Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Fear
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Eliphaz is the first of Job’s three friends to respond to Job.
He must have sat there and stared at Job is disbelief.
What Eliphaz had expected to come out of Job’s mouth, and what actually did come out of Job’s mouth were two very different things.
Eliphaz was not shocked simply because of how dark Job’s hour was- that he wished for death to come.
Eliphaz was shocked because he expected to hear a penitent Job, openly confessing and weeping over his sin.
He expected to hear Job acknowledge that he had gotten what he had deserved from God.
To Eliphaz, the case of Job was an open-and-shut case of divine judgment of sin.
Yet quite the opposite Job is longing for death because he has been walled off from the favor of God for no apparent reason.
Preconceived notions can get us into trouble.
One of the most dangerous things to do to a pastor is to come up to him right before he is about to preach, and say, “I need to talk to you sometime in private.”
What instantly goes through the mind of the preacher?
Something bad is about to happen.
Now, I spend the entire time I am preaching thinking in the back of my mind, “O boy, what do I have in store for me?
It’s going to be terrible news, and it’s going to hurt a lot.”
Then, the person in question pulls me aside and says, “Your messages have really been a blessing in my life lately.
I just wanted you to know that.”
I don’t know whether to hug em or strangle em! Be kind to your preachers, and wait until after the service to talk to them.
But, it is our preconceived ideas as pastors that can get us into trouble.
Job’s three friends came with preconceived ideas.
Job’s friends came expecting to hear Job cry, “Have mercy on me O God for my many sins.”
Instead this is what they heard, “O that the day of my birth and the night of my conception would have been removed from the creative event.
O that I would have died in child birth, or had been born a stillborn and been hidden in the grave, O that I would die soon- I would rejoice as one who has found great treasure.
Because my way forward is hidden, and God has walled me off from His blessing and his favor and I have no idea why.
Why is God doing this to me?
I am miserable, I cannot rest, I cannot relax, I cannot settle.”
To Job’s friends they must have though that Job was out of his mind.
How could Job refuse to acknowledge his great sinfulness?
Was Job is denial?
Or worse rebellion?
Why would Job’s friends have such serious preconceived notions about Job?
Because of their firm believe in Retribution Theology.
“Retribution theology holds that there is an automatic connection between a person’s deeds and state of being.”
I would add- the connection operates in this life, not just in eternity.
If you do good God will bless you, if you do evil God will punish you.
So according to Job’s three friends right now in Job’s life he is experiencing what?
God’s judgement therefore, Job must have done what?
Evil.
To them it is a forgone conclusion.
They are shocked that Job is giving any other kind of explanation to his situation.
Their theology will not allow for any other alternative.
Due to his flawed preconceived notion Eliphaz models for us some basics of bad counsel.
I. Bad Counsel May Be Given with the Best of Intentions
A. He Tried to Soften the Blow
V. 2- Job if I attempt to counsel you will you be impatient?
But I’m going to talk with you anyway because did you just hear what you said?
Now don’t be offended, but … I am going to say something really offensive anyway.
VV. 3-5 Look Job you, yourself have many times been in my position.
You have instructed many, you have strengthened those who are weak, You have upheld those who would stumble.
Now you are in the position of being weak, and needing instruction, and having fallen to the ground- but you are impatient.
Pain and sorrow have touched you, God’s judgement has come upon you, and now you are dismayed.
Look Job you already know what to do for someone in your position.
But you are unable to help yourself, because you are not applying your own teaching to yourself.
The idea is- let me help you!
B. He Gave a Mild Reproof
Here Eliphaz asks Job two rhetorical questions.
Is not your reverence or your fear of God your confidence?
The word “Fear” refers to the inner response of reverence toward God, expressing itself in devotion and in deeds of compassion.
The word “Confidence” has the idea of genuine faith in God, and one who has such confidence remembers what God has done for him and is careful to keep God’s commandments.
In other words, your fear or your reverence towards God produces a genuine faith in God.
Should this not give you the inner strength necessary from falling into evil?
Eliphaz is responding to Job’s previous statements, “I want to die.”
And Eliphaz is offering a mild reproof of Job here- shouldn’t your reverence and genuine faith give you the inner strength necessary to not say these evil things?
2. Is not the uprightness or the integrity of your ways your hope?
Your past display of uprightness or integrity shows the reality of your hope in God.
“The wholeness of such a faith should provide the one who serves God with the resolution to face every obstacle.”
(Hartley, 107)
So Eliphaz earnestly wants Job to avoid speaking in such negative terms- because he knows Job’s faith and hope should give him the strength to avoid such evils.
So it seems that Eliphaz has good intentions.
He tries soften the blow, and he asks Job rhetorical questions (which is the best method to get people to stop and think).
He does all this as kindly and tactfully as possible.
Is any of this helpful to Job right now?
Not really.
Eliphaz has not really listened to Job’s situation.
And what’s more he is about to suggest retribution theology as the answer to Job’s problems.
In v. 3 when he states that Job used to help many people who were is a similar situation to his, what counsel do you think Job used?
Probably the same as Eliphaz is about to use- retribution theology.
The problem is that Job’s theology no longer works.
His entire theological framework is crumbling around him, and what does Eliphaz try to do? Help him with the very same failing theology.
It would be like a doctor who for years prescribed to his patients margarine to help deal with their cholesterol.
Now that doctor is dying from using too much margarine (because as it turns out it is bad for you).
Then one of his friends comes and in order to try to help give the dying doctor what?
More margarine.
He may do it kindly and tactfully, but is it helpful?
No!
If the basis of our theology is wrong, if our fundamental thinking about God is bad then our counsel will be bad as well.
Even if we do it with the best intentions, it is still wrong.
II.
Bad Counsel May Seem Scriptural
A. The Positive Side of Retribution Theology
Again Eliphaz asks two rhetorical questions which both expect a negative answer.
Have the innocent ever perished?
No the innocent have never perished.
God’s justice would not allow that.
Have the righteous or the upright ever been destroyed?
No the righteous have never been unjustly cut off.
With these questions Eliphaz hopes to rebuild Job’s confidence by asserting the positive side of retribution theology.
Righteousness always brings a reward.
B. The Negative Side of Retribution Theology
V. 8- Here Eliphaz states that from his own eyes he has seen those that plow iniquity- those that purposely and diligently pursue a course of wickedness reap nothing but trouble.
If you sow trouble you will reap trouble.
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