Deuteronomy 28 to 1 Peter 3 · Subject · Featured Study
The Retribution Teaching and Its Limits
A study of Job 4 and Job 42 beside the Law, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Luke 13 and John 9, with the readings of the rabbis and the church.
Ilya Repin, Job and His Friends, 1869. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
THE ARTWORKRepin set Job low on the ground at the left, with his wife in shadow behind him. One friend sits hunched before him, and two stand at the right in bright robes, one with a sword at his side, looking down on the man they came to comfort.
In one day Job, God's own servant, lost his children and his wealth, and soon after he lost his health.
Summary
The retribution teaching is the rule that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked in this life. Scripture states the rule, and it also shows where the rule stops.
- The Law, the Psalms and Proverbs tie blessing to obedience and trouble to sin.
- Job's three friends used the rule to say that his losses proved a hidden sin.
- At the end of the book God was angry with the friends and accepted Job's prayer for them.
- Psalm 73 and Ecclesiastes admit cases the rule does not fit in this life.
- Jesus said that neither the man born blind nor his parents had sinned, and that the eighteen killed by a tower were no more sinful than the rest of Jerusalem.
The Rule Tested, from Job to John
Six passages in canon order, where the rule meets a case.
Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?Satan's question sets the test of the book, whether Job's faith rests on the blessing the rule promises.
Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.Eliphaz, the first friend to answer Job, turns the rule into a charge.
After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.The LORD's verdict settles the argument of the book against the three friends.
There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.The Preacher records the rule turned upside down under the sun.
Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”Jesus refuses the friends' reasoning for a disaster in the city and turns the question on the living.
and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.The disciples bring the friends' question to Jesus about one man, and His answer gives the suffering a purpose the rule never named.
The Rule Across the Canon
From the Law of Moses to the letter to the Hebrews, in canon order.
- Who says it
- Moses, to Israel in Moab
- What it says of the rule
- Obedience brings blessing on the nation, and disobedience brings the curses of the covenant.
- Who says it
- The first psalm
- What it says of the rule
- Whatever the man who delights in the law of the LORD does prospers.
- Who says it
- David, in old age
- What it says of the rule
- He has never seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
- Who says it
- The sons of Korah
- What it says of the rule
- All this came on Israel though the people had kept the covenant.
- Who says it
- Solomon
- What it says of the rule
- The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.
- Who says it
- The Preacher
- What it says of the rule
- The race is not to the swift, and time and chance happen to all.
- Who says it
- Jeremiah
- What it says of the rule
- He asks the LORD why the way of the wicked prospers.
- Who says it
- Ezekiel
- What it says of the rule
- A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son.
- Who says it
- Jesus, on the mountain
- What it says of the rule
- He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
- Who says it
- Paul, to the Galatians
- What it says of the rule
- Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return, to the flesh or to the Spirit.
- Who says it
- The letter to the Hebrews
- What it says of the rule
- The Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son He receives.
A chain of eleven texts beyond Job, each link with its speaker and what it says of the rule.
What the Friends Said and What God Said
The friends' charges, Job's answer and the LORD's verdict.
The three friends speak in turn over three rounds, and Zophar has no third speech.
Bildad says Job's children died for their own rebellion, and that God will restore Job if he is pure. Zophar tells Job that God exacts less than his guilt deserves.
In his third speech Eliphaz names the sins he supposes: pledges taken from brothers, water kept from the weary, widows sent away empty. The book's first verse has already called Job blameless and upright.
Job calls the friends worthless physicians and asks whether they will speak deceitfully for God. He says God destroys the blameless and the wicked alike, and he asks why the wicked grow old in power.
After His verdict the LORD sends the three to Job with seven bulls and seven rams, and He accepts Job's prayer for them.
Much of what the friends said was true as a saying.
Paul quotes EliphazJob 5:13 and 1 Corinthians 3:19
He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.The line stands in the speech that ends by promising Job restoration if he accepts the discipline of the Almighty.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”Paul applies the line to the church at Corinth, which prized the wisdom of this world.
