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Do you believe everything the Bible says is true? Everything? Are there any exceptions?
The Bible is true, yes; but there is a difference between what the Bible says and what the Bible teaches as true. There are many statements in the Bible, that the Bible does not represent as true. Some statements in the Bible are true records of error.
For example: did you know the Bible says there is no God?
Yes, it's true. The Bible says, "There is no God".
Here is the complete quote:
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." (Psalm 14:1a)
You see, the Bible says, "There is no God"; but the Bible does not teach that as truth. Instead, this statement is a true record of error. If you read the whole sentence, you find what it really means is that there is a God, and you're foolish if you think otherwise!
This simple example illustrates one of the basic principles of understanding the Bible: always consider the context of a statement.
The statement "there is no God", taken by itself, means one thing. But when we consider the context—the surrounding words—we find that it really means exactly the opposite.
Let's say the same thing differently: if we take a statement "out of context", we may end up believing, and living by, something that the Bible doesn't teach as true. The Bible may teach exactly the opposite of our out-of-context understanding.
Let's take another example. This example involves a controversial topic, speaking in tongues. So if your understanding of tongues differs from mine, please bear with me. I'm not intending to make any point about tongues; the point is that we must observe the context of any statement in the Bible.
Taken out of context, these statements seem to say that every Christian should speak in tongues, because it strengthens the speaker:
He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself … I would like every one of you to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:4a, 5a)
But when we look at the context, we see something different:
He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified. (1 Corinthians 14:4-5)
When we read the context, the meaning of the two statements we quoted first changes dramatically. He who speaks in a tongue strengthens himself, yes — but a nobler goal is to strengthen others in the church, and prophecy accomplishes that. If all of you spoke in tongues that would be good, yes — but it wouldn't be the best, because all the tongues would squeeze out the better gift, prophecy.
What the Apostle Paul is saying here is something like this: tongues is a good, legitimate gift, and we should not silence it; but you Corinthians are focussing on tongues so much that you are excluding better gifts; stop doing that.
Well, enough about tongues. As I said before, the point I'm driving at isn't about tongues; the point is that to rightly understand the Bible, we must read its statements in context.
Why am I going to so much trouble talking about context? This is a discussion about the book of Job! What does context have to do with it?
The problem is that the book of Job has a special context challenge. To see certain passages in context, you have to read, not just the surrounding verse or two, or even several chapters. You have to read the entire book. Here's why.
Near the end of the book, God talks to Job's friend Eliphaz. He tells Eliphaz that much of what he and his friends have said is wrong:
I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7b)
What this means is that the portions of Job that were spoken by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—many entire chapters—are not truth, but true records of these men's error. These chapters of the Bible are heresy!
This is so important that it bears repeating. As you read the book of Job, you must observe who is speaking. If it is one of Job's three friends, you are reading something so false that God was angry with them for saying those things. Yet we don't see that fact until the final chapter, when God scolds the friends.
And if you and I believe and act on what Job's friends said, we will be committing an error so significant that God said to Eliphaz, "I am angry with you" over it.
The error that Job's three friends believed, translated into more modern language, can be expressed in any of these ways:
"You must have done something wrong, or God wouldn't be punishing you like this."
"If you had more faith, you wouldn't have these problems."
"If you get right with God, your troubles will go away."
Job's friends haven't said this—yet. The way things worked in Job's culture, Job had the right to speak first. He did speak, as we saw. After Job spoke, the friends took turns speaking, and Job had the right to answer each speaker. As before, when it was someone's turn to talk, everyone else listened carefully.
Because folks in Job's day assumed that someone who was older should be wiser, the turns to speak were assigned in order of age, oldest first.
So Eliphaz, the oldest, had the unenviable job of being the first to speak to Job. He did a terrible job!
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: "If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?" (Job 4:1-2a)
Right off the bat, Eliphaz says, "you're not going to like what I have to say." Boy, was he right!
After some preliminary polite words to Job, Eliphaz states his main argument. This is the basis of what he and the other two friends will argue throughout the book:
Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. (Job 4:7-8)
Eliphaz says this: good things always happen to good people, and bad things always happen to bad people. The corollary is: bad things happened to you, Job, so you must be a bad person.
And that is the heresy that pervades the book of Job. It simply isn't true. Eliphaz is wrong.
Like Job, Eliphaz isn't shooting from the hip; he is speaking carefully considered thoughts; he has crafted his words with skill.
Eliphaz even believes God has given him his message. It came to him in a dream. He describes being terrified when, in his dream, a spirit speaks to him:
Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: (Job 4:13-16)
This is what spirit said to him:
Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? (Job 4:17)
Eliphaz' interpretation of his dream was this: if God always rewards good and punishes evil, and if Job is being punished, then Job must be guilty of evil. If Job denies it, he is accusing God of punishing the innocent. He is saying he is innocent and God is faulty in recognizing his innocence, and so he is claiming to be "more righteous than God".
Eliphaz continues:
But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. (Job 5:8)
Eliphaz says, in effect: "If I were you, I would get right with God; I would confess my sins." If you do, he says, your troubles will end:
The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. (Job 5:11)
Eliphaz, a well-meaning but mistaken friend, believes whenever God's people suffer, God is disciplining them for their sins; and if Job would just repent, God would reward him:
Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. (Job 5:17-18)
Eliphaz continues with several statements about the benefits that will accrue to Job if he repents, and then concludes tersely:
We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself. (Job 5:27)
As we said before, Eliphaz is not speaking lightly. He and his friends have thought carefully before coming to this conclusion.
Because God says so. At the end of the story, God tells Eliphaz:
I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7b)
God reflects back on the long argument between Job and his friends, and says, "Job was right, you guys were wrong."
Now we have to admit that in some cases, Eliphaz is right. The Bible is full of examples of God using hardship to correct His people's sins.
… the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (Proverbs 3:12)
"I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord. (Amos 4:6)
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? (Hebrews 12:7)
… hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:5)
Eliphaz' error isn't in seeing that God uses hardship to discipline his people; his error is assuming that all hardship is God's discipline.
Because, you see, the Bible also shows us that suffering can come for other reasons.
Sometimes we are hurt because we do what is right, not wrong:
… everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. (2 Timothy 3:12)
Sometimes we are hurt because of someone else's sin, when we ourselves are innocent; we are the victim:
You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (James 5:6)
And sometimes we are hurt for no reason we can discern; life is just that way:
I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecclesiastes 9:11)
The lesson here is clear: if you don't know why someone is hurting, don't assume.
Now, sometimes we do know why someone is hurting. We can see the connection between a foolish choice and a hurtful outcome.
But in other cases, we see someone who is hurting, and we don't see any clear reason for it.
In those cases, don't assume the person who is hurting is at fault.
That was Eliphaz' error.
That was why God was angry with Eliphaz.
Let's say it again: if you don't know why someone is hurting, don't assume.
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