In Job 3-7, Job breaks his silence and wishes that he had never been born. Eliphaz responds and questions Job’s innocence. He urges Job to accept God’s discipline. Job maintains his innocence and asserts his right to complain. Job then asks God why he has bothered to make him his target. I. JOB’S DESPAIR (3:1–26) A. I wish I had never been born (3:1–10): Job curses the day of his birth, wishing it could be blotted off the calendar. B. I wish I had been stillborn (3:11–19): For Job the next best thing to never having been born would have been dying at birth. He laments that his mother let him live. C. Why is life given to those in despair (3:20–26): Job wonders why life is given to the miserable. He has no peace or rest—only trouble. II. ELIPHAZ’S DENUNCIATIONS (4:1–5:27): Eliphaz responds to Job’s groaning. A. Practice what you preach (4:1–6): Job has encouraged the weak in the past, and Eliphaz rebukes him for not heeding his own advice now. B. Does the innocent person perish? (4:7–11): Eliphaz makes the case that the Lord does not allow trouble to befall the innocent, implying that Job must be sinning. C. It came in a vision at night (4:12–17): Eliphaz claims to have received his knowledge from a spirit in the middle of the night! D. Alive in the morning, dead by evening (4:18–21): Eliphaz claims that humans cannot be trusted; they are frail and die in ignorance. E. Man is born unto trouble, (5:1–7): Again Job is said to be suffering for his sin. F. Seek unto God… (5:8–16): Eliphaz urges Job to bring his case before God, who is able to do anything. G. Don’t despise God’s discipline (5:17–27): Eliphaz exhorts Job to trust that God will heal and protect him once he has punished him. III. JOB’S DEFENSE (6:1–7:21): Job responds to Eliphaz’s ill-informed rebuke. A. Don’t I have a right to complain? (6:1–7): Job argues that the greatness of his sorrow gives him a right to complain. B. I wish that God would kill me (6:8–13): Though Job takes comfort in having never denied God’s word, he still wishes to die. C. You are unreliable (6:14–21): Job accuses his friend of being as unreliable as a brook that overflows in the spring and dries up in the heat. D. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred… (6:22–24): Job challenges his critic Eliphaz to show him where he is guilty. E. Stop assuming my guilt (6:25–30): Job maintains his innocence and rebukes his friends for assuming that he is guilty. F. Life is long and hard (7:1–5): Job is enduring his miserable life like a worker longing for the day to end. G. Life is but a breath (7:6–10): Job describes life as being like a fleeting breath, for all people die and never return. H. Why have you made me your target? (7:11–21): Job complains that God has terrified him with nightmares and has made him his target. He asks why God should go to all this trouble for no apparent reason and for such an insignificant person.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 10:28:51 +0000
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