Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
    But who can keep from speaking?
Think how you have instructed many,
    how you have strengthened feeble hands.
Your words have supported those who stumbled;
    you have strengthened faltering knees.
But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
    it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
Should not your piety be your confidence
    and your blameless ways your hope?
“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
    Where were the upright ever destroyed?
As I have observed, those who plow evil
    and those who sow trouble reap it.
At the breath of God they perish;
    at the blast of his anger they are no more.
The lions may roar and growl,
    yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
The lion perishes for lack of prey,
    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
“A word was secretly brought to me,
    my ears caught a whisper of it.
Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
    when deep sleep falls on people,
fear and trembling seized me
    and made all my bones shake.
A spirit glided past my face,
    and the hair on my body stood on end.
It stopped,
    but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
    and I heard a hushed voice:
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
    Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
If God places no trust in his servants,
    if he charges his angels with error,
how much more those who live in houses of clay,
    whose foundations are in the dust,
    who are crushed more readily than a moth!
Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
    unnoticed, they perish forever.
Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
    so that they die without wisdom?’

• Job 4:1-21

“Call if you will, but who will answer you?
    To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Resentment kills a fool,
    and envy slays the simple.
I myself have seen a fool taking root,
    but suddenly his house was cursed.
His children are far from safety,
    crushed in court without a defender.
The hungry consume his harvest,
    taking it even from among thorns,
    and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
For hardship does not spring from the soil,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground.
Yet man is born to trouble
    as surely as sparks fly upward.
“But if I were you, I would appeal to God;
    I would lay my cause before him.
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,
    miracles that cannot be counted.
He provides rain for the earth;
    he sends water on the countryside.
The lowly he sets on high,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
He thwarts the plans of the crafty,
    so that their hands achieve no success.
He catches the wise in their craftiness,
    and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;
    at noon they grope as in the night.
He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;
    he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
So the poor have hope,
    and injustice shuts its mouth.
“Blessed is the one whom God corrects;
    so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he also binds up;
    he injures, but his hands also heal.
From six calamities he will rescue you;
    in seven no harm will touch you.
In famine he will deliver you from death,
    and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
You will be protected from the lash of the tongue,
    and need not fear when destruction comes.
You will laugh at destruction and famine,
    and need not fear the wild animals.
For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,
    and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
You will know that your tent is secure;
    you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
You will know that your children will be many,
    and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
You will come to the grave in full vigor,
    like sheaves gathered in season.
“We have examined this, and it is true.
    So hear it and apply it to yourself.”

• Job 5:1-27

Job 5:17  ”’Faithful are the wounds of a friend,’ says the Holy Spirit in Proverbs 27:6.  And lest we imagine that the preacher is the one who does the wounding, I want to quote Job: ‘Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty; for he maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole.’  You see, the one who does the wounding here is not the servant, but the Master Himself.”

• A.W. Tozer, Man, the Dwelling Place of God

The Message

First, Eliphaz is a Temanite.  Teman was the grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:11), actually Teman was the son of an older Eliphaz, and Eliphaz was named after Teman’s father.  The name Teman means South, so some think Teman may have lived as far south as Yemen.

Eliphaz speaks the conventional wisdom of the world.  He first mocks Job to an extent.  Job has helped those who faltered, those who suffer, and now Job moans because Job is suffering.  In other words, now the shoe is on the other foot, as the saying goes.  Then he makes a theological statement, that no one who is blameless has ever died.  God Himself identified the punishment for sin as death.  We could argue the technicality of a blameless life, nothing done improperly from an outward reputation, versus sinless, but Eliphaz has a point here.  Should Job think himself pure and needing answers?  But Eliphaz has no idea regarding the “wager” between Satan and God.  He is judging Job unfairly.

Eliphaz recounts a vision where someone unknown asked him about whether anyone is punished without cause.  First, it was probably Satan.  Second, he assumed the subject was that of Job.

Then in Job 5, Eliphaz asked Job what his standing is that allows him to demand to talk to God, and which of the gods?  Thus, Eliphaz is polytheistic, whether one of the gods is the true God or not.  But then Eliphaz speaks of God.  At first, the statements are generally true.  But even Rev. Tozer makes the comment that the wound came from God.  It did not.  It came from Satan and God allowed the wound as a test.  God can also allow wounds as a redirection of our focus, a correction or rebuke, to get us on the right path.  Since our sins are forgiven, a Christian should not consider the suffering punishment, but rather correction, rebuke, or a test of our faith.

Eliphaz morphs from truth to half-truth to rebuke without knowing what sin Job was being punished for.  He speaks of God protecting us from six calamities, even seven.  But Job lost everything with the first calamity.  Without saying, “Confess your sin,” Eliphaz is saying this when he tells Job to go to God for Mercy, not for answers to his questions.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Even If…  This is sung by Mercy Me.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, we suffer.  God, You were faithful to Job.  He was wealthy, rewarded for his faithfulness, but then everything was lost.  Lord, I know the world’s wisdom, which is far from Your wisdom.  You can restore.  Even if You don’t.  With You, there is Hope, and it is well with my soul.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.