Year 2, Day 109: Job 15

Human Beings With Much to Say

I think that we need to take an honest look at Eliphaz’ retort to Job as chapter 15 opens.  On one hand, he does very much have a point.  Human beings – especially human beings that feel they have been wronged – usually have a lot to say.  If you want to see this, all that you have to do is get a Facebook account and get yourself a few friends.  Quite often one little glitch comes in someone’s life and immediately the Facebook posts are up vociferously complaining about what has gone wrong. 

Most of the time, those kind of reactions are rather futile and quite pointless.  All they are is some kind of self-mongerish attempt to get other people to see our way.  You know what they say … misery loves company.  When life is horrible, most of us can’t help but open our mouth about it.

Eliphaz’ Error

On the other hand, I don’t think at this point it is fair to call Job someone who is making a gut reaction to an immediate problem.  Job has sat around for at least a week contemplating what is going on.  He has processed a good bit about life and whether or not he is at fault in any way.  I don’t think at this point Job is talking unprofitably.  I don’t know about you, but I have certainly been challenged by his words!

How Much Can You Take?

I also think there is another dynamic at play here.  There are some people who can tolerate a good deal of questioning about God without feeling like they are being impious.  There are other people who seem to live as though any question about God’s sovereignty is an abomination.  I don’t happen to be one of those people.  I think honest questioning will usually lead to truth if we are willing to accept it and take it to its natural conclusion. 

By saying what he has said thus far, Job has not done away with the fear of God.  Job has struggled to understand why what has happened did in fact happen to him.  That’s completely different than being impious.  Job is searching for truth through his questions, not demanding that he be more right than God.

God’s Trust

I do wrestle with Eliphaz’ perspective on God in Job 15:15-16.  I think it is fairly absurd to say that God does not put any trust in either His holy ones or sinners like us.  I can see some truth in what Eliphaz might be trying to say.  God does know that we are not perfect and He does know that we will be unable to follow Him completely and perfectly.  That is absolutely true. 

However, the God that I see making a covenant with Abraham is a God who puts trust in humanity.  I realize Eliphaz didn’t even remotely have access to the story of Christ because Eliphaz likely predated Christ by 1,500 years or more, but the Christ that I see puts trust in human beings to accomplish His will.  Jesus Christ puts all of His trust in the Holy Spirit and those 11 faithful disciples - and probably a few dozen other folks. 

That is trust.  God entrusted His plan of salvation into the hands of Abraham.  God entrusted the message of salvation to a very small group of human beings.  To me, God is a God who honestly gives us more trust than we deserve!

Eliphaz Doesn’t Paint the Whole Picture

Looking at the rest of the chapter, it appears that our old friend – the telling of “incomplete truth” – rears its ugly head in Eliphaz’ speech once more.  Look at the words that he says.  It isn’t that he says anything wrong per say.  The problem is that he has not painted a full picture.

Take a look at verse 20.  Yes, there will come a day when the wicked will writhe in pain all day long.  Christ speaks often of a place where there will be “weeping and a gnashing of teeth.”  Certainly what Eliphaz says has some truth value to it.  But it is not the whole truth.  Reality tells me that the wicked are just as likely to prosper in this life as the good – perhaps even more likely to prosper if they are really skilled at being wicked.  From an eternal perspective, Eliphaz’ words have a point.  But Eliphaz isn’t speaking about the eternal when he says those words.  Therefore he ends up painting an incomplete picture.  We dare not assume that only those who prosper in this life are good!

Or look at verses 31-32.  Eliphaz seems to indicate that the wicked person will find himself living an empty life before his time on earth is over.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that all wicked people realize that their life is empty and I certainly don’t believe that good people never have periods of emptiness in their life! 

Again, if Eliphaz was talking about an eternal perspective, he would be absolutely spot on.  From an eternal perspective the righteous will be fulfilled in God and the wicked will be emptied of their presence without God.  But Eliphaz is not talking about the eternal here.  Eliphaz is talking about this life, and because of that I find his advice not telling the whole truth.

The lesson here for the followers of God is to make sure we paint a genuine picture of faith and life rather than painting the picture of faith that we want to believe.  Of course, that implies that we have to take the time to learn and understand the genuine picture of faith before we can paint it.  When we go to others and try to help them understand their life, we need to paint a genuine picture, not some picture that makes sense in this or that special case scenario.

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