Job 5:17 - Meaning and Application

Eliphaz, in the last part of his speech, offers Job a hopeful view of what could come from his suffering, if only he would change his attitude and submit to it. He tells Job, in effect, not to treat God’s discipline with contempt. Call it the discipline of the Almighty, the all-sufficient God, the One it is foolish to resist and wise to trust.

“Despise not” is a strong phrase in the original. It means, first, do not shrink back from suffering as though it were unbearable. Grace should overcome the natural dislike we all have for pain, and we should accept God’s will in it. We need discipline, and we deserve it, so we should not be surprised or bitter when it hurts.

Second, do not think badly of it or cast it aside as useless or harmful just because it is painful for the moment. We must never think it beneath us to come under God’s training. In truth, God honors a person when he visits and tests him (Job 7:17, Job 7:18).

Third, do not ignore it as if it were only an accident or the work of causes below God’s notice. Treat it as God’s voice and a message from heaven. Reverence the Lord’s discipline, give it serious attention, and tremble when the lion roars (Amos 3:8). If we submit to the correction and learn what it is meant to teach us, then we truly honor it. When God uses trouble to call in what he has entrusted to us, we honor his claim by receiving it and giving back to him what is his own.

Eliphaz then adds words of comfort. If Job would bear his trouble in this way, the nature of his affliction would be changed. It would still look like misery, but it would really be blessing. “Happy is the one whom God corrects,” if he makes good use of the correction. A godly person is happy even in suffering, because he has not lost God’s favor or his hope of heaven. In fact, suffering can make him happy because it proves he is God’s child and helps make him holy. It weakens sinful habits, loosens the heart from the world, draws a person closer to God, and drives him to the Bible and to prayer. In that way, it works for him “an eternal weight of glory” far greater than the pain he feels now. So the person whom God corrects is happy (James 1:12).

Eliphaz also says the result will be good. Though God may make the body sore with boils and the mind heavy with grief, he also binds up the wounds he has made. As a skilled and gentle surgeon wraps up the cuts he had to make, so God comforts his people by his Spirit. Often his consolations are greatest when afflictions are greatest, and they more than make up for them. That brings deep comfort to those who suffer.

Though God wounds, he also makes whole in due time. He supports his people and helps them bear their trouble, and in the right time he brings them out of it. Then all is well again, and he comforts them according to the time he afflicted them. His usual way is first to wound and then to heal, first to humble and then to lift up. As one writer says, he never makes a wound too deep for his own cure. The same hand that inflicts the injury applies the medicine. God may tear the wicked and leave them to themselves, but the humble and repentant can say, “He has torn us, and he will heal us” (Hosea 5:14; Hosea 6:1).

This is a general truth, but Eliphaz then turns directly to Job and lists precious promises. He says that if Job would humble himself under God’s hand, God would do many kind things for him. Even though they did not have the Bible as we do, Eliphaz still had enough light from God’s earlier revelation to speak these promises. And while Job’s friends were not always guided rightly in everything they said, the broad truths they spoke fit the faith of that early age. Since Scripture itself quotes part of this speech as true (Job 5:13), and since the command in Job 5:17 is surely binding on us, these promises may also be received as God’s own promises. We may take hope from this part of Scripture through patience and comfort.

Eliphaz promises that God’s help will be repeated as often as troubles return. “In six troubles he shall deliver you, yes, in seven” (Job 5:19). This means we should expect a succession of trials as long as we live. Clouds come back after rain, and after one trouble another may follow. But God will bring his people through all of them (2 Timothy 3:11; Psalm 34:19). Past rescues are not reasons to expect no more trouble, but they are pledges that more help will come (Proverbs 19:19).

He also says that whatever troubles come, they will not do real harm to the righteous. No evil will truly touch them. The bitterness will be taken out of it, and though trouble may threaten, it cannot destroy them (Psalm 91:10). The evil one does not lay hold of God’s children (1 John 5:18). Since they are kept from sin, they are also kept from the deepest evil in every trial.

Then Eliphaz says that in widespread judgment, God’s people will have special protection. If famine comes, they will be kept alive. “In famine he will redeem you from death,” meaning they will be preserved when others perish (Psalm 33:19). “You will be fed,” yes, even in famine they will be satisfied (Psalm 37:3; Psalm 37:19). In time of war, when many fall around them, he will redeem them from the sword.

If God is pleased, it will not touch you. Or if it wounds you, even if it kills you, it will not really hurt you. It can only kill the body, and it has no power to do even that unless it is allowed from above.

Whatever is said against God’s people in malice will not truly harm them, Job 5:21. They will not only be protected from the sword of war, but also hidden from the lash of the tongue, which is painful like a whip, even if it does not kill. The best and most harmless people cannot keep themselves safe from slander, insults, and false charges, even when they have done nothing wrong. A person cannot hide from these things, but God can hide him so well that the harshest lies do not disturb his peace, and others do not let them stain his good name. God also restrains the rest of human anger, because he holds evil people back through their consciences, and that is why the lash of the tongue does not destroy all the comforts of good people in this world.