What Job spoke accurately: three readingsJohn Wesley; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown; Rashi
John Wesley read the LORD's words at Job 42:7 as a comparison. On his reading, Job's view of providence was truer than theirs, though not true in every word.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say Job spoke rightly against the friends' theory and wrongly when he came close to denying all guilt, which he later repented.
Rashi, who wrote in France around the year 1100, says Job erred only where pain drove his words. He says the friends sinned by condemning Job and holding him a wicked man.
Two Hebrew Words
Both words belong to the question the book asks, whether Job suffers for a cause.
CHINNAM (HEBREW, H2600)
An adverb meaning for nothing, without cost or cause. Satan uses it of Job's piety, God of Job's ruin, Job of his wounds, and Eliphaz of Job's supposed wrongs.
NAQI (HEBREW, H5355)
An adjective meaning innocent or clear of guilt. Both Eliphaz and Job use it, and here Job speaks of the despair of the innocent.
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Four silences, in Job 38 to 42 and in the answers of Jesus.
Job is never told of the scene in heaven. The LORD answers him from the whirlwind with questions about creation and gives no account of his losses.
The book does not call the friends insincere, and it gives no word of theirs after the verdict.
The book gives no reason for the double portion of Job 42:10.
Jesus speaks only to the link the questioners drew. He says nothing of the other sins of the man born blind or of the eighteen.
Where the Rule Holds and Where It Stops
Asaph, the Proverbs and James each show where the rule applies and where it ends.
Psalm 73 tests the rule over the whole length of a life. Asaph saw the wicked at ease and called his own purity useless, until in God's sanctuary he saw their end.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.Asaph comes to God Himself as his portion, the answer to the envy that opened the psalm.
Spurgeon on Asaph's complaint
“Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world. Look! See! Consider! Here is the standing enigma! The crux of Providence! The stumblingblock of faith! Here are the unjust rewarded and indulged, and that not for a day or an hour, but in perpetuity. From their youth up these men, who deserve perdition, revel in prosperity. They deserve to be hung in chains, and chains are hung about their necks; they are worthy to be chased from the world, and yet the world becomes all their own. Poor purblind sense cries, Behold this!”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 · on Psalm 73:12
Two proverbs that answer a fool two waysProverbs 26:4 to 5
Proverbs gathers sayings. Each holds where it fits, and the reader is trusted to know which case is before him.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.The rule of Proverbs 3:33 belongs to the same collection and is read the same way.
Job in the letter of JamesJames 5:11
James wrote to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion, and he sets Job beside the prophets as an example of patience in affliction.
See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.The New Testament names Job only here, and it reads his story from its end.
Three Voices on the Rule
Three commentators on the man born blind and on Eliphaz, earliest first.
John Chrysostom explains why the disciples asked their question at all.
“‘Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?’ A mistaken question, for how could he sin before he was born? and how, if his parents had sinned, would he have been punished? Whence then came they to put this question? Before, when He healed the paralytic, He said, ‘Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more.’ They therefore, having understood that he was palsied on account of sin, said, ‘Well, that other was palsied because of his sins; but concerning this man, what wouldest Thou say? hath he sinned? It is not possible to say so, for he is blind from his birth. Have his parents sinned? Neither can one say this, for the child suffers not punishment for the father.’ As therefore when we see a child evil entreated, we exclaim, ‘What can one say of this? what has the child done?’ not as asking a question, but as being perplexed, so the disciples spake here, not so much asking for information, as being in perplexity.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on the Gospel of John 56 · on John 9:2Patristic
Gregory the Dialogist answers Eliphaz's question from the far side of death.
“Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Whether it be heretics, of whom we have said that the friends of blessed Job bore an image, or whether any of the froward ones, they are as blameable in their admonitions, as they are immoderate in their condemnation. For he says, Who ever perished being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Since it often happens that in this life both 'the innocent perish,' and 'the righteous are 'utterly cut off,' yet in perishing they are reserved to glory eternal.”
