September 24, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Rewards and Punishments

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Opening Prayer

Almighty God, today I look to You to guide my thinking, unravel my difficulties and empower my decisions.

Read Job 4:1-21

[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?’

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

Reflect before God on how life has treated you. Has it been fair?

Some readers will remember the song in the musical, “The Sound of Music,” where Maria responds to the Count’s love by suggesting, “Somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good.” She believed her goodness had merited a reward. Eliphaz would agree with her. He takes the traditional line that because God is in control and is just and fair, he therefore always rewards the righteous and punishes the sinner. So if Job is suffering it is because he must have sinned.

This law of retribution is theologically correct at one level. The prophets, for example, urged Israel to escape God’s judgment through repentance. But Eliphaz’s theory does not hold good for Job because, as we know from chapters 1 and 2, he has not sinned. He is an innocent sufferer. Eliphaz’s fundamental question, “Who, being innocent, has ever perished” (7), rings out down the centuries and finds its fullest answer in the cross (1 Pet. 3:18). Jesus himself discouraged retributive thinking in his disciples (Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3; though compare John 5:14). Yet many today still ask, “What have I done to deserve this?”

Eliphaz’s theology does not fit the real world, nor is it pastorally helpful! He begins well, with words of encouragement (1-4), but verse 5 shows him to be surprisingly unfeeling–and once he gets a bee in his bonnet, things go from bad to worse. How careful we need to be in sharing apparent words of knowledge with other people (12-17), especially with those who are in deep trouble. Apart from the possibility that, as in Eliphaz’s case, we might be wrong, is this best pastoral practice? Indeed, how much should our words feature in such an encounter? One problem common to all three of Job’s friends is that they are not good listeners. Most of us are better at promulgating our theories than really listening.

Apply

Train yourself to be a better listener. Practice reflecting back to a friend what they have said to you.

Closing prayer

Lord, let Your love flow through me during the interactions of today. I ask for a tender heart, a listening ear and words of wisdom.

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