Bible study · Job 4:1-21
Job 4: Who ever perished, being innocent?
Read Job 4:1-21 before you meet.
In a few lines
Eliphaz's rule, that no innocent person ever perished, is his own, resting on "what I have seen" (4:8), and the voice he heard in the night is one the chapter never names. You had already read what he doesn't say he knew: the LORD called Job "upright" with the very word Eliphaz uses, and his ruin "without cause" (2:3).
The verse to carry
“Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm.”
Job 4:3-4
To talk about
1. Eliphaz reminds Job, "you have strengthened the weak hands" (4:3), and then says, "But now it has come to you, and you faint" (4:5). When has it been harder to take your own advice than to give it?
2. Eliphaz's rule rests on "what I have seen" (4:8). When have you been tempted to explain someone else's trouble by what they must have done, and what changed your mind?
3. After seven days of silence and Job's own words, Eliphaz asks, "who can withhold himself from speaking?" (4:2). When someone you love is hurting, how do you tell whether it's time to speak or time to stay quiet?