Gregory the Dialogist · Morals on the Book of Job, Book V · on Job 4:7Patristic
John Wesley gives the reason Jesus answered no more than He did.
“Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents - It was not the manner of our Lord to answer any questions that were of no use, but to gratify an idle curiosity. Therefore he determines nothing concerning this. The scope of his answer is, It was neither for any sins of his own, nor yet of his parents; but that the power of God might be displayed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament · on John 9:3Evangelical
How Far Does the Rule Reach?
Three positions, each with its holders, its tradition and an objection.
Every suffering has a sin behind itJob's three friends; Rav Ami · The friends' wisdom and the Babylonian Talmud
Job's friends held that the innocent never perish and that loss reveals guilt. Rav Ami, a teacher quoted in the Babylonian Talmud, said there is no death without sin and no suffering without iniquity.
The case for it rests on the justice of God. Bildad asks whether God perverts justice.
The Talmud itself raises the objection. It weighs Rav Ami's saying against a teaching that four men died with no sin of their own, and calls it refuted.
The Babylonian Talmud was compiled in Babylonia between about 450 and 550, and the passage stands in tractate Shabbat, folios 55a and 55b.
Suffering with no sin found is discipline in loveRava in the Talmud; Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6 · Rabbinic teaching and the letter to the Hebrews
Tractate Berakhot gives the counsel of Rava, or as some say Rav Hisda. A sufferer should first examine his deeds, and if he finds no sin, he may count his suffering as afflictions of love.
The Talmud grounds this on Proverbs 3:12, and Hebrews 12:6 quotes the same proverb.
The objection comes from the prologue of Job. There the book gives the trial its cause, and only Eliphaz and Elihu call it discipline (Job 5:17 and Job 33:19).
The cause is often hidden, and the reckoning waits for the judgmentRabbi Yannai; Augustine; John Calvin; Charles Spurgeon · The Mishnah, the Latin fathers and Reformed preaching
Rabbi Yannai, in the Mishnah's tractate Avot, said it is beyond us to explain either the ease of the wicked or the afflictions of the righteous. Avot was set down in the land of Israel between about 190 and 230.
Augustine taught in The City of God that the good things and the ills of this life fall on good and bad alike, and that the sufferers differ though the suffering is the same.
John Calvin, on John 9:2 to 3, said God afflicts His own people for many reasons, and that a man cannot always put his finger on the cause.
Charles Spurgeon preached on Luke 13 in September 1861, after a train collision in the Clayton Tunnel. He protested the claim that those killed had died for their sins, though he granted that some judgments do fall.
The objection is that this leaves God's justice unseen in this life. Augustine answers that if no sin were punished now, men would conclude there is no providence at all.
Books to Read Next
Three older works on the subject, each free to read.
The City of God
Augustine of Hippo · Dods translation, 1887
Book 1 answers the pagans who blamed the sack of Rome by the Goths on the Christian faith.
Read Book 1 at New AdventCommentary on the Gospel According to John
John Calvin · Pringle translation, 1847
It comments on the Gospel verse by verse, from the first chapter to the last.
Read John 9:1 to 5 at CCELThe Treasury of David, volume 3
Charles Spurgeon · 1872
Volume 3 holds his exposition of Psalms 58 to 87.
Read volume 3 at CCELThree Duties, and the Righteous for the Unrighteous
In Isaiah 53:4 the onlookers make the mistake of Job's friends. They see the Servant of the LORD afflicted and take Him for a man struck down by God.
Job 42, Luke 13 and Job 1 ask three things of the reader. Leave a neighbour's suffering unjudged, as the LORD required of Job's friends. Repent while there is time, as Jesus told the crowd. Trust God when the cause stays hidden, as Job did when he blessed the name of the LORD in his loss.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,Peter answers why the Servant suffered, and the answer is the sin of others.
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