Today you should read: Job 5:1-27
Chapter 5 of Job is a continuation of the rebuke of Job from Eliphaz. Job’s friend makes a good, biblical case for consequences & suffering being the result of God’s discipline for sin or disobedience. He uses a great agricultural example in verses 6-7, showing how we receive what we sow, shows how repentance & returning to God from sin can relieve such consequences in verses 8-16, and reminds him that discipline from God can be good in verses 17-27. In fact if you don’t know anything about Job and especially it’s beginning and end, you could pull any one of these scripture passages and show how true it is. Of course, the problem here is that it’s not true for Job. His suffering is not in result of sin. Job’s character and integrity is intact in spite of such “discipline” from God.
This is also why it’s dangerous for any Christian today to automatically associate suffering with sin. If that was the case Jesus wouldn’t be our suffering servant. Sometimes we suffer because we live in a fallen world, sometimes it’s because it’s going to sanctify us, sometimes it’s because it’s a test from God, sometimes it will glorify God, sometimes it’s a mystery and sometimes it’s as a result of our sin. But to associate and accuse suffering with sin is very dangerous as we’ll see in this book and we must be careful to not do so.
By: Erik Koliser — West Campus Pastor
JumpstartCPC.com 