Context No. 3346 of 4322 · Job

Job 5:17-27: in context

17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. 18For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole. 19He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you. 20In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. 21You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes. 22You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth. 23For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you. 24You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing. 25You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth. 26You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. 27Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”

Eliphaz says something true, even though he wrongly assumes Job's suffering proves guilt: happy is the one whom God corrects; do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he injures, but his hands make whole. And he promises deliverance through many troubles to the one who receives God's correction.

There is real wisdom here, apart from its misuse against an innocent man. God's correction is not the act of an enemy but of a Father who wounds only in order to heal, who disciplines those he loves. The same hand that allows the wound also binds it up. When the correction is genuinely from God, we can receive it not with resentment but as a strange mercy, trusting that the One who lets us be wounded intends our healing. The trouble with Eliphaz is not this truth but his cruelty in aiming it at a blameless sufferer; the truth itself stands, that God's discipline is the wounding of a healer who means us good.

When I sense God's correction in my life, do I receive it as the discipline of a loving Father who wounds only to heal, rather than resenting it?

Sources

Job 5:17: "Happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty."
Job 5:18: "For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole."
Hebrews 12:6: "For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives."