Job 5:8, 27 (ESV)
[8] “As for me, I would seek God,
and to God would I commit my cause,
Hear, and know it for your good.”
Job lost everything but his wife and his life. He lost his wealth. He lost his family. He lost his health. He is feeling rejected, abandoned, and even attacked by God. He would rather die than continue in this condition. His “friend” Eliphaz counsels Job, “If it were me, I would seek God and commit my cause to him.” I can just hear Job thinking, “YOU THINK I HAVEN’T SOUGHT GOD IN THIS!?” Eliphaz’s assumption is that if Job had really sought God, then he wouldn’t be in this condition. How often, based on our own experience, do we assume and accuse rather than seeking to understand. Eliphaz’s final words in this speech are, “It’s for your good.”
The evangelical church is filled with Bible studies, good preaching, and excellent resources. What it is too often lacking is discernment. Eliphaz had his theological and philosophical understanding of the world. 1. Good things happen to good people. 2. Bad things happen to bad people. 3. Nobody is good. 4. Job’s painful experience is evidence of these truths. Therefore, 5. If Job would only quit complaining and seek God everything would turn out okay. These are the boxes Eliphaz lives in. He can’t see outside his boxes. He can’t imagine another possibility like, God is testing Job, or Satan is attacking Job, or Job is seeking God but it’s not God’s time yet. These things take discernment. They are outside Eliphaz’s boxes of understanding.
Most of the policies churches write are based on past problems. Most of the answers churches offer are based on past questions. Most of the problems churches face are outside the box of their experience. When we, like Eliphaz, continue to offer answers to yesterday’s questions, without discerning today’s issues, we cause pain instead of bringing healing. Yes, it is true that nothing is new under the sun. In some ways the problems we face today are the same problems faced yesterday, and last year, and 5000 years ago. But when we rely on our rules devised out of our experience, without Holy Spirit provided discernment, we are no longer walking in living faith. We are walking in dead orthodoxy.
This is not a call to new theology. This is not a belief that truth changes. Truth is always truth. The scriptures never change. It is a call to reevaluate our own understanding. It is a call to look past our rules, policies, and procedures. It is a call to wisdom and discernment that flows out of a living dependence on the leading and direction of the Spirit of God. I have sat through too many Bible studies in which we were more interested in curious details of an isolated text then about hearing from God. Eliphaz knew his theology. No one can dispute the truth that there are no good people, that we are all inclined to evil, and that we ought to seek God. What we can dispute is whether that is what Job needed to hear. Easy answers rarely serve godly purposes. Maybe we need to learn to listen better to the Spirit instead of memorizing pat answers and rote solutions. May God grant us discernment.
[5] Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away
from the words of my mouth.
[6] Do not forsake her, and she will
keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
[7] The beginning of wisdom is this:
Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
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