Job 4 — When Wisdom Wounds
The seven days of holy silence break. Eliphaz the Temanite—hailing from a region famed for sages (Jeremiah 49:7)—opens with courtesy, then assumes a moral calculus: “As I have seen, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it” (Job 4:8, New International Version). He recounts a midnight encounter: “A word was stealthily brought to me” (4:12, New International Version). The Hebrew yigganev (“was stolen”) suggests a whisper smuggled into his soul—mysterious, impressive, and used to underwrite his point: “Can a mortal be more righteous than God?” (4:17, New International Version).
Eliphaz is not a heretic; he is half-right. God is pure; humans are dust—“houses of clay” that crumble like mudbrick walls after a storm, an image vivid in the ancient Near East. But half-truths can harm. Wisdom’s sow-and-reap is a pattern, not an iron law (compare Proverbs 22:8 with Ecclesiastes 7:15). Gregory the Great warned that Eliphaz speaks “cold orthodoxy,” and Calvin noted his “misapplication” of a true doctrine. The fearful vision carries weight, yet private experience must be tested, not weaponized (1 Thessalonians 5:20–21).
The wider canon corrects Eliphaz: Jesus rejects the reflex that suffering equals secret sin (John 9:1–3; Luke 13:1–5). Job anticipates the Righteous Sufferer, whose innocence deepens the mystery rather than solves it.
Today: Resist the urge to explain your friend’s pain. Let lament stand (yesterday’s lesson), and wait for God’s voice. Hold truths gently; timing and tenderness belong to wisdom.
Suggested cross-references: Psalm 103:13–14; Galatians 6:7 (read as tendency, not law); James 5:11; Obadiah 8.
Hymn: “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right” (Neander).
Prayer: Holy God, keep me from proud certainties. Teach me to carry truth with mercy, to listen longer than I speak, and to trust You when the calculus fails. Amen.