03/11/2022 – Day 012 – Job 3 – 4 – Eliphaz was afflicted with “prosperity gospel”. The Holy Spirit infused Truth sets us free!
I hearken to an old expression, with friends like Eliphaz, Bilddad and Zophar, who needs enemies. Eliphaz speaks up in chapter four, we will meet the other ‘friends’ later. In 4:7, Eliphaz presents two questions in reply to Job’s cry of anguish: “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? Job is the oldest dated book in the Bible, so Eliphaz gets at least a partial pass as the Jews haven’t even received the law yet. But, as we know,no one is innocent, all have sinned against God. Back to verse 6: Eliphaz admonishes Job: “Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?” So in other words, our degree of “goodness” directly correlates with the circumstances in our life?? Well, the Psalms are chalk full of laments to the effect: “Why do the evil people prosper while we suffer?” It just doesn’t hold up. You just don’t need to wait for old age wisdom on that one.
It occurs to me that Joel Osteen and prosperity gospel preachers are self-imprisoned in their own cage , just as Eliphaz. It is a battle for all of us, even if we don’t go to the extreme of centering a false doctrine around it. I have told the story of St. Teresa de Avila many a time. St Teresa was an early Spanish 16th century Carmelite nun who experienced lifelong extreme physical suffering. She was afflicted a young teenager , just after entering the convent. Amidst her prolific writings, she recalled praying: “Lord , if this is how you treat your friends, is it a wonder why you have so few of them ?!?” She actually survived to a ripe old age, a miracle, although, she continued to suffer physically. So, the very same lady nearing the end of her life wrote: “I am convinced, that from the standpoint of heaven, the most miserable suffering ever lived is from a heaven’s perspective, akin to a single night in a bad hotel.” I would submit that this realization can only come from the Holy Spirit directly! (A miracle transformation between the two points in time, a breath that we call a lifetime.)
I would recommend the 1997 italian movie : “Life is Beautiful”, with Robert Benigni. It takes place in a Jewish concentration camp and it won the academy award for “best picture”. And for a personal written account of survival in a concentration camp, I recommend; “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl. I read through this book twice, once as a young teenager and the second time, about 40 years later.But more importantly, I have been through the Book of job multiple times.
And, Dennis Prager is one of my all time favorite messengers. Dennis is a lifelong Orthodox Jew. (future Christian!) Dennis has logged alot of miles on speaking venues, oftentimes in hostile environments like college campuses where the assault on free speech is perhaps most aggregious. Well, I remember Dennis Prager was asked what most distinguished a Jew from a Christian, to which he replied: “A Christian thinks that suffering is glorious, in that it gives glory to God. A Jew thinks suffering sucks!” I thought: Did he just say that? Pretty sad in one respect: that a faithful Orthodox Jew (future Christian) is one of our most prolific and faithful Christian Apologists in our day.
Let’s watch for the theme of Job as an imperfect forerunner to Christ, or through the gospel , a developed theme of “sharing in the sufferings of Christ” as a pathway opportunity to give glory to God.
Soli Deo Gloria indeed!
Your brother in Christ,
Jimmy