By Despise Not The Discipline Of The Almighty
- Read Job chapter 5 as a family
Job’s friend Eliphaz is a very wise man who says many things to Job that are true in general, yet seems wrongly applied. In verse 3 he infers that Job is among the fools. Then he says that the fools children are far from safety. This is both cruel and unnecessary considering Job had just lost all ten of his own kids. He mentions in verse 25 that the righteous man will have offspring that are many, and will live to a ripe old age. Eliphaz would probably have not believed either of those two things about his friend Job.
Eliphaz does speak in verse 17 and following about suffering as a means of discipline from the Almighty. This is both good, right, and consistent with other texts:
Proverbs 3:11–12 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Questions For The Kids:
- Knowing truth and knowing where and how to apply that truth are two different things. Can you think of at least one truth from the Bible and then how a person might apply that truth wrongly?
- Verse 7 says “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Do you think this is a true statement from Eliphaz, and what it might mean?
- Read Genesis 3:17–19 and Ecclesiastes 2:23. How might those texts apply to question 2 above?
Leading Family Devotions 