Chapters 4—11
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Scripture Reading: Job 4; Job 5
In chapter four we have the beginning of the first of the three rounds in the debates between Job and his three friends. Eliphaz answered Job not by sympathizing but by rebuking.
Eliphaz began to speak after the forced silence (4:2). The strong person and character of Job had forced his friends to be silent. After Job broke this silence, Eliphaz began to rebuke him.
First, Eliphaz reminded Job of his positive condition in the past. He said to Job, "Behold, you have instructed many, /And you have strengthened the weak hands./Your words have raised up him who was stumbling,/And you have made the bowing knees firm" (vv. 3-4).
In verse 5 Eliphaz went on to rebuke Job concerning his negative state at that time. "But now it comes to you, and you are wearied by it;/It touches you, and you are disturbed." According to Eliphaz, Job was no longer strong but had been defeated by the disasters and the plague.
Eliphaz's word was based on Job's perfection, uprightness, and integrity (vv. 6-11). In verse 6 Eliphaz asked Job, "Is not your fear of God your confidence,/And the integrity of your ways your hope?"
Eliphaz's answer to Job was in the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said that the innocent and the upright (the good) will never perish (v. 7) and that those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble (the evil) reap the same (v. 8). Speaking in a poetic manner, Eliphaz continued, saying, "By the breath of God they perish,/And by the blast of His anger they are consumed./The roaring of the lion and the sound of the fierce lion/And the teeth of the young lions are broken;/The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,/And the whelps of the lioness are scattered" (vv. 9-11).
After rebuking Job, Eliphaz corrected him (vv. 17-21).
Job held the concept that he was right, and his friend corrected him. Referring to Job, Eliphaz asked, "Can a mortal man be more righteous than God?/Can a man be purer than his Maker?" (v. 17).
"Behold, He puts no trust in His servants,/And He charges His angels with error./How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,/Whose foundation is in dust,/Who are crushed like a moth!/From morning to evening they are smashed to pieces;/Without any considering it, they continually perish./Should their tent cord be plucked up within them,/They die, and not in wisdom" (vv. 18-21). Here Eliphaz was advising Job not to be such a fool as to be smashed to pieces and become nothing.
Eliphaz's logic concerning man's standing before God was based on ethics according to the short-sighted teachings, which he might have received at his time. These teachings did not come up to the standard of the divine revelation in the New Testament, that is, that man's standing before God is based on how much of God he has gained. Eliphaz should have asked Job how much of God he had gained, but at that time the divine revelation had not reached such a level. Therefore, we should sympathize with Eliphaz in his limited understanding.
Eliphaz warned Job not to be the fool slain by vexation and jealousy (5:1-2), whose end will be miserable (vv. 3-7). Job was suffering and was waiting to receive something from his friend, but Eliphaz did not minister anything to Job. This should be a warning to us regarding our speaking to the saints and our prophesying in the church meetings. Our words should not be vain but should minister the supply of life.
Eliphaz implied that Job should follow him to seek after God and commit his cause to God that he might prosper by the benefit of God's good doings (vv. 8-16). Eliphaz said, "As for me, I would seek after God,/And I would commit my cause to God,/Who does great things that cannot be searched, /Wonderful deeds that cannot be numbered" (vv. 8-9). This kind of speaking did not afford any kind of supply to Job in his suffering. Job was in one realm, and Eliphaz was in another realm. Thus, Eliphaz's words were words of waste and vanity.
Eliphaz considered that Job was being chastened by God. He admonished him not to reject God the Almighty's chastening, so that Job might be blessed by God in His ways (vv. 17-27). Eliphaz said to Job, "Behold, blessed is the man whom God corrects;/Therefore do not reject the chastening of the Almighty./For He wounds, but He binds up;/He strikes, but His hands heal" (vv. 17-18).
Eliphaz's diagnosis of Job's situation was altogether wrong; he was a useless physician. Later, Job said to his three friends, "Physicians of no value are you all" (13:4b). As such a physician, Eliphaz was unable to diagnose Job's condition.
I am happy that we are now studying the book of Job. However, I am somewhat concerned that we may come to this book merely to gain more knowledge. We may condemn the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but we may add to the growth of the tree of knowledge by picking up mere knowledge from our study of Job.
We need to see that the entire Bible is a book on God's eternal economy. In His economy God's intention is to dispense Himself into us to be our life and our nature that we may be the same as He is in life and nature in order to express Him. What, then, about the stripping and the consuming? God's stripping and God's consuming are to tear us down. We are fallen and natural men. As such men, we need to be torn down. God must tear us down. Then God can have a base, a way, to build us up again.
Many Christians think that fallen man needs help so that he can be made whole. However, in His economy God's intention is not to make fallen man whole. Rather, God's intention is to tear us down and rebuild us with Himself as our life and our nature that we may be persons who are absolutely one with Him.
The book of Job shows us that God, through Satan as an ugly tool, was tearing Job down by two ways: stripping and consuming. God's stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear Job down that God might have a base and a way to rebuild him with God Himself that he might become a God-man. This is what we should receive in our study of Job.
