JOB AND HIS FRIENDS

A PAPER
PRESENTED to
DR.WAYNE POPLIN
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for OBST 592

By
Maurice Allan Smith Sr.
22943721
March 3, 2013

Introduction The book of Job is written as a dramatic poem, that deals with several age old questions, among them are the question of why the righteous suffer. The book of Job takes its name from the main character in the poem, the patriarch Job. Because Job deals with a number of universal questions, it is classified as one of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament. Other books of this type are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.1
The book of Job is a very complex book in that is seems to contradict the wisdom theology found in other books like Psalms, Proverbs, and James, in that scripture seems to show that righteousness is rewarded with blessings, while a life of foolishness can result in death. Then comes the confusing book of Job that contradicts God’s previous messages of wisdom theology and shows the righteous being punished while those who do evil prosper. In this paper I will seek to show, through Job and his friends, that there are expectations to the rules established in wisdom theology and that through job and his friends we find the process to these exceptions, and that is God’s Sovereign Freedom.
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In this paper I will attempt to specifically identify, and address and evaluate each of Job’s friends and their communication with Job and his replies with the effort to see the progression to their conversation that seems to start with compassion and speedily deteriorates to callousness that is ultimately rebuked by God Himself. Through these 1. WWW.ovrlnd.com/outlinesofbooks/job.html/Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary investigations this paper will attempt to reveal the purpose of the book of Job and how his friends have a contribution to the overall message of Job.
JOB
In the book of Job we are introduced to a man that lived in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. He was a man that was blameless, upright, feared God and shunned evil, (Job 1. Life was a good one for Job, he had a large family, seven sons and three daughters, (Job 1:2) His large possessions of livestock and servants, meant he was a rich man. (Job 1:3). Scripture tells us he was the greatest of all the people in the East, (Job 1:3). It also says that the God that had blessed him so much, blessed him so much that his possessions increased, (Job 1:10).2
The book of Job is to be taken literally in comparison to others, such as Luther, that attributes this work to one of an imagination, “ingenious, learned and pious person”.3 It is also important to bring to light once again that Job was a man that was “perfect and upright, and a man that feared Good, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). In wisdom theology the message is that God will provide, protect us, and bless us. In Job we see from his possessions and wealth that he was a measuring stick for God’s greatness and blessings. Job’s blessings was not only to emphasize by God to not only demonstrate the righteousness of life that God has blessed him with, but it was to demonstrate the patience of what God can bless us with. Finally, we see that Job came from the land of Uz, which was a land of profanes, a land of wickedness, which gives
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2. Gulan, Gary: Lessons on Severe Illness from the Book of Job; 1983
3. Joseph S. Exell, the Biblical Illustrator, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI), 1. us a comparison of the life of Job and his environment and yet gives another reason this righteous man was chosen by Satan to cast doubt upon his motives concerning God.
The Problem of Suffering:
As a result of the conversation between God and the Devil that in God giving permission to the Devil to start an attack on the material possessions of Job. His family and his health. Job was thrown into an apparent conflict with the rules of life. They are defined and defended in wisdom theology, which equates to righteous living that is rewarded by blessings and a life of foolishness that is preceded by God’s judgment.
While on the contrary, Job enjoyed tremendous blessings by God in the form of a happy and healthy family (Job 2:2). Then one day, his whole world crumbled. First he lost his possessions, (Job 1:14, 16, 17), then his servants, (Job 1:15), then his children, (Job 1:18), then his health, (Job 2:4-8), and then his wife (Job 2:9). Through all of this death and destruction Job experienced he maintained that God is good and his ultimate response in the midst of all this devastation was to fall down on his knees and worship the one who his given everything to him, and also worship the one who has taken it all away. He did not sin or charged God foolishly. (Job 1:22).
Through it all Job maintains his faith, his trust, and his confidence in God. The conversation continues with God and the Devil with God giving further permission for the Devil to attack Job. This time the Devil strikes Job with “boils from the sole of hos foot unto his crown” (Job 2:7), which brings about the quietness from his wife to “curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). Job through all the pain and suffering he experienced by this righteous man of God, Job never let it bend or break him, and have his faith wane and still not “sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).
So it appears that Job had to work through his circumstances and problems with just his wife as the sole force of challenge, he would have remained in a state of acceptance and trust believing in the theology that the “Lord gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). But we find out Job was not left alone to worship or even limited to his non-helpful wife, but Job had a lengthy visit from his three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, all of which offers a progressive argument that transitions from compassion to callousness. It is through these arguments presented by the friends of Job that we become exposed to the concept that in the light of wisdom theology that there are exceptions to the rules.
There are those who agree with the following statement “with friends like that, who needs enemies” may be justified and applied to Job’s friends’ Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, we must look and see their motivation and understand their theology if we are to analyze their arguments with integrity. Job’s friends had heard (Job 2:11) of the troubles Job had suffered and were not called by Job. This is key in a time before modern technological advances relating to communications we see that there is unity that is displayed by all three of his friends who are making plans to come to the rescue of their friend Job. These three friends were not motivated by gossip or a desire, they were not noisy friends to see the evil that had “come upon him” (Job 2:11) the friends of Job had four qualities in which I will list below. A. Loyalty: They came to Job’s side without request when they heard the news. B. Support: They came to mourn with Job, (2:11). C. Empathy: They saw Job and lifted their voices and wept, (Job 2:12). D. Honesty: From 4:1-27:23, each friend represented his thoughts, motives, and shared ideas and solutions.
Once Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had finished weeping they acknowledged God, and they went to the side of their friend Job and remained there for seven days and seven nights in total silence. One can come to the conclusion that silence of the friends of Job allowed them the opportunity for Job to share his heart as they were ready willing and able to listen. The seven days of continued silence from the friends of Job can only be interpreted as an act of compassion as they are making themselves available, sacrificing their own time, their own schedule, and restraining their own opinions and judgments for the seven days and seven nights which opens the door for Job to pour out his heart and share to attentive and open ears for they “saw that his grief was very great.” (Job 2:13).
Part One/Courteous
After the seven days and seven nights without a spoken word from Job, Job’s wife or his three friends, the silence was broken when Job opened his mouth and said “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a man child conceived.” (Job 3:3). The turmoil experienced by Job after the seven days and seven nights, involved soul searching surrounded by three of his friends and rejected by his wife. No wonder it comes as no shock or surprise that Job would just as soon never have been born than to endure the things he experienced. With the silence broken and the door to conversation opened Eliphaz lays the foundation for his doctrinal beliefs while leveling his judgments against Job. The first round of communication is very civil and not entirely presumptuous and attacking, there is still a fundamental element of theology that assumes Job has sinned and deserves the wrath of God (Job 4:8-1- ).

