Curses for the Wicked

INTRO

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had all spoken one round of letting Job know that they didn’t like who he had become. Today’s chapter begins the friends second round of speeches to Job. Eliphaz again went first. After delivering his first speech in Job 4—5, Eliphaz was ready to elaborate on his disagreement with Job. MacArthur observed, “Job’s resistance to their [Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad] viewpoint and his appeals energized them to greater intensity in their confrontation.”¹

TEACHING

Job 15:1–6: Eliphaz held onto a dogma of retribution that led him to believe that wicked people deserved bad things while good people would receive blessings. Constable noted that the friends first speeches were more intellectual and logical while their second speeches were more emotional as they sought to convict Job’s conscience.²

Eliphaz accused Job of being full of hot air as his friend probably had trouble breathing because of his various afflictions. Wiersbe noted that Job’s situation offered a great theological challenge to his friends. If Job had not sinned and was not being punished by God, “Then what motive would people have for obeying God?”³Eliphaz’s theology was works-based. If Job did the right things, then God would owe him for the good things, and he was in control of avoiding the bad things. This type of theology doesn’t serve God at all. As Wiersbe concluded, this type of belief “is only a pious system for promoting selfishness and not glorifying God.”⁴In order for us to rise above this type of religion, we actually have to love God (Deuteronomy 6:4–6; 7:7–9). Eliphaz rebuked Job’s attitude, but the attitude he rebuked was actually Job’s love for God.

Verses 5 and 6 were a kind of ironic agreement with something Job said in 9:20, “Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.” Eliphaz twisted Job’s words just enough to twist his meaning.

Job 15:7–13: Eliphaz started a series of questions, about claims that Job never actually made, to rebuke his attitude. Eliphaz’s question to Job in verse 9, “What do you know that we don’t?” seems to be in response to Job’s statement in 13:2, “Everything you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.” In verse 10, Eliphaz accuses Job of rejecting the wisdom of his elders.⁵Later, Job would observe, “It is not only the old who are wise or the elderly who understand how to judge” (Job 32:9). In verse 12, Eliphaz wondered why Job had shown some anger toward him. In Eliphaz’s mind, he was being completely reasonable and rational.

Job 15:14–16: Eliphaz continued his attack on Job by pointing out that no one on earth was righteous, so Job himself couldn’t possibly be, in this extreme instance. The reference to “the holy ones” God “puts no trust in” could be a reference to angels who fell.⁶

Job 15:17–35: Having established Job’s sinfulness in his own mind, Eliphaz devoted this section of his speech to outlining the fate of the wicked.⁷Eliphaz’s qualifications to speak into Job’s situation was based on his own experience (v. 17) and the tradition of men (v. 18). While his first speech outlined the blessings of the godly person, now Eliphaz switched to highlighting the seven curses of the wicked, all of which he implied Job would experience if he did not repent:

1. They experience pain (v. 20a)—Job was experiencing plenty of physical pain because of his boils and health struggles.
2. They die early (v. 20b)—Job was still alive but had expressed his desire to die.
3. They have irrational fears (v. 21a).
4. They suffer destruction while at peace (v. 21b).
5. They experience torment from a guilty conscience (v. 22a).
6. They are hunted people (v. 22b).

They are always hungry and looking for basic needs (v. 23a).

They are distressed and in anguish (v. 23b–24).8

God’s reasons for judgment are based on a person’s rebellion (vv. 25-26) and self-indulgence (vv. 27–28). After outlining these causes, Eliphaz gave Job seven more judgments facing the wicked:

They will not prosper (v. 29).

They will die (v. 30a).

Their works will fail (v. 30b).

They will suffer prematurely (v. 31–32a).

Their wealth will fail (v. 32b–33).

They will experience barrenness (v. 34).

They deceive themselves (35).

Eliphaz called Job hypocritical and ungodly in a passive-aggressive way. He never once specified that Job was experiencing all his sufferings because he was personally ungodly, but Eliphaz’s entire speech made it clear, that was precisely what he thought. However, Eliphaz’s theology was not always true. God “. . .causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). God “is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), whether we have done either good or bad.

CLOSING

Paul wrote in Romans 2:4, “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.” God does not want to judge us or destroy us, even when we deserve it, but He is willing to allow us to experience suffering in order to draw us closer to Himself (1 Peter 1:6–8). God may want to take you through a period of suffering to teach you to hold onto hope and to hold onto Him (Romans 8:18–20).