They will also have a holy peace and calm in their minds, coming from hope and confidence in God, even in the worst times. When danger looks most threatening, they will be quiet, believing themselves safe. They will not be afraid of destruction, even when they see it coming, Job 5:21. They will not fear the beasts of the field, or cruel people who act like beasts. Even in destruction and famine they will laugh, Job 5:22, not because they despise God’s discipline or make light of his judgments, but because they triumph in God’s power and goodness. In that way they rise above the world and all its troubles, and they can be joyful even in suffering. The apostle Paul laughed at destruction in this sense when he asked, “O death, where is your sting?” He spoke for all believers when he declared that nothing in this present life can separate us from the love of God, and that in all these things we are more than conquerors, Romans 8:35 and following. See also Isaiah 37:22.

When they are at peace with God, there will also be friendship between them and the whole creation, Job 5:23. When you walk across your land, you will not need to fear stumbling, because you will be at peace with the stones of the field. They will not strike your foot, and you will not be in danger from the animals of the field, because they will also be at peace with you. Compare Hosea 2:18, where God says he will make a covenant for his people with the beasts of the field. This suggests that while people are at war with their Maker, even the lower creatures are, in a sense, at war with them. But a reconciled God brings harmony to everything. Our covenant with God brings a covenant of peace with all creation, so that creatures will do us no harm and will be ready to serve us for good.

Their homes and families will also be made comfortable, Job 5:24. Peace and godliness in the home make it so. You will know and be sure that your tent is in peace, and that you can trust both its present safety and its future well-being. Peace is, in a sense, your dwelling place, the house where those live who live in God and feel at home in him. You will visit, that is, inspect, your home and look over its affairs, and you will not sin.

God will give his people a settled place, maybe small and movable like a cottage or tent, but still fixed and quiet. You will not sin, or wander, that is, as some understand it, you will not be a fugitive and a wanderer, like Cain under his curse. You will dwell in the land and, with certainty, not with the unsure life of vagrants, you will be fed. Their families will be under the special care of God’s providence and will prosper as far as that is good for them. They will also be sure of peace, and of its lasting continuance from one generation to the next. They will know, to their deep comfort, that peace is secure for them and their children, because they have God’s word for it. Providence may change, but the promise cannot.

They will also have wisdom to manage their families well, to order their affairs wisely, and to watch over the life of their households, which is here called visiting their habitation. Heads of families should not be strangers at home, but should keep a careful eye on what they have and what their servants are doing. They will also have grace to handle family matters in a godly way, and not sin in doing so. They will call servants to account without anger, pride, greed, or love of the world. They will look into their affairs without discontent over what they have, or distrust about what lies ahead. Family godliness crowns family peace and prosperity. The greatest blessing in both our work and our enjoyment is to be kept from sin while we have them.

When we are away, it is comforting to hear that our tent is in peace. When we come home, it is comforting to visit our home with joy over our success, knowing we have not failed in our business and that our conscience is clear before God.

Their descendants will also be many and prosperous. Job had lost all his children, but Eliphaz says that if Job returns to God, God will rebuild his family again. His offspring will be many as before, growing and thriving like grass on the earth, Job 5:25, and Job will know it. God keeps blessings ready for the children of the faithful, and they will receive them if they do not ruin themselves by their own foolishness. It is a comfort to parents to see their children prosper, especially in spiritual things. If they are truly good, they are truly great, even if the world thinks little of them.

Their death will also be in good season, and they will end their course at last with joy and honor, Job 5:26. It is a great mercy to live to a full age and not have the number of our months cut off in the middle. If God’s providence does not give us a long life, yet if God’s grace teaches us to be content with the time given to us, we may still be said to reach full age. The person who has finished his work and is ready for another world has lived long enough.

It is also a mercy to be willing to die, to come gladly to the grave instead of being forced into it, like the man whose soul was suddenly demanded from him. And it is a mercy to die in good time, like grain cut and gathered when it is fully ripe, not before then, but not left standing after it is ready, lest it waste away. Our times are in God’s hand, and that is good, because he will see to it that those who belong to him die at the best time. Even if their death seems untimely to us, it will prove not to have been out of season.

In the last verse, he recommends these promises to Job as trustworthy words, words he can fully rely on: “We have searched this out, and it is true.”

We have indeed received these truths from our fathers, but we have not accepted them on trust. We have examined them carefully, compared spiritual things with spiritual things, studied them closely, and been confirmed in our belief by our own observation and experience. So we all agree that this is true.

Truth is a treasure worth digging for, worth searching for deeply. Then we will know how to value it ourselves, and how to pass it on to others after taking pains to find it. Hear it, and know it for your own good. It is not enough to hear the truth and understand it. We must also put it to use, grow wiser and better through it, feel its effect on us, and submit to its guiding power.

Know it for yourself, that is, apply it to your own case. Do not only say, “This is true,” but also, “This is true about me.” What we hear and know in this personal way is heard and known for our good, just as we are nourished by food only when we digest it. A sermon is truly good for us when it does us good.