Job’s friend Eliphaz says a lot of true things. He is the first of the friends to speak, and he opens by saying essentially, “You’re not going to like what I have to say, but I’m doing this for your own good” (Job 4:2).
He opens by acknowledging that Job is usually the one strengthening people with “weak hands” and “feeble knees” but observes that it’s now Job’s turn to be strengthened (Job 4:3-5). So far, so good.
Then, he veers off course by sharing three indisputably true yet entirely unhelpful principles:
First, “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8). Often called the Law of the Harvest, this principle, which is really a testimony of God’s justice, notably appears in Proverbs 22:8, Hosea 8:7, Galatians 6:7, and (possibly via Hosea) Mosiah 7:30-31. Eliphaz’s failure is to read the principle backwards. It’s true that people (eventually) face the consequences of their wrong decisions. It is not true that every misfortune that befalls a person is his or her fault. King Benjamin condemned that logic: “Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just— But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent” (Mosiah 4:17-18).
Second, God “taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (Job 5:13). The apostle Paul quotes this verbatim in 1 Corinthians 3:19. God invokes the same phrase in an 1839 revelation to an imprisoned Joseph Smith in Liberty, Missouri (Doctrine and Covenants 121:12). And Alma echoes it in his rebuke of Zeezrom: “Seeing that thou hast been taken in thy lying and craftiness, for thou hast not lied unto men only but thou hast lied unto God; for behold, he knows all thy thoughts, and thou seest that thy thoughts are made known unto us by his Spirit” (Alma 12:3). Eliphaz was correct that God knew more than Job. He went wrong by assuming that Job had been crafty and had been caught.
Third, “Happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” (Job 5:17). This is essentially the same as Proverbs 3:11-12, which is quoted in Hebrews 12:5-6. The same principle appears in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 23:21, ironically as Mormon’s explanation for the undeserved suffering of Alma’s people in the land of Helam. Apparently, the Lord “chasten[s]” people who are not off track, specifically to “[try] their patience and their faith” (Mosiah 23:21). Once again, a true principle — Job needed to submit to the chastening — but delivered in a judgmental and condescending way.
No wonder Job responded to one of Eliphaz’s speeches by saying, “Miserable comforters are ye all” (Job 16:2). Alma taught his people to “mourn with those that mourn” and “comfort those that stand in need of comfort” (Mosiah 18:9). Eliphaz surely wanted to help his friend, but he could have been more helpful by empathizing, non-judgmentally, with the recognition that good and bad things happen to all of us and that misfortune is no evidence of culpability.
Today I will share wisdom at appropriate times and in appropriate ways. I will be cautious of context and careful to be non-judgmental when my friends are going through difficult things.
Leave a Reply