Sermon Tone Analysis

Poor communication has caused endless misery throughout history.

Towards the end of the 1700’s and into the 1800’s, Michigan and Ohio disputed what came to be called the Toledo Strip, with both claiming its area for their own.

Apparently “poor geographical understanding” was at least part of the cause for the dispute.

Eventually the matter was settled in what was called the “Frostbitten Convention.”

Michigan received a portion of the Upper Peninsula and Ohio received the Toledo Strip.

At the time, many believed Ohio got the better end of the deal, but since then, with copper and iron being found in the UP, and of course with the abundance of timber, MI faired pretty well.

And frankly, some things are doomed from the beginning.

When Eliphaz began to

Now, that is what I learned from Wikipedia.

Some of you natives can correct me on the details afterwards.

It is interesting that one lady who lived in the Toledo Strip, after hearing the decision for her area to become officially part of Ohio, is reported to have said, “I never did like the Michigan weather anyway.”

Believe it or not, as we look to hear from Eliphaz and Job in today, part of the reason that the conversation goes so poorly seems to be poor communication and word choice from Eliphaz and poor interpretation from Job.

In other words, Eliphaz says some things that were probably well-intentioned but nonetheless came across very poorly to Job.

At other times a basic belief that Eliphaz held to was directly against something Job believed.

It is our task this morning to understand Eliphaz and then Job as we continue our way through this book.

To give a summary of these two chapters, Eliphaz tries to lead Job gently back to being in God’s good graces, but Job believes he is innocent despite being hurt by his friends and God.

From this summary and really from these four chapters I draw the theme for this morning.

Though at times you might face days that are deeply troubling, hold fast to the words of God!

Now, usually I like to read the text before we start digging into the Word, but this morning I plan to read each section as we go.

So let’s turn to and I will read verses 1-11 to begin.

The two divisions of the passage are rather general but at least starting points for us: (1) Eliphaz Speaks and (2) Job Replies.

How do we summarize Eliphaz in ?

He is kindly trying to lead Job to accept God’s discipline for whatever iniquity he had done so that he can once again have God’s blessing.

Again, how he goes about this is probably as a kind friend trying to help Job, but his unfortunate choice of terminology and basic disagreement with Job on the character of God and responsibilities of man set the scene for an explosive conversation.

So here’s a brief outline of what he says in chapters 4-5: (a) The Delicate “Truth”, (b), The Delicate “Truth” Revealed, (c), The Delicate “Truth” Witnessed, (d), The Delicate “Truth” Affirmed, (e), The Closing Appeal.

Eliphaz Speaks —

There are all kinds of observations that I could make about this masterful text of Scripture, but I am going to try to walk us through Eliphaz’s speech before making some more observations and drawing conclusions at the end.

To get an overall map of what Eliphaz is about to say, let me read just a few select verses from .

4:2-3, 7; 5:1, 8, 17, 27.

The Delicate “Truth” — 4:1-11

There are all kinds of observations that I could make about this masterful text of Scripture, but I am going to try to walk us through Eliphaz’s speech before making some more observations and drawing conclusions at the end.

To get an overall map of what Eliphaz is about to say, let me read just a few select verses from .

4:2-3, 7; 5:1, 8, 17, 27.

In 4:1-11, it seems that Eliphaz was trying to be delicate because look at how he starts indirectly in verse 2.

He uses questions instead of making only direct statements.

And, he appeals to what Job has done in the past.

From our perspective, it seems his approach makes sense.

He is being careful.

Yet, his terminology is rather unfortunate.

Compare what he says in verses 6-7 with God’s description of Job in 1:8.

Yet Eliphaz throws this out with what he says in 4:7-9.

As he illustrates in verses 10-11, even lions eventually answer for what they do, so that their strength is broken one day.

So to summarize, what is the delicate truth that Eliphaz gives to his friend?

“Don’t be confident in your innocence.

You are reaping trouble.

Somewhere in your life you sowed trouble as well.

You are guilty somehow of something.”

The Delicate “Truth” Revealed — 4:12-21

Then we get to a section of Eliphaz’s speech that is a bit eery and disconcerting.

He appeals to “a word” that came as a vision of the night.

The primary message communicated through this vision is in verses 17-21.

Even God’s angels are guilty of error at times, so he says, so humanity, which has come from the dust, is certainly below God and guilty of error at times.

So that Job would have errors that he has committed really is a normal human problem that he should accept.

Humanity is weak, so that someone can be crushed as easily as a moth and die without others caring.

The Delicate “Truth” Witnessed — 5:1-7

By “holy ones” Eliphaz is probably referring to the angels.

But he warns him here—has he seen the end of a fool, one who persists in his iniquity.

The end is not pretty.

Such people are crushed at the city gate—the location of the city where justice is maintained.

And in the end, as a general principle, man is born to trouble.

Facing trouble is part of being a person.

Again, don’t see this as Eliphaz attempting to make Job feel as low as possible.

He is trying to build a case here of showing Job that iniquity and vulnerability are part of life.

It is in the next section that we see what he starts to call Job to do.

The Delicate “Truth” Affirmed — 5:8-16

Now Eliphaz appeals to the character of God.

And based on what he is about to say of God, he urges Job in verse 8 to seek God and commit his cause to him.

However, in his reference to God’s character and actions, there is no room for righteous suffering.

Instead, we see that he sees God as one who is unsearchable and yet in many ways predictable.

Those who act rightly he treats well and those who act poorly he justly and appropriately responds to.

So verse 16 is a fitting conclusion—but also see that Eliphaz is not calling Job to repent specifically.

He merely calls him to seek God and commit his cause to him.

This is still a soft approach.

But we cannot miss Eliphaz’s wrong view of God here.

Serving God is not merely a matter of doing right and being rewarded in this life and doing wrong and facing correction.

Job will have some basic disagreement with what his friend says here.

The Closing Appeal —5:17-27

And so Eliphaz ends his first speech by urging his friend to accept God’s discipline and reproof.

Though God wounds, he also heals and brings peace.

Job can expect peace, many descendants, and a long life.

As he concludes his speech, he is confident that what he has said is true and for Job’s good (v.

27).

In terms of the wisdom of his day, Eliphaz has given a masterful speech.

He has delivered the best of mankind’s wisdom to his friend.

Who could argue with his case?

He knows the typical way of humanity—no one is truly innocent.

He knows the place of humanity—we are but dust, easily killed and forgotten.

He knows the weakness of humanity—we are born to trouble.

And he knows the justice of God (so he thinks).

God rewards those who seek him and punishes those who go against him.

So the wise man will accept God’s discipline and thereafter enjoy God’s blessing once again.

Review of Eliphaz

There is something rather appealing about this advice from Eliphaz.

It isn’t too confrontational, for one.

He carefully implies that Job is a sinner like everyone else.

He accepts that they might not be able to find what Job did to anger God (5:9), so he advises that Job simply accept God’s discipline and get on with life.

Let’s sweep that bad experience under the rug and go on with life, for surely God has a better ending to your life in place, Job.

Just leave this up to him and move on.

It’s improve, I promise!

What do you think Job will say?

What would you say?

Job Replies —

You’re my friends?