In chapter 3 we see Job's perplexity. We must not misunderstand this chapter. Job did not curse God, as Satan predicted, or as Job's wife suggested.
It is good to know that Satan cannot predict the future. He only knows it as God has written it in His Word. Job did curse his birthday; he felt it would have been better had he died at birth than live and endure such grief. In verses 20-24 Job asked why miserable people such as himself had to live at all!
Chapters 4 and 5 record Eliphaz's first speech. He rebuked Job and insisted that the righteous are not cut off.
I believe a key verse in these chapters is verse 17 of chapter 5. "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." God is just, and must correct His children. When we are chastised it is for our own good. Hebrews 12:6,7 says, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" God loves us, and chastens us because He loves us. Parents correct their children when they have been disobedient. Sometimes a rod is necessary. But we do not correct our children because we are brutal or unloving, but because we do love them and want to teach them the way they should go. So it is with God. When His children falter, and fail to repent of their sin, He must chastise them in order to bring them back to Himself. Job says, "Happy is the man whom God correcteth.".
