Job's innocence! This is Eliphaz key question to Job. Both Bildad and Zophar will echo this thought but in slightly different ways. The accusation against Job is so obvious. "Job, you are obviously suffering a great deal and since we know that the righteous don't suffer like this, you've obviously done something horribly sinful to bring this upon yourself." Eliphaz argues that the innocent don't perish and the upright aren't cut off. So therefore Job, from their perspective, has obviously been "cut off" and is perishing, OUCH. That means that Job is not an innocent man; in Job's friend mind Job must have done something ridiculously wicked to bring this terrible mess upon himself.
We have to remember that Job had not done anything wicked or wrong to bring these storms upon himself. In fact, it was just the opposite, it was because Job was a righteous man that he was suffering these things. Satan's challenge to God was that Job would curse God if God allowed Satan to take away his possessions and plague his body with afflictions. Job never did this. Job's friends, of course, don't know all that has gone on in heaven regarding Job's situation and for that matter, neither does Job. Hence they assume that they know what has happened when they really don't. They assume this based upon the false thoughts that the wicked always suffer.'
This was also a normal assumption in the days of Christ. The disciples once asked Jesus something very similar. John 9:2 "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" Verse 3 states, "Jesus answered, Neither have this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Jesus certainly didn't teach that only the wicked suffer but rather, that man's suffering was an opportunity to glorify God.
The fact of the matter is that the innocent often suffer for the sins of others. How many countless children in the world go hungry and dying because some ruthless dictator is too selfish to share his wealth? And sometimes the innocent suffer for no reason at all. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters claim the lives of innocent victims. These natural events are simply part of the world in which we live; there is no necessarily inherently punishment associated with these events. Certainly if God wanted to use such events as punishment for one or another He could, but the fact of the matter is that suffering isn't innately linked with punishment, but that's what Eliphaz suggests here, namely, that if someone is suffering, they are being punished. Read Job Chapter 6-7 and you will see Job's response!
We Judge, so many people today for so many different reasons. Most of the time we don't know the whole story and yet we pass judgments all the time. We know the hidden story, what's going on behind the scenes, how great would it be to know the reasons why, we and other go through what we go through? Job didn't know nor did his friends they just passed judgments based on the outward issues, and they were wrong. This is a lesson and a warning to us. As Scripture say's in Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Chuck Goulart
President
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"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."
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