Eliphaz Lowers the Boom

“Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own life testify against thee”…..”Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.  For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.”  Job 15:6, 24-25

If you are in trouble, even if it’s because of a bad decision that you made, you want your friends to help and intervene in your situation.  A real friend will correct you in a loving and caring manner, not browbeat you as if you were the worse sinner on earth.  For some reason, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar never got that memo.  And Eliphaz was the most belligerent and arrogant of the three of Job’s visitors.  The more Job spoke to defend himself against unfounded and unproved accusations by his friends, the angrier that Eliphaz became.  In his defense, as in the other two, he was trying to defend God’s honor, but he did it in such a way that it came across as hateful and judgmental to Job who had been a righteous man.  It’s almost as if something was going on in the life of Eliphaz, and he was taking out his frustrations on Job, but scripture doesn’t indicate that.  However, we know that human nature often reacts to a personal situation by confronting someone who had nothing to do with the problem.

The hostility against Job had grown in the mind of Eliphaz.  He asked Job how a so-called “wise” man as himself act as if he knew everything about how God operates, but yet comes off as a man filled with hot air, a windbag, blowing words around as if he knew more than anyone?  Surely Eliphaz could have found a more diplomatic way to confront Job, but he was on a roll and continued his diatribe against Job, actually doubling down on him.  He accused Job of having no fear of God because Eliphaz viewed Job’s statements as irreverent toward the LORD.  He felt that Job was speaking to God as if God and he were on the same level.

It’s funny how Eliphaz accused Job of being a “know-it-all” when Eliphaz and the two other men were also acting like “know-it-alls”.  Eliphaz asked Job, sarcastically, if he was the first man that had ever been born.  Was he around before God created the world?  Did Job have some kind of special access to God to which no one else was privy?  One thing that infuriated Eliphaz was Job’s refusal to appreciate the efforts by his three friends to help him “see the light” or see the “error of his ways”.  Did he think that he was better than them?  Eliphaz accused Job of allowing his anger to disrupt his relationship with the LORD.  His friends saw him as a man who once revered God, but because of his calamity, blamed God and turned against Him.  In their estimation, Job had, as Satan predicted, cursed God, but he had not.  He may have gotten carried away with his complaints to God, but he did not curse God.

Eliphaz was determined to prove his thesis: the wicked suffer and those who suffer are wicked, thus Job fell into that group.  Eliphaz considered himself an expert in righteousness and sin, although I doubt that he had ever faced personally the depths of despair as Job.  He had likely never walked a mile in Job’s shoes.  Since he had no personal experience in tragedy, his words came from hearsay of those who heard about such situations from their fathers.  Of course, much can be learned from the experiences of others.  As they say, if we don’t learn from history, we are bound to repeat it, meaning making the same mistakes over and over again.  Eliphaz could have benefitted from being able to read about the trials of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David.  All of these were good men who honored God, yet they all suffered varying degrees of hardship and heartache.

Eliphaz continued his analysis of his idea of why Job is suffering so.  He described Job as an evil man who constantly heard the sounds of danger and harm in his ears.  One day he is living “high on the hog” and the next, the destroyer comes and robs him of everything.  No sooner than he thought all was peace and safety, disaster struck.  His evil ways had caught up with him.  He lives in constant fear and anxiety, knowing that he can’t escape this darkness.  No relief is in sight.  The evildoer, Job in particular, shakes his fist in God’s face as if he had any power over God.  He stubbornly refuses to submit to the Almighty and attempts to construct a defense against Him.

Eliphaz wasn’t finished.  He said that those who get wealth by wicked means are putting their trust in their sinful ways which are empty and deceiving.  They think this ill-gained wealth will bring them contentment and satisfaction but find that it does just the opposite.  An evil man will eventually see his wealth diminish.  On his deathbed, he is left with the memory of his wasted life as he lived it always looking for more and never appreciating what was really important.  Evil men are nothing but hypocrites whose lives end in desolation.

Eliphaz definitely had a one-track mind.  It was “his way or the highway”.  Either a man was nearly perfect and blessed or he was completely evil and cursed.  He never reckoned any grace from God in the lives of men and women.  If he could come back today and see how the rich and ungodly prosper and how the righteous suffer, he would have to re-evaluate his views upon his idea of “earning” favor with God.  However, Eliphaz lived some 2,000 years before Christ who showed man what God was like and made the ultimate sacrifice to reconcile sinful man with our holy God.  Eliphaz was only following the general belief of his day.  It is a shame that many people still believe the same way as he did, that they can earn their way to heaven by doing good works and attempting to live righteously.

Next week:  Job’s Response to Eliphaz