Job 4:1-7:21

Eliphaz’s formulas:

Piety = Confidence

Blameless Ways = Hope

Human Birth = Trouble

Reversals = Divine Discipline

When Job applies Eliphaz’s principles to his personal condition of bereavement, loss, and suffering Job concludes that his friends are undependable (Job 6:15). He agrees with the formula, Human Birth = Trouble (Job 7:1-3). But applying the formula, Reversals = Divine Discipline, he is left with the question of why. Why does God not forgive sin (Job 7:21)?

Applying Eliphaz’s formulas to my condition, I should expect shaky confidence, for my piety is imperfect. I should have dim hopes, for my ways are fault-filled. I should expect trouble, because I am, after all, human. And I should possess some sense of God’s correction, due to the stops and starts, the twists and turns, and the many 180 degree navigation “adjustments” in my life’s direction.

In creation’s story God inspects, then concludes every created thing very good (Genesis 1:31).

I want to hold onto the principle that God is never the direct cause of evil. Where does evil originate, then? And why does it appear that God permits evil in God's very good creation?

I admire Job’s unwavering commitment to God, and I empathize with the questions he puts before God.