Eliphaz Speaks

INTRO

The Lord gave Satan permission to attack everything belonging to Job in chapter 1. Later, Satan was given permission to attack Job’s health. In spite of his health troubles and everything he lost; Job refused to turn away from God. Job’s wife tried to convince him to turn away from God. Job’s friends came and sat with him in silence for seven days because they saw how much he suffered. Finally, Job vented to his friends in chapter 3 who sat and listened. Job 4 is the first speech of one of Job’s friends. These speeches will make up much of the rest of the book, and we will see Job’s relationship with his friends take a bit of a turn. Who were Job’s friends?

1. Eliphaz—served as something of a mystic. He spoke with the most respect and restraint. Eliphaz’s speeches were based on his understanding of God as an “inflexible lawgiver.”
2. Bildad—functioned as an attorney. Bildad was very direct in what he said and was less courteous than Eliphaz.
3. Zophar—functioned more dogmatically. Zophar was blunt and came across harshly, “like a schoolmaster addressing a group of ignorant freshmen.”1

TEACHING

Job 4:1–4: While a counselor is meant to comfort and listen to the heart, Bildad tried to heal Job’s heart with logic. Bildad never dealt with Job’s feelings and, as a result, did not show love to Job. None of Job’s friends will demonstrate love to him. Instead, they will show themselves to be religious guys who wanted to show Job how much they knew. They failed to live out Ephesians 4:15, “But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ.”

These verses show us Eliphaz’s approach to Job’s situation. Eliphaz practiced a kind of “reprimand sandwich.” He began with a compliment, brought his criticism, then softened it at the end.²Eliphaz tried to be positive and gentle while complimenting what Job had done for others. One of Eliphaz’s compliments to Job was about how Job had helped people who were struggling, probably by offering encouragement. Wiersbe observed, “Right words spoken at the right time with the right motives can make a difference in others,”³and that was exactly what Job had done.

Job 4:5–11: After he complimented Job for his past actions, Eliphaz now brought his accusation against Job.⁴Eliphaz’s first question to Job in verses 5–6 implied that if Job had been living a godly life then he would have nothing to fear from God. In Eliphaz’s mind, Job could only have suffered all his calamities if he brought them on himself through sin. Each of Job’s friends will make a similar argument. For them, any explanation for Job’s situation, except that he had sinned and brought it on himself, was unthinkable.

Old Testament Scholar Kent Hughes outlined four signs of Eliphaz’s bad theology:

Eliphaz believed “God is absolutely in control.”⁵In principle, we agree with this idea. But the way Eliphaz built on it would become a problem.

Eliphaz believed “God was absolutely just and fair.”⁶The problem with Eliphaz’s second belief was that God’s idea of fairness may not match ours.

Eliphaz believed “God always punished wickedness and blessed righteousness.”⁷According to Eliphaz’s theology, if God ever failed to punish wickedness or bless righteousness, He would be unjust. This is where the points of Eliphaz’s theology went bad. God does not always have to punish wickedness, nor does He always have to bless righteousness.

Eliphaz believed that if a person suffered, he/she must have sinned and was being punished justly for that sin.⁸

The judgment Eliphaz expected for a person’s sin could come upon the sinner gradually like a crop that was planted (v. 8) or quickly like a storm or an attack from a lion (vv. 9–11), but judgment for sin would surely come.⁹Yes, these things can be true. God can punish a person for sin and that punishment could come either gradually or quickly. We could be attacked suddenly as though a lion attacked us, so we should regularly ask the Lord for protection (Psalm 91).

Job 4:12–21: Now Eliphaz brought Job his argument.¹⁰The “word . . . brought to me in secret” could have been a vision of some kind, but we don’t know from where the message came. Eliphaz described the circumstances around this vision in

verses 13–15 in an attempt to build credibility for his point. Eliphaz then described a message from “a figure” that stood before him in the night (vv. 16–21). This figure spoke a message to Eliphaz pointing out that God put “no trust” in angels and asked why He would then trust men who were much weaker.

Eliphaz did not tell the whole story about God and men. Yes, mankind is feeble and limited, especially in comparison to God or angels. But Eliphaz left off the final compliment in his reprimand sandwich. He started with encouragement, he brought his criticism, then he failed to point out that mankind was made in God’s image. He failed to point out that the God who made himself and Job as a God of grace and justice. It seemed like Eliphaz just wanted to vent and one-up Job in an attempt to prove himself right.

CLOSING

Eliphaz approached his suffering friend in an overly religious spirit. In the midst of Job’s suffering, Eliphaz could only deal with the situation in a logical way. Instead of showing love to his suffering friend, Eliphaz was more concerned with proving himself right and justifying his own theology. We cannot heal the heart with logic, only with love. We are to speak “the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). This approach is always concerned with helping the other person love God more and not concerned with proving ourselves right. Eliphaz felt that if he was always right, then God would always bless him. But this is simply not true.