Job 4 Eliphaz’s First Response to Job
“Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job: “Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out? In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak. Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees”
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Once Job’s friends have spent seven days and nights sitting quietly with him on the ground, they figure they have earned the right to start giving advice. Too bad they didn’t simply tell Job they were sympathizing with him and return home! Eliphaz begins well by complimenting Job on the way Job has comforted others in the past. But unfortunately, Eliphaz can’t let well enough alone.
“But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you. Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope? Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?”
Here Eliphaz graphically demonstrates his naivety. Even in Biblical times, innocent people might die in wars or natural disasters. The question of why bad things happen to good people is as old as humanity. But Eliphaz has led a charmed life and has never suffered himself, so he feels uniquely qualified to give advice.
“My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger. The lion roars and the wildcat snarls, but the teeth of strong lions will be broken. The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.” Eliphaz is speaking out of both supreme ignorance and arrogance. But Eliphaz is only getting started.
“This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear. It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep. Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled. A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end. The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyes.” Notice where Eliphaz is getting his inspiration? Eliphaz is claiming he has gotten advice in a dream, but there are all kinds of spirits that might show up at night, and not all of them are from God. The Bible tells us in 1 John 4:1-4 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” It’s tempting to jump to conclusions after a “spiritual” experience, but any of us might be tragically misled.
“In the silence I heard a voice say, ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’ “If God does not trust his own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness, how much less will he trust people made of clay! They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth. They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace. Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.”
Poor Job! Not only has he lost most of his family and his possessions, not only has his wife proven to be no encouragement whatsoever, not only has he been afflicted with a horrible painful rash, but now comes the crowning suffering-his friends turn against him and begin accusing him of all kinds of imagined sins.
Okay, Eliphaz, you do have a point. No mortal can be innocent before God, so obviously, Job is not completely innocent, but neither are you. Why are you insisting on going on like this? You are speaking to a man who has lost everything through a series of undeserved disasters. Is this really the time to show off the depth of your presumed spirituality?
There are true comforters and then there are “Job’s comforters.” Through the centuries, the diatribes Job’s friends utter against him have become prime examples of how NOT to comfort someone.
Look at Eliphaz. As far as we know, Eliphaz has never had anything bad happen to him. Years ago, during a very trying time, I found myself fed up with people offering specious advice. Finally, I exploded to one of my friends that I didn’t want to hear from anyone who had not earned his/her PhD in suffering! I also described such people to my friend as living “shrink-wrapped” lives. Shrink wrap is the tight-fitting clear plastic that covers packages of fresh vegetables, protecting them from anything. It’s amazing but true that the less people have suffered, the more likely they are to offer useless harmful advice.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
It’s critically important that when we are trying to comfort others, we don’t wind up inflicting more damage than our friends have already suffered. We need to listen to God and not to bizarre dreams such as the one described by Eliphaz. May God help us, so that we will comfort sensitively!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to comfort others as You would have us, and not to speak thoughtlessly. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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