Job 5:17

CONCLUSION OF ELIPHAZ' FIRST SPEECH

"Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:

Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.

For he taketh sore, and bindeth up;

He woundeth, and his hands make whole.

He will deliver thee in six troubles;

Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

In famine he will redeem thee from death;

And in war from the power of the sword.

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue;

Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

At destruction and dearth thou shalt laugh;

Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

For thou shalt be in league with the beasts of the field;

And the beasts of the field shall be in league with thee.

And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace;

And thou shalt visit thy fold, and shalt miss nothing.

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,

And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,

Like a shock of grain cometh in its season.

Lo this, we have searched it, so it is;

Hear it, and know thou it for thy good."

"Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). "It is true, of course, that God chastens those whom he loves; but it is not true that we can know every time one suffers that he is being chastened of the Lord."[19]

One of the most offensive elements of Eliphaz' ineffective and futile efforts to comfort Job was his conceited assumption that he knew all the answers. How often must all of us ministers of the gospel have fallen into the same error! "Eliphaz had not yet learned that reverent humility exhibited by the apostle Paul in his words, `We now see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.' How often must we find a place for this confession in our religious thinking"![20]

In the last few verses of this chapter, Eliphaz enumerates all of the blessings that may come to Job, if only he will confess his wickedness and ask God to help. Perhaps the most tasteless and tactless blunder of all is that which he stated in Job 5:25.

"Thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth" (Job 5:25). Imagine saying that to a man whose children have all been killed in a tragic accident! To say to a man in the clutches of a mortal illness that he shall attain to a ripe old age, and that his children shall multiply as the grass (when, as a matter of fact, his children were all dead) was an almost unforgivable insult. "Oh yes, it actually came to pass, but that did not altar the situation. Here, as elsewhere, Eliphaz was not speaking that `which was right' (Job 42:7). His overconfident and arrogant conclusion (Job 5:27) did not comfort Job, but only added to his irritation."[21] "What Job needed here was love and understanding, not theological doctrine and criticism."[22]