In reply to Job’s lament, Eliphaz asserts that Job is suffering because of some moral failing.  “Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope…Who, being innocent, has ever perished…Blessed is the man whom God corrects…We have examined this, and it is true.  So hear it and apply it to yourself.”

Not surprisingly, Job finds no encouragement  in Eliphaz’s words.  “Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid…Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?”

I’ve noted a curious aspect of human nature.  When confronted with someone else’s horrible situation, our first impulse isn’t generally empathy, but an effort to determine that such a thing could never happen to us because we’re different.  When identifying the cause of these bad things, we conveniently choose  some choice, trait or sin that we don’t share.  “Oh, their son is addicted to drugs because they spanked him when he was little.” “Oh,  their son is addicted to drugs because they didn’t spank him when he was little.”  “Oh, she got cancer because she drinks Diet Coke.”  “Oh, he got fired because he chose the wrong profession.”  In this instance, Eliphaz apparently decided that Job was suffering because he wasn’t righteous.  Implicitly, Eliphaz is asserting that he isn’t suffering because he is righteous.  “If it were I , I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.”

We all want to insulate ourselves and our loved ones from harm, so we try to find some common, avoidable cause of tragedy.  But there isn’t one.  Good people and bad people get cancer.  Good drivers and bad drivers have accidents.  Good parents have rebellious kids and bad parents have successful kids.  No doubt, our behaviour can influence the odds, but we can’t remove ourselves from the possibility of harm simply by being good.  First of all, none of us is good enough.  Second of all, we live in a fallen world, and this fallen world simply doesn’t work that way.

Job didn’t suffer because he wasn’t righteous.  And I can’t eliminate the possibility of suffering by being righteous.  There’s a mixed bag of take-aways from that concept.  On the one hand, I don’t have to live in perpetual guilt and fear that my moral failings are going to directly result in some catastrophic harm.  On the other, I have to acknowledge that I’m not in control, and my flesh recoils at that.

After Job responds to Eliphaz, he continues his lament to God.  He makes a comment that I know I would make in similar circumstances “Why have you made me your target?”