Job 15
Eliphaz
Today we read the second of three discourses of Eliphaz, one of the men who came to comfort Job. Job is going through a severe trial. A trial that is so difficult that in Chapter 3 he says he wished that he had never been born.
In Chapter 4 Eliphaz goes on the attack saying that Job offered help and comfort to others but his help and comfort isn’t working for Job in his situation. Our Lord Jesus heard similar words as He hung on the cross. In Matthew 27:41 we read that the chief priest, the scribes and the elders were mocking Jesus and saying, “He saved others; cannot He save himself” (Verse 42 footnote, NASB)
As we continue reading Job 4&5 it is clear Eliphaz does not really believe in God. He knows about God and will use God in his arguments but the god Eliphaz believes in is the god of observation. He draws his wisdom for life from what he thinks he has observed and his clever twisting of the truth. Eliphaz resorts to mocking Job from 4:12 on through Chapter 5. He is also mocking God in the process because in his mind believing in God is foolishness. However, Job stands his ground trusting God in Chapters 6&7, and Eliphaz is getting frustrated.
Since Eliphaz got nowhere with his wisdom in his first discourse, Eliphaz attempts to separate Job from his belief and trust in God in Chapter 15. He intensifies his mocking of Job. Eliphaz cannot see that Job’s faith in God has made him strong and therefore able to resist the attacks that are coming against him by his so called friends. Eliphaz only can see Job. His attacks in this chapter are an attempt to bring Job down to Eliphaz’s level again spouting his own wisdom but he is really starting to sound foolish. In Chapter 22 Eliphaz outright charges Job with specific sins and says God doesn’t care about Job but we will read all about that in the future.
In the coming days we will be reading the book of Exodus. In Exodus we will see God take a people enslaved by Egypt and make them into a nation who will make a covenant with God to be his people and He will be their God. God will give them the law to bring to a sinful and lawless world that knows little or nothing about God. This will be a tall order but God will make them strong and they will need to be strong.
As in Job Chapters 1 and 2, Satan is going to resist the work of God and like Job, the nation of Israel will be the bull’s eye on Satan’s target. The title of our last study was “Every Dysfunction Comes Out in a Crisis.” Job’s crisis not only exposed his dysfunction but also the dysfunction of Eliphaz and his friends. As Eliphaz expressed his envy and jealousy which led to his bitterness, Eliphaz exposed his true belief about God whom he ended up mocking as he mocked Job. Satan used Eliphaz to attack Job but Satan’s real target was God. We need to be careful that Satan does not deceive us into working for him as he did Eliphaz, in his rebellion against God. He knows God is too big of a target for him so he aims at God’s people. He is the source of Anti-Semitism which is one of his most used weapons because it appeals to the sin nature of mankind.
How we respond to Israel will show what is hidden in our heart. I pray there is not dysfunction hidden in our heart toward Israel for there is no place for Anti- Semitism in the Church or God’s people. We the Church must remember that Satan has a target on us as well. His tactic is to divide and conquer.
Remember God’s promise in Genesis 12:1-3
Be Blessed
Pastor Dave