Year 5, Day 98: Job 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

As we look at Eliphaz’s speech, I believe we can see the error of Approval creeping into his words.  In my blog post from 3 years ago, I focus on the idea that so much of what Eliphaz says seems to have a snippet of truth within it.  It begins with a thought that seems to run with truth.  But when it comes time for a conclusion, the truth fades away and we are left with only a human expression.

For example, Eliphaz says that nobody is righteous in God’s eyes.  This is true.  None of us are righteous on our own merit.  However, Eliphaz concludes that people die insignificant deaths that aren’t even noticed by God.  Of course this is a lie!  God does know us and care for us individually!  Furthermore, while we cannot be righteous on our own merit, we can gain our righteousness from Him.

Eliphaz’s advice to Job in this chapter is riddled with thoughts like this one.  Eliphaz often begins with an experiential truth; but Eliphaz often ends with a theological lie.  Eliphaz takes the world that he sees around him and lets it lead him to a false conclusion.  This is often – but not always – an error of Approval.

Eliphaz’s error is in where he begins.  Eliphaz believes that he can derive universal truth by watching the experience of the world around him.  For Eliphaz, the experience of life around him is in his Up position.  What a proper attunement to God looks like is a person who starts with the universal truths of God and then tries to apply them to shape and mold the life around him. 

Yes, we can learn about the human condition and life around us.  But we should not think that universal truth can be derived from observations of human life.  Rather, human life can be improved through the application of universal truths to life.  We learn those truths from God.

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