Job 4
Today we meet the first of Job’s friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, who wastes little time on niceties or saying anything to cheer or comfort Job. Instead, he chides Job as being impatient (even though we now speak of “the patience of Job”). He recognizes that Job has previously instructed and advised others (from his prior position of comfort and prosperity) but now does not seem inclined to receive any such advice when Job is the one in need. He offers Job verse 6: Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? And of course the real answer to that question is “Yes”, but I get the feeling that Eliphaz is not sincerely asking that question as an attempt to encourage Job, but rather as a form of mockery, along the lines of those who mocked Jesus on the Cross: He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if He desires him. (Mt. 27:43; Ps. 22:8) The “gotcha” part of it is the “integrity of your ways” phrase, with the implication that, if Job had true integrity, he would admit his faults.
Eliphaz’s worldview becomes abundantly clear in Job 4:7,8 where we see the “bad things happen to bad people” perspective. But before we smugly judge Eliphaz as “obviously wrong”, remember that he is unaware of the spiritual “back story” and that his perspective is not entirely incorrect. In Proverbs we shall repeatedly see that foolishness, wickedness, and laziness all tend to bring forth poverty and downfall, whereas wisdom, righteousness, and hard work tend to produce prosperity. Or consider Psalm 37:25: I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
I find Job 4:12-21 to be very interesting. Here Eliphaz claims to have had some spiritual encounter through dreams, “visions of the night” in which a spirit spoke to him. We have a few options here. Eliphaz could simply be making this up, creating a story to bolster his position with an (unprovable) claim of supernatural insight. Or he may well have had a natural dream, brought on by an unfortunate choice of toppings for a late-night pizza delivery, a dream that he misinterprets as having spiritual origins. Or he may well have had a true spiritual encounter. Regardless of the validity of the story, what does the spirit say to Eliphaz? “Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (v. 17) Good questions, to which we must all answer, “Well, no, not standing on our own.” (But we can and do find such standing in Christ.) But the next statement is what I really find interesting: “Even in His servants He puts no trust, and His angels He charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.” This sounds to me like a proud spirit who looks with disdain on mortals who just happen to be made in the image of God while he himself is not. If so, then while there may be some truth in what this spirit says, we must consider the source…
Right, look to the source. This friend has a lot of half-truths, some truth mixed in with other things. We too hear and even speak this way on occasion. Be like the Bereans- check it out!
I was intrigued by Eliphaz’s vision and “God’s message” to him: A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: “Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (vv. 15-17) In the New Testament world it would have been believable. But back in Job’s time…??!! Maybe not! The Apostle John had a charge for all Christians who would be reading his letter(s): Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God… (I John 4:1a) John, our brother has done this very thing, analyzing Eliphaz’s “vision” three different ways. Given where Eliphaz comes out on Job’s issues further down the road, we have to doubt that his vision was from God.
In Eliphaz’s defense, he never actually claimed that the vision was from God, just that it was a spirit, with perhaps the implication that a spirit would be more authoritative. But, like I said, it doesn’t sound like a positive or “godly” spirit to me.