Job 5:1
Callout,
Who is there to answer you?
For to whom,
Rather than the Holy One,
Can you turn?
On to the second notebook and into the fifth chapter. It was almost a year ago that I worked on this verse, and I am about to wrap up chapter 14 this week. If I keep this pace, I should finish the studying in three years. In my mind, I want to speed up the writing part so I can finish as near to then as possible. That will be a positive change of pace.
The first line carried options for urgency (Now), reverence (Pray), crying in rage, and questioning (if you will). The lack of patience aspect does seem applicable, but not necessary. The pray concept was limited to a single source and not necessary. The rage part seems redundant. The goading to do something wrong aspect of “if you will” does not seem consistent with the intent.
The second line had a plethora of suggestions among the sources and seems that the words gave rise to an idea not directly related to the normal meaning when strung together in such a way. (In the end, it seems I went with my favorite source for the whole verse. I did not realize that until now.) The idea is to question whether there is a resource beyond God. A number of options seem to suggest that there are others, but none will respond. I plowed ahead with the idea that there is no other.
This second part had options that implied there were other holy ones to pray to, be they saints, angels, holy beings, or holy ones. Again, my favorite source and I aligned on the fact that only God is Holy and the question is who else is there to turn to (or the one option to implore).
Overall, I see Eliphaz reminding Job that there is no one else to turn to other than God. There is probably an aspect of Job having lived a life devoted to God and telling others that there is no other God and all their “gods” were made up little lumps of clay. A little bit of I told you so could be read into this, but as of yet we have assumed Eliphaz has stuck to the one God view as well.
One of the stereotypes of pagan religions is that men make up a god for every tiny aspect of the world they do not understand. A god for rain, one for fertility, one for lightning, etc. This is an aspect of the hole in our hearts set to search for God that struggles to get the details right without the revelation that God gave us in the bible.
A friend shared a concern with a friend of hers who claims to be a Christian, but claims the Bible is not the word of God. The logic is off. The gospel can be carried from person to person without the Bible. But the foundation of the gospel is that which is revealed through God’s Word. “Scripture” in the Bible is simply a written version of God’s Word. The question is how to balance the profession of faith with the profession of disbelief. I have strong faith in the Bible being the Word of God. I forget that this is not true of all believers. I pray that I can help others know that there is only one God and the Bible is His revelation of Himself to us.