Once Eliphaz speaks Job opens his mouth, but does not attack the position held by Eliphaz or offers much of a defense of his position, but what he does is articulate his grief and anguish as indicated in such statements as “For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.” (Job 6:4).
Once Job responded to Eliphaz, I will talk about this later. Bildad comes into the conversation which continues with the theme laid out by Eliphaz in that Bildad reminds Job that God is just and that if Job were “pure and upright, surely now he (God) would awake thee (Job) and make the habitation of thy righteousness, prosperous” (Job 8:6). And, while not as direct as the Devil who forecasted that Job would curse God (Job 2:5) or Job’s wife who wanted Job to curse God and die (Job 2:9), Bildad gives twelve versus (Job 8:11-22) that tells Job to forget God and die. After Bildad gives his advice, Job responds in a two-fold declaration addressing the power of God (Job 9: 1-12 and the superiority of God (Job 9:32-35). Then Job does the same thing he did with Eliphaz, by revealing his weariness through his struggle and identifies his current path, just like the psalmist, as “a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.” (Job 10:22).
Then after Job completes his speaking, Zophar, the last of Job’s friends speaks. Eliphaz and Bildad, for the most part, speaks of general doctrine and theology, Zophar talks about this issue in very specific terms, boldly and personally wanting to hear from God Himself in regard to the current conditions faced by Job (Job 11:5). Zophar not only wanted to hear from God but wants God to show Job “the secrets of wisdom” (Job 11:6), that Job sins be revealed and that Job himself would repent to receive forgiveness (Job 11:13-20). After Zophar finishes, Job, unlike his response to Eliphaz and Bildad, address the issues presented by Zophar. Job talks about the attitude of superiority in wisdom held by his three friends by stating “ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. But I have an understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you, who knoweth not such things as these?” (Job 12:3). Job continues stating his beliefs that God is all powerful and full of strength, and is the only one with superior wisdom. Then Job, is becoming more transparent and growing more weary, then reveals that he actually agrees with the wisdom theology presented by his three friends as he asks God to make known his “transgression and sin” (Job 13:23) this is very much like the author of Ecclesiastes, that he is not by himself in his struggles and that bad things do happen to good people as he cries out that “Man that is born of a woman is a few days full of trouble.” (Job 14:1).
Part One/Summary
It is very evident that all three friends of Job had much of the same message in the first round of their speeches; they were also very diverse in their presentation. Eliphaz was very compassionate, Bildad and Zophar, while not very aggressive at the beginning, but they were very blunt and forthcoming initially in their address. According to our textbook, Eliphaz came over as a “gentle, confident mystic, Bildad as a firm traditionalist, Zophar as a rash dogmatist.”4
Part Two: Cold
Eliphaz is the one that launches that launches round two of the conversation with Job: but at the same time the conversation that is civil and courteous turns to cold and callous. Eliphaz has certainly changed his tone he does not offer any new advice, does not offer wisdom nor offers evidence to further the cause, what he is doing is just simply repeating the same argument only changing his lack of compassion. The second discourse offered by Job’s friend Eliphaz can be summed up when he says to Job, speaking of Job, “He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.” (Job 15:30). This speaks of the lack of compassion that Eliphaz has and shows the contrast between his motive of love and comfort (Job2:11). The direct attack by his friend Eliphaz has really beaten Job down, then Job responds with a view of grief and recognition that his friends have made in Job’s eyes from a friend to foe as he laments “Are there not mockers with me? And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?” (Job 17:2).
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Eliphaz and Job completes their conversation, then Bildad continues the
4. William Sanford LaSor, David Allan Hubbard, Frederic Wm. Bush, Old Testament Survey (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI 1996), 476. conversation with an attack against Job and his apparent lack of an acknowledgement of his sin and a failure to be silent (Job 18:2). All of Bildads’s speech is to fight for the right to speak against the sins of Job that God would bring judgment. Bildad speaks to the issue concerning Job when he says to Job “How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mark, and afterwards we will speak,” (Job 18:2). So as Job’s friends went from a conversation from civil and courteous, while Job went from a conversation that was general to one that was defensive. Job speaks to Bildad’s lack of compassion and judgment and then reveals his frustration with his friends by saying “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?” (Job 19:2). Then after Job is discouraged with his friends, Job continues to maintain his faith and draw a contrast between his cold and callous friends to God by saying, in the midst of turmoil and trouble “I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter’ day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25-26).
Summary Part Two
The second round of speeches we see the transition from, more or less, a compassionate based on communication to a one of coldness. It seems the friends of Job have become more dogmatic in their conversations with Job to confess and repent as they have become very impatient with their perception of a man that refuses to admit he is in sin. So in this second round of speeches Job’s friends their focus “their rhetoric on the terrible fate that befalls is the wicked person, for they wish to convince Job that he will undergo greater hardship if he does not repent.”5
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Part Three / Cruel
Part Three / Cruel
As we look at the last section of attacks even Eliphaz becomes very personal and very blunt in his assertion that Job is a sinner in the hands of an angry God, which is embodied in the following statement “Is not thy wickedness great? And thine iniquities infinite?” (Job 22:5). But in spite of Eliphaz’s accusations, he concludes his message with a message of hope, even though it is tainted with sarcasm, in a way that he gives the assurance to Job that God “shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.” (Job 22:30). By Eliphaz opening the door for Job in that God will deliver the innocent, Job argues his cause and request an audience with God to present his case of the innocence that Eliphaz’s hope might be fulfilled (Job 23:3-5)
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Once Job completes his conversation with Eliphaz, Bildad begins his conversation, even though it was brief speech on how holy God is and how God has resources and provisions that will take care of the wickedness that is addressed by Job. Job then responds to this by agreeing that God is marvelous, that God is great, so great in fact that nobody, including he and his friends could “understand Him” (Job 28:14). By God’s ways being beyond understanding, Job is seeking to gain wisdom to understand why bad things happen to good people like himself, he is seeking to recognize God as the 5. John E. Hartley, the Book of Job (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1988), 242. ------------------------------------------------- source of wisdom and understanding and to acknowledge it is the “fear of the Lord that is wisdom” (Job 28:28).
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Summary Part Three (Speeches
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Part three of the speeches has many parallels compared to the first two speeches. The one that stands out the most to me is the one found in Eliphaz and Bildad’s speeches and the fact that Zophar is silent and does not contribute to the last attack of Job. It may be contended that Zophar was silent because he gave up his position and sided with Job, but it is more likely that he was quiet because, following the lead of Eliphaz, he did not have any evidence against Job. Even Bildads’s argument seemed to be just a repetition that was shortened from his previous speeches. One might say that the “whole prosecution broke down when Eliphaz in his last speech left the safety of generalities and came down to specifications and proofs of Job’s guilt.”6
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Rebuke of Job
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After the speeches of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had spoken to Job and then Job responded, God goes through a long, four chapters (38-41), in a conversation with his servant Job whose main message is in the form of a question “Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.” (Job38:4), which left Job silent. Even though Job is not directly accused of any specific sin, He is rebuked, for the lack of
6. B.H. Carroll, An interpretation of the English Bible, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1986), 72.
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understanding, for his desire to bring his case before God so that God would recant his wrath and confess He made a mistake. The final result in this, is that Job is found submitting to God and repents of his proposed action to take his case to God (Job 42:3), or as said but Matthew Henry “The words of Job justifying himself were ended.”7 After spending a long time with Job, God then puts his attention on Job’s three friends with the charge to take “seven rams, and go to his servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering” (Job 42:8). After Job prayed for his friends (42:10), the Lord restored Job and blessed him “twice as much as he had had before.” (Job 42:10).
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Conclusion:
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The impact of Job’s friends on the message of the Book of Job: There are many reasons worthy of note in regards to the conversation between Job and his friends that seem to form the message of Job into what we have.
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Wisdom Theology:
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It is very evident that through the conversations by Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, and the responses of Job, the message that comes across is one of reward from God when you live a life of righteousness and the wrath of God to the wicked. Even though the tone of conversation changes as the conversations transition from civil to cruelty, the essence and core of the message remains unchanged. Job does not seek to argue the theology presented by his friends, but he trying to understand why their theology, and one he held to apparently is lacking. For
7. Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, (Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Peabody, MA, 2000), 185.
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me , The belief and the primary purpose of the book of Job are to teach the concepts of repentance and reconciliation. Through the interactions with the friends he laments to God, we see that Job to be a man that felt “that before God he was all right. In fact, he wanted to come into the presence of God to defend himself. When Job did that, he found that he needed to repent!” 8
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Peer Pressure
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Through all Job had experienced Job remains unchanged in his trust In God the Father and his search for the truth? Job does digress as the attacks upon him are leveled and increased in magnitude.

Compassion
Compassion can definitely in the message of the friends of Job. At the beginning they were motivated and moved with compassion and during the seven days of silence, their crying and outward expressions of grief showed they had a great love and appreciation for Job. In the conversations we find in Job’s friends a great deal of respect and compassion for Job in that every friend speaks less than his previous friend and all of the friends speak less than Job, which allows Job to talk much longer while they demonstrated self-restraint. This being said, let’s note that this compassion
8. J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1982), 581.

disintegrates as every speech is communicated to Job. Job’s three friends simply were concerned about getting their point across and nit interested in “hearing” their friend Job.
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Rules of Wisdom Theology (Exceptions)
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One of the truths that came about in the conversations between Job and His friends is that while his friends were correct that wisdom theology is generally correct as applied to practical living, but there are exceptions to the rule. The conversations between Job and his friends reveal that while his friends were correct in the debate of wisdom theology, what they were lacking in providing the evidence to support that theology in this particular case, thereby revealing Job was in fact an exception.
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God’s Sovereign Freedom:
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Time and time again, Job, in response to his friend’s accusations and attacks, highlight’s God’s freedom is not to be confined, limited and bound by the understanding of man’s interpretations of wisdom theology. Through this account of history, one who reads the book of Job is left with answers to the age old questions why bad good things happen to bad people and why bad things happen to good people. In the conversations between Job and his friends the wonderful truth is that God has the freedom and right to do whatever He chooses and is not to be second guessed nor put in a theological box and explained away by the limited understanding, knowledge and wisdom held by man. This sovereign Freedom of God, contrasted to the wisdom of theology presented by Job’s friends, is a very important key to the message of the book of Job and could not have been revealed and explained had not his friends made the journey to be at his side to engage in the discussion with Job. And while it is the central purpose of the book of Job been identified above, we must also understand this is a prophetic book in that it presents “wisdom of the deepest kind.”9
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9. Alice C. Linsley, Righteous Job and His Kin, (Just Genesis, 2010), http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2010/09/righteous-job-and-his-kin.html
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Work Cited 1. -------------------------------------------------
B.H. Carroll, An interpretation of the English Bible, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1986), 72. 2. -------------------------------------------------
Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI), 1 3. -------------------------------------------------
Gulan, Gary: Lessons on Severe Illness from the Book of Job; 1983 4. -------------------------------------------------
John E. Hartley, the Book of Job (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1988), 242. 5. -------------------------------------------------
Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, (Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Peabody, MA, 2000), 185. 6. -------------------------------------------------
William Sanford LaSor, David Allan Hubbard, Frederic Wm. Bush, Old Testament Survey (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI 1996), 476 7. -------------------------------------------------
Alice C. Linsley, Righteous Job and His Kin, (Just Genesis, 2010), http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2010/09/righteous-job-and-his-kin.html 8. -------------------------------------------------

J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1982), 581. 9. WWW.ovrlnd.com/outlinesofbooks/job.html/Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary
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