Assumptions on Affliction

Having gone through material affliction and physical affliction without losing his integrity, Job now must endure the heartless speculations of three friends as to the reasons for his suffering. These three come with sympathy for Job, and they weep with him, mourn with him, and sit with him in stunned silence for seven days. But soon they are virtually accusing him of bringing his troubles on himself.

It all begins when Job begins to curse, as recorded in chapter 3. Satan boasted that he could make Job curse God, and Job’s own wife advised him to do so. Job, however, is cursing not God but his circumstances. His misery is very great, and he is longing for release. That proves irksome to his three friends, and they begin to reason with him. Here is where the true lessons of the book of Job emerge, for these three men state inaccurate reasons for Job’s suffering.

Eliphaz starts things off by asking, “Who ever perished being innocent?” (4:7a). He is making the assumption that suffering always stems from sin, just as Jesus’ disciples did in John 9:1–2. Later, Eliphaz reminds Job that “happy is the man whom God corrects” (5:17). He is right, but his underlying assumption—that Job’s suffering is God’s chastening for some sin in his life—is faulty. His basic premise is that Job is suffering greatly because he has sinned greatly.

Job understands what Eliphaz is getting at. He knows his “friends” are suggesting that his piety is a facade that hides serious wickedness. So he pleads for God to vindicate him. He cries, “Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales!” (6:2). He wants God, the only one who truly knows his heart, to declare that this affliction is not the result of his sin.

But Job’s friends even find a way to hurl his appeal to divine justice back in his face. Bildad says, “If you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you” (8:6). He is saying that if Job were truly innocent, God would vindicate him now. In Bildad’s eyes, Job’s continuing affliction proves his guilt. But Bildad has failed to see that, while God promises to vindicate His people, He never promises to do it right away. It may not even happen in this world. And He may let his people suffer affliction for a time, for reasons that are known only to Him. Bildad, therefore, is making another faulty assumption.