But who can keep from speaking?

3 Think how you have instructed many,

    how you have strengthened feeble hands.

4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;

    you have strengthened faltering knees.

5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;

    it strikes you, and you are dismayed.

6 Should not your piety be your confidence

    and your blameless ways your hope?

7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?

    Where were the upright ever destroyed?

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil

    and those who sow trouble reap it.

9 At the breath of God they perish;

    at the blast of his anger they are no more.

10 The lions may roar and growl,

    yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.

11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,

    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

12 “A word was secretly brought to me,

    my ears caught a whisper of it.

13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night,

    when deep sleep falls on people,

14 fear and trembling seized me

    and made all my bones shake.

15 A spirit glided past my face,

    and the hair on my body stood on end.

16 It stopped,

    but I could not tell what it was.

A form stood before my eyes,

    and I heard a hushed voice:

17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?

    Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?

18 If God places no trust in his servants,

    if he charges his angels with error,

19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,

    whose foundations are in the dust,

    who are crushed more readily than a moth!

20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;

    unnoticed, they perish forever.

21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,

    so that they die without wisdom?’

1. After Job expresses his misery, his friends, after being silent for seven days, begin to answer him. They say many good things, and at first they seem to want to help Job, but it ends up becoming an intense and accusatory debate.

2. Eliphaz goes first and reminds Job of how many people he has helped before with wise words when they were suffering. So, he says Job should not refuse counsel when he himself is suffering (3-6). Then, Eliphaz asserts God’s justice, saying that the innocent have never perished, but the evil are the ones who receive trouble from God (7-11). He tells Job that his righteousness should be his hope (6), but he is indirectly suggesting that Job must have done something wicked. He tries to back up his argument by saying he received a revelation in a dream (12-21). 3. In fact, our own righteousness cannot be our hope, and we are not innocent. Jesus is our only hope. By faith we are considered upright based on what Jesus has done, and we will not perish, though we may suffer in this life.

Prayer Father, thank you for Jesus, my righteousness. Help me not to rely on my own righteousness but trust your salvation even when I am suffering unjustly.

One Word Jesus’ righteousness is